One of the most anticipated home duals of the year goes off today as Oklahoma State takes the mat in Hilton. While the Cowboys are mostly their normal top ranked selves they are missing their star in Daton Fix, who is prepping for the Olympic Trials, and have a few holes in their lineup that make them a weaker dual team than usual. In fact they just ate a 19-15 loss to UNI last night in Cedar Falls. Today Iowa State will be doing their best to send them back to Oklahoma with their tails between their legs and another loss on their record.

Where: Hilton Colosseum, Ames, IA

When: 2:00PM CST, Sunday, January 26th

TV/Stream: Cyclones.TV/Flowrestling ($$)

Rankings from the 1/24/2020 Coaches Panel

Key Matchups

184

The marquee matches of the dual are at 125 and 141, where you’ll see guys from both teams that expect to reach the blood round at least at NCAAs. But neither of those matches should be tossups - at 125 Piccininni is a favorite over Mackall and at 141 Parker is a favorite over Hone. There is only one real tossup of the dual and that’s here at 184, where #22 Coleman will take on #20 Montalvo. Coleman is 2-3 so far since moving up to 184 so this is is a chance to even up his record and also prove that he’ll be able to perform at his new weight at least as well as he did at his old one. With a win Marcus will put himself on track for a good seed at Big 12s in Tulsa and move up in the rankings. But with a loss he’ll be behind the eight ball on earning a trip to Minneapolis.

165/197

As I mentioned above, there aren’t a whole lot of toss ups in this dual. But there are a couple of weights where the Oklahoma State wrestler will be a heavy favorite. At 165 and 197 Straw and Shapiro will both be facing top ten wrestlers. They don’t need to score upsets for Iowa State to stay in contention for this dual, but they do need to stay off of their backs. A couple of pins would be a huge blow to the team score. Keeping their matches to a major, or better yet a decision, is vital for the Cyclones to pull off a team win.

157/174/HWT

Here we have the opposite situation of 165 and 197. At 157, 174, and HWT the good guys will be the heavy favorites. And the name of the game in these matches needs to be bonus points. This meet could easily have each team winning five matches and that means whoever scores more bonus is going to walk out of Hilton with a victory. It’ll be up to Carr, Colbray, and Gremmel to put those bonus points on the board.

It is worth mentioning that returning All American Joe Smith took the mat for the Cowboys at 174 last night against UNI, and normally that would turn 174 in to the top match of the dual and a tossup at best for Colbray. But Joe Smith did not look like Joe Smith against Bryce Steiert and he ate an 11-2 major decision loss. So even if we do see him on the mat today I do not think that we’ll be seeing a wrestler who is back at 100%.

Prediction

I think that as long as Iowa State avoids upsets at 133 and 141, wins the tossup at 184, and Joe Smith at 174 isn’t suddenly back in postseason form then the Cyclones can win this one. I’m thinking they win six of the ten matches for a 19-17 dual victory. However, if any of the three matches I just mentioned go Oklahoma State’s way then they’ll be able to leave Hilton with a 20-16 win.

Next Up

The wrestling team will head back out west once again for a conference dual against the Fresno State Bulldogs at 9:00PM CST on Friday, January 31st.