No. 1 Iowa vs No. 7 Minnesota
Last week’s win over Michigan ended the road schedule and pushed our record to a perfect 11-0. One more conference win and we can claim our first outright Big Ten regular season crown since 2015.
A loss here will lock us up as co-Big Ten champs, so it’s about time we selfishly take what we want and what we want is a championship. Unfortunately for the B1G, there’s only one more team left standing in our destructive path: Minnesota.
So with open arms, we welcome the Golden Gophers to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for another great dual on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 8:30PM CT.
We’ve compiled an impressive 75-28-1 record in our previous 104 meetings with the Golden Gophers.
MINNESOTA (9-6)
The Golden Goophers struggled out of the gate splitting their first six duals, 3-3, before turning it on in early January. They rattled off four consecutive wins against Cornell, Duke, Wisconsin, and Michigan State, before hitting another rough patch in the road. They since dropped three of their last five and seem to be sputtering to the finish line after getting throttled by Penn State, 31-10.
They’re a relatively young team with underclassmen in half of their starting lineup, but they do have three returning All-Americans: Mitch McKee 6th, Devin Skatzka 7th, and Gable Steveson 2nd. Their three-headed monster will not only look to keep them in this dual, but could push their team into podium contention come March.
IOWA (11-0)
We’re so very close to running the gauntlet and navigating our way through an undefeated season, which would be our first since 2009-10, where we went 23-0. But it’s imperative that we don’t get caught looking ahead to Oklahoma St next week or the post season three short weeks away. Minnesota is a formidable group and we need to be ready.
All ten of our starters are still ranked inside Flo’s top ten with nine inside the top five. Spencer Lee and Michael Kemerer are both ranked #1 across the board, while we have Austin DeSanto, Pat Lugo and Alex Marinelli checking in at #2.
Max Murin and DeSanto have been out thanks to injuries, but both are listed in the probable lineup this week. 141 is going to be a tough battle regardless of who goes between Murin and Carter Happel, but if DeSanto is able to take the mat and looks marginally healthy, this could be a very important match where we snag bonus points.
We’re technically favored in nine of the ten bouts, though Murin is 0-2 against Mitch McKee, with both of those losses coming last year. Tony Cassioppi is definitely an underdog against Steveson, so if Glynn and Happel are in the lineup once more, things could get interesting down the stretch if we can’t snag much needed bonus point wins from Lee, Kaleb Young, and Alex Marinelli.
LINEUPS:
125: #1 Spencer Lee (13-0) vs #10 Patrick McKee (17-6)
133: #2 Austin DeSanto (12-2) // Paul Glynn vs (4-3) vs Jake Gilva (6-8) // Boo Dryden (8-4)
141: #3 Max Murin (10-1) // Carter Happel (8-5) vs #5 Mitch McKee (22-4)
149: #2 Pat Lugo (16-1) vs #7 Brayton Lee (21-3)
157: #4 Kaleb Young (14-2) vs #24 Ryan Thomas (11-6)
165: #2 Alex Marinelli (15-1) vs Bailee O’Reilly (20-8)
174: #1 Michael Kemerer (11-0) vs #8 Devin Skatzka (24-7) // Jake Allar (1-2)
184: #10 Abe Assad (19-5) // Cash Wilcke (12-3) vs #21 Owen Webster (19-8)
197: #5 Jacob Warner (13-3) vs Hunter Ritter (19-6) // Garrett Joles (9-11)
285: #3 Tony Cassioppi (15-1) vs #1 Gable Steveson (10-0)
A loss here will lock us up as co-Big Ten champs, so it’s about time we selfishly take what we want and what we want is a championship. Unfortunately for the B1G, there’s only one more team left standing in our destructive path: Minnesota.
So with open arms, we welcome the Golden Gophers to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for another great dual on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 8:30PM CT.
We’ve compiled an impressive 75-28-1 record in our previous 104 meetings with the Golden Gophers.
MINNESOTA (9-6)
The Golden Goophers struggled out of the gate splitting their first six duals, 3-3, before turning it on in early January. They rattled off four consecutive wins against Cornell, Duke, Wisconsin, and Michigan State, before hitting another rough patch in the road. They since dropped three of their last five and seem to be sputtering to the finish line after getting throttled by Penn State, 31-10.
They’re a relatively young team with underclassmen in half of their starting lineup, but they do have three returning All-Americans: Mitch McKee 6th, Devin Skatzka 7th, and Gable Steveson 2nd. Their three-headed monster will not only look to keep them in this dual, but could push their team into podium contention come March.
IOWA (11-0)
We’re so very close to running the gauntlet and navigating our way through an undefeated season, which would be our first since 2009-10, where we went 23-0. But it’s imperative that we don’t get caught looking ahead to Oklahoma St next week or the post season three short weeks away. Minnesota is a formidable group and we need to be ready.
All ten of our starters are still ranked inside Flo’s top ten with nine inside the top five. Spencer Lee and Michael Kemerer are both ranked #1 across the board, while we have Austin DeSanto, Pat Lugo and Alex Marinelli checking in at #2.
Max Murin and DeSanto have been out thanks to injuries, but both are listed in the probable lineup this week. 141 is going to be a tough battle regardless of who goes between Murin and Carter Happel, but if DeSanto is able to take the mat and looks marginally healthy, this could be a very important match where we snag bonus points.
We’re technically favored in nine of the ten bouts, though Murin is 0-2 against Mitch McKee, with both of those losses coming last year. Tony Cassioppi is definitely an underdog against Steveson, so if Glynn and Happel are in the lineup once more, things could get interesting down the stretch if we can’t snag much needed bonus point wins from Lee, Kaleb Young, and Alex Marinelli.
LINEUPS:
125: #1 Spencer Lee (13-0) vs #10 Patrick McKee (17-6)
133: #2 Austin DeSanto (12-2) // Paul Glynn vs (4-3) vs Jake Gilva (6-8) // Boo Dryden (8-4)
141: #3 Max Murin (10-1) // Carter Happel (8-5) vs #5 Mitch McKee (22-4)
149: #2 Pat Lugo (16-1) vs #7 Brayton Lee (21-3)
157: #4 Kaleb Young (14-2) vs #24 Ryan Thomas (11-6)
165: #2 Alex Marinelli (15-1) vs Bailee O’Reilly (20-8)
174: #1 Michael Kemerer (11-0) vs #8 Devin Skatzka (24-7) // Jake Allar (1-2)
184: #10 Abe Assad (19-5) // Cash Wilcke (12-3) vs #21 Owen Webster (19-8)
197: #5 Jacob Warner (13-3) vs Hunter Ritter (19-6) // Garrett Joles (9-11)
285: #3 Tony Cassioppi (15-1) vs #1 Gable Steveson (10-0)
