Southern Scuffle Day 1 Recap & Day 2 Preview

Just like the rest of us, the Cyclone wrestlers are back at work today for Day 2 of the Southern Scuffle. Fourteen Iowa State wrestlers entered on Day 1 of the tournament and nine remain in action for the second day, 3 in the semifinals and six in the consolations. Overall the story of day one was met expectations. The Cyclones, as a whole, won the matches they were supposed to win. The only dropped match of note was Jarrett Degen going down 5-7 in overtime to unranked Russel Rohlfing of CSU-Bakersfield. It’s also worth noting that Ian Parker took a hit to the head in his second match and though he passed concussion protocol and ended up winning he was withdrawn from the tournament afterward. So it’ll be worth watching how that impacts him for the remainder of the season.

Where: Chattanooga, TN

When: All Day beginning at 9:00 AM CST

Stream: Flowrestling ($$)

Day 2 Breakdown by Wrestler

Alex Mackall - 125

As I said in yesterday’s Day 1 preview, I think Mackall is going to leave this tournament ranked in the 16-20 range. And on Day 1 Mackall backed up that opinion. He didn’t take a single loss on the day and is in to the Semifinals against #17 ranked Rico Montoya of Northern Colorado. This is a huge match for Mackall. He’s already proved during this tournament that he’s likely to earn an NCAA allocation, but a win over Montoya would be the last step he needs to take to get himself in to the rankings next week. I think he can make the finals but if he stumbles against Montoya wrestling back to 3rd place would still be meeting expectations. At this point I think leaving Chattanooga with anything lower than 3rd would be a disappointment.

Austin Gomez - 133

Other than a scare during the first period of his second match, Austin Gomez dominated Day 1 of the Scuffle as expected. He’s in to the semifinals against #15 ranked Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State. Lots of Penn State fans things that Bravo-Young is underranked right now (and I can’t say that I completely disagree with them) so this should be a good one. A win would really cement Gomez as a top ten wrestler and give him a chance against #5 ranked Daton Fix of Oklahoma State. A semifinal loss would be a disappointment, but not a huge one as long as Gomez is able to wrestle back to 3rd place. Yesterday I wrote that 1st place would be exceeding expectations, 2nd would meet them, 3rd would be a small disappointment, and anything lower would be a big disappointment. Based on how Day 1 has played out I think those expectations still hold.

Todd Small - 133

Based on Day 1 results I’d peg Small as a fringe top 20 wrestler if he had to step in to the lineup. He picked up wins over some decent guys but took a 5-4 loss to another fringe top 20 guy in Sean Nickell of CSU-Bakersfield. In both the 5th and 6th round of consolations he’ll face guys who are unranked so my expectations are that he’ll be able to pick up wins at least as far as the consolation semifinals, where he’d likely get a rematch against Nickell. Yesterday I wrote that 4th or higher would be exceeding what I expect from Small based on the season so far, 5th or 6th would meet expectations, and failing to reach the 5th place match would be a disappointment. Just like with Gomez, those expectations hold going in to Day 2.

Jarrett Degen - 149

Degen met his match in the semifinals on Tuesday night against another tall and lanky wrestler in unranked Russel Rohlfing of CSU-Bakersfield, who sent him to the backside via a 7-5 win off of a scramble in sudden victory. That drops Degen in to a blood round matchup against unranked Tejon Anthony of Geroge Mason and then (likely) Penn State phenom Jarod Verkleeren in the sixth round of consolations. This is a fairly deep 149 pound bracket so Degen will need to bring his A game. But as long as he is able to do that I think he’ll be able to fight back for third and salvage the tournament. Yesterday I wrote that making the finals to be exceeding expectations, 3rd or 4th would meet them, and anything lower would be a disappointment. The finals are out of the question already but with a strong Day 2 Degen can still wrestle to seed and leave Tennessee with his ranking intact.

Chase Straw - 157

Straw got sent to the back side fairly early by one of Penn State’s stud freshman but picked up a pair of consolation wins to stay alive in to Day 2. He’ll start the day off against what looks to be a pretty evenly matched opponent in BC LaPadrade of Virginia Tech and could make it as far as the third place match without having to beat any ranked opponents - though he would likely have to avenge a loss from earlier this season to Zac Carson of Ohio. Yesterday I wrote that 4th or higher would be exceeding expectations, 5th-7th would meet them, and 8th or failing to place would be a disappointment. I think that still holds in to Day 2.

Marcus Coleman - 174

Coleman picked up some good wins in the morning session on Tuesday but in the quarterfinals he drew #1 ranked Mark Hall of Penn State, who proved to be too much for the freshman. Coleman should be able to pick up wins in the first two consolation rounds this morning but once he does that he’ll run in to the loser of the championship semifinals match between 2x AA Joe Smith of Oklahoma State and 2x AA David McFadden of Virginia Tech. Wins over either of those guys would be a surprise. Yesterday I wrote that Coleman could exceed that by placing 5th or higher, meet it by placing 6th-8th, or finish below expectations by failing to place. Based on how the bracket has shook out I’m going to update that to 5th place would meet expectations, 6th would be a small disappointment, and anything lower than 6th would be a big disappointment.

Sam Colbray - 184

Colbray spent Tuesday winning the matches he was supposed to win. Which is worth noting because that wasn’t something we always saw him do last season. He’l face a much tougher challenge to kick off Day 2 though as he’ll get #3 ranked Shakur Reed of Penn State in the semifinals. A loss there would likely mean a consolations semifinals matchup against Jacobe Smith of Oklahoma State, who was ranked #7 at 174 before bumping up this week to make room for Joe Smith in their lineup. Colbray is guaranteed at least 6th place so he has already met the expectations I had for him going in to the tournament. Every match he’ll have today is likely to be against a higher ranked opponent so any wins he can get today are gravy.

Joel Shapiro - 184

Shapiro hasn’t had any luck at all with his draws. He’s beaten all the unranked wrestlers he’s faced but was sent to the backside by #3 ranked Shakur Rasheed of Penn State and after staying alive through the consolations last night he’ll run right in to Jacobe Smith of Oklahoma State. My expectations for Shapiro going in to the tournament were for him to finish one match shy of placing, which is where he’s at right now going in to Day 2. A win over Smith would be a huge upset so anything Shapiro does to have more than one match this morning is exceeding expectations.

Gannon Gremmel - HWT

Like several other of Iowa State’s wrestlers, Gremmel put together a solid overall performance but eventually ran in to a brick wall against a highly ranked opponent from Penn State. For him it was #5 ranked Anthony Cassar. This morning he’ll open up against another guy who is on the fringe of the top 20 in Cary Miller of App State. If he is able to get a win there would likely have #7 ranked Billy Miller of Virginia Tech waiting for him in the next round. Yesterday I wrote that placing anywhere on the podium would be exceeding expectations, finishing one match short of placing would meet expectations, and falling short of that would be a disappointment. Given how the bracket has shaken out I’m going to update that to failing to place would be a disappointment, 8th place would meet expectations, and 7th or higher would exceed expectations.

Prediction

Iowa State won’t have any guys favored to win the tournament today but I think that the team should put two guys in to the finals and seven or eight Cyclones should leave Chattanooga with Hardware around their necks.

Next Up

The wrestlers will take this upcoming weekend off before heading out to Fargo on Wednesday, January 9th to take on North Dakota State at 7PM.