With the first half of the season now firmly behind them, the wrestlers are kicking off a busy January schedule with a four dual weekend, starting with a Thursday evening stopover in Orem, Utah to take on Big XII foe Utah Valley in a dual that is likely to be a fair bit closer than last season’s 53-0 whomping in Ames.

Where: Lockhart Arena, Orem, Utah

When: 8PM CST, Thursday, January 9th

Stream: FloWrestling ($$)

Key Matches

133

It looks like Small is going to be the guy for ISU this entire season at 133 and so far he’s been making the most of the opportunity. He’ll get another shot at a quality win against LaMont, who is a returning NCAA qualifier that reached the blood round at NCAAs in 2018 but missed all of last season with an injury. LaMont’s current low ranking is based mostly off of a disappointing 0-2 performance at Cliff Keene in Vegas in early December so he’ll be out to get a ranked win against Small to start climbing back up the rankings in the second half of the season. And for Small this is a big match for Big 12 seeding as LaMont is likely to be with him in the gaggle of mid to low ranked wrestlers behind 8th ranked Mantorie Bridges of Wyoming looking for high seeds in Tulsa.

HWT

This will be the fourth time these two guys have wrestled in the last year and while Gremmel won the first match against Orndorff by pin the more recent two have gone to Tate. Both of those matches came at the Cliff Keen in Vegas and saw Orndorff winning 7-3 in early rounds and then 3-2 in the third place match. So Gremmel will be looking to even up the score while Orndorff will be looking to extend his winning streak. This is a key match for Gremmel because he’s able to use his size, strength, and speed to bully a lot of heavyweights but struggles mightily when faced with an opponent who is extremely athletic or just big enough to not be pushed around. A win here would prove he deserves his current top ten ranking and give him a very nice notch in his belt for seeding criteria in March.

Prediction

I see the matches going 6-4 in Iowa State’s favor but the Cyclones have many more bonus point opportunities. As long as Dresser doesn’t mess with the lineup too much to keep guys fresh for Saturday I think we see Iowa State walk out of Orem with a 23-12 type victory over the Wolverines.

Next Up

The Cyclones will head south for the weekend for a multi-dual event hosted by Arizona State at Chase Field in Phoenix where the Cyclones will wrestle infield duals against Campbell, Harvard, and Arizona State.