Wrestlers Hit The Road For Duals Against NDSU and SDSU

The wrestlers are once again on the road this weekend for another pair of conference duals. This time they’re staying closer to home though as they head up north to take on Big XII affiliate members NDSU and SDSU. There were some great individual performances last weekend, highlighted by Ian Parker’s win over two time defending NCAA Champion Dean Heil, but as a whole the team didn’t wrestle very well and their dual win streak came to an end. With the regular season winding down opportunities for marque wins dwindling the team needs to get back on track and pick up at least one win this weekend.

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Projected Lineups

*Rankings from the latest NCAA D1 coaches panel

North Dakota State

When: 7PM, Friday, Feb 6th

Where: Fargo, North Dakota

Stream: GoBison.com ($$)

Key Matches

133

Last weekend Parker moved up to the vacated 141 spot and that gave Simmons a clear hold on 133 for the rest of the season. He didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his debut as he ate a loss to unranked Jake Rubio of Oklahoma after giving up a late score. But inconsistency has been the name of the game for Simmons this year and he has a chance to bounce back on Friday night as he gets #27 ranked Cam Sykora. The Big XII should get a decent number of allocations at 133 so a win here is important to start building a case for Simmons to get a decent seed at the Big XII tournament. If Simmons can get a win here and then follow it up with wins over his UNI and Fresno State opponents next weekend he should end seeded around 5th or 6th at Big XII and only need one small upset to steal an allocation. But if he drops and more matches he might be looking at a seed that would require him to beat multiple highly ranked guys to get to Cleveland.

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149

Degen struggled in 2 losses last weekend that likely will set him back from his current #18 ranking when the new coaches panel come out next week. In order to stem the fall and keep himself in position to earn an NCAA allocation he needs to get a win on Friday night against #28 ranked Gliva.

HWT

In the last coaches panel there were two heavyweights tied for the #33 spot - in a poll that only goes out to 33. Those two wrestlers were Harrington and NDSU’s Dan Stibral. This is a “win and be in the coaches panel” match as well as one that ISU needs to win if they’re going to win the dual. Harrington has been wrestling well since the start of the new year so I think he takes the win to remain in the coaches panel rankings and secures a dual victory.

Prediction

I think ISU gives up bonus in several matches to NDSU but ultimately will be able to walk away with six match wins and take the dual 19-16 or so.

South Dakota State

When: 1PM, Sunday, Feb 4th

Where: Brookings, SD

Stream: Flowrestling ($$)

Key Match

141

Parker stormed out to a 2-0 start in his first weekend as a 141 pounder and has already made an appearance in some of the weekly polls. However, his late move up to 141 means that there is no way for him to earn an allocation to NCAAs on his own - he’s going to have to steal one. And the best way for him to put himself in position to do that is to move to 4-0 against Big XII opponents with a win over a decent, but not great, opponent in Pohlmeyer and with that continue to keep himself on track for a high seed at the conference tournament.

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Prediction

There should be at least a couple of good matches in this one but the dual itself is likely to be pretty one sided. I expect ISU to win two or three matches and end up heading home with a 10-26 type loss.

Next Up

The Cyclones are back in Hilton next Friday night for a rematch against Fresno State before heading over to Eastern Iowa to take on UNI in the West Gym on Saturday.

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