The #1 ranked team in the nation, the Penn State Nittany Lions, host the #2 team in America, the Iowa Hawkeyes, on January 31st at 7:00PM ET for the biggest dual meet of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season! You'll be able to watch it on the Big Ten Network this Friday! 

One of the most intriguing bouts of the evening will be at 157 pounds, where Penn State's #3 true sophomore Tyler Kasak is slated to take on #1 Jacori Teemer of Iowa. A top five matchup, #1 vs #3 -- not bad!

Accolades

Tyler Kasak has built up an impressive trophy collection while not even being two full years out of high school.

• As a true freshman at the 2024 NCAAs, Kasak lost his first match of the tournament before rattling off seven straight wins to place 3rd at 149 pounds. 
• Kasak had just 5 losses during his freshman campaign, two to Ridge Lovett, which he avenged at NCAAs, one to Abas in the first round of NCAAs, one to Caleb Rathjen, and one to his teammate Beau Bartlett at 141 (which was part of why Kasak moved up to 149 that season, the other part was Shayne Van Ness getting injured in November and missing the rest of the season). 
• Kasak is undefeated during this current season and has six ranked wins, including a victory over #8 Peyten Kellar at the 2024 NWCA All-Star Classic. 
• Before he started classes at Penn State, Kasak was a 2021 Fargo finalist and 2023 U20 World Team Trials finalist. 
• Kasak won the U17 World Team Trials in 2022 and earned a silver medal at the U17 World Championships. 
• Those results and more helped Kasak earn the #10 ranking on the 2023 Class High School Big Board. 

Watch Kasak win at the 2024 NWCA ASC:

Unlock this video, live events, and more with a subscription!

Sign Up

Already a subscriber? Log In

Now in his seventh season after graduating high school, Jacori Teemer has had a little more time to amass his trophy collection. 

• Teemer was 9-2 as a true freshman in 2019. After that redshirt season he earned the #9 seed at the canceled 2020 NCAAs. 
• As a redshirt sophomore and junior, Teemer placed 4th and 6th at the 2021 and 2022 NCAAs, respectively. 
• Teemer did not wrestle at all during the 2022-23 season and received a medical redshirt. He returned to action in 2024 and was the NCAA runner-up, losing to Levi Haines in the finals.
• In the offseason, Teemer transferred from Arizona State to Iowa. He's only started four bouts for the Hawkeyes, winning three and injury-defaulting out of one. 
• Prior to high school, Jacori won just about everything you can win domestically, from two NHSCA national titles to winning the  U17 world team trials. 
• Teemer earned a bronze medal at the 2017 U17 World Championships, which, amongst all the other accolades, helped him earn the #8 ranking on the Class of 2018 High School Big Board. 

Watch Teemer make the 2024 NCAA finals:

Match Implications

The results of his match will have major ramifications with regards to postseason seeding and NCAA qualification. 

Teemer's only ranked win this season is against #19 Sammy Sasso. With his injury-limited season, he'll need all the quality wins he can get, and his schedule is very difficult from now until Big Tens. 

After Kasak, Teemer will hit #6 Ethen Miller, #4 Antrell Taylor, #9 Tommy Askey, #13 Trevor Chumbley and #12 Caleb Fish, in that order. There are no breaks in that schedule either, it's all gas until March. Teemer has proven to be up to challenges such as these but he'll have little margin for error in his quest for a fifth NCAA bid and fourth podium placement. 

Kasak has never wrestled Teemer before, nor has he wrestled a 157-pounder of Teemer's caliber in his career (though #4 Antrell Taylor is not far off). His path to the end of dual meet season is no picnic but it's also not quite as rocky as Teemer's. 

Penn State's schedule has Kasak facing #16 Chase Saldate, #6 Ethen Miller, #13 Paddy Gallagher, #27 Jason Kraisser and an unranked but dangerous Jack Nies to close out the regular season. 

Kasak also has a greater number of quality wins already under his belt and thus can afford a bad match or two without causing much concern. 

Prediction

Jacori Teemer's health and preparedness are with biggest unknowns at this point, though they're not THAT unknown. We have four full seasons of varsity competition to inform us of what Teemer is like at full strength, and though he's missed two months of wrestling due to injury, he looked to be in peak or near peak shape when he defeated Sammy Sasso 10-5 last weekend. 

Meanwhile, Tyler Kasak can reasonably claim to still be in the ascendant part of his collegiate career. But even so, just how much he's improving week-to-week is tougher to discern. 

So I'm building in more than the usual amount of wiggle-room into my prediction of a match that is already close to a toss up. 

For now I'm sticking with the experienced wrestler. Teemer showed enough against Sasso to convince me that he'll have the edge over Kasak, especially in neutral, where I think this bout is won. But I'm far from confident, and Kasak has shown he's got the chops on top to change the outcome of a match. So count me down for a decision for Teemer, but don't expect me to be the least bit shocked if the result is reversed.