Over Half The Matchups In Iowa At Oklahoma State Are Tossups
Over Half The Matchups In Iowa At Oklahoma State Are Tossups
Over Half The Matchups In Iowa At Oklahoma State Are Tossups
The best rivalry in college wrestling returns to Stillwater this Sunday when Iowa takes on Oklahoma State. Adding to the years of history in this fierce rivalry are the six matchups that will leave the dual in the balance.
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The juiciest is probably the 133lb bout between #2 Daton Fix and #3 Austin DeSanto. Beyond that though, #2 Spencer Lee takes on #3 Nick Piccininni at 125, Chandler Rogers looks to avenge last year's loss to Alex Marinelli at 165, and Derek White will try to flip the result from last January against Sam Stoll.
Additionally, Jacob Warner hopes to solidify his Top-5 ranking at 197 with the oft-injured All-American Preston Weigel. Kaden Gfeller is coming off the worst loss of his career and facing Pat Lugo, who is on a six-match win streak. No one really knows what to expect at 141 either between Kaid Brock and Max Murin.
Back to the main event though, Fix vs DeSanto. Both predicate their style on a different kind of pressure, with Daton able to score from inside trips and slidebys, while DeSanto frequently gets back points off his fireman's. These two never met in high school and this will be their first meeting in college. Both in their second year of college, it will be their first time wrestling in this rivalry and could meet again each of the next two years.
Looking at the rematches from last year, two favorites stay the same and one switches to Oklahoma State. Last year in Carver Hawkeye, Marinelli took down Rogers with less that 10 seconds remaining to ice the match. That one was probably considered a bit more of a tossup, as Marinelli had never wrestled in a collegiate postseason and Rogers was a returning AA. This season though, Rogers has missed a big chunk of the season and may not even be the guy for OSU at Big 12s.
Up at heavyweight, Derek White has transformed himself from a Round of 12 guy into a legitimate national finalist threat. He fell to Stoll 6-4 in sudden victory two last year and the Hawkeye went on to place for the first time at NCAAs. But Stoll is only 8-2 this season and has not seemed close to 100% healthy for any part of the season.
The final rematch from last season comes at 125, between Piccininni and Lee. The reigning national champ is probably the most highly scrutinized wrestler in the country, and his every move has been dissected and discussed ad nauseam. That includes this match against the currently undefeated Piccininni, who Lee beat twice last season. Just like DeSanto and Fix, Mike Mal did an excellent breakdown.
Coming into this season, the top two at 197 was pretty clear, and below that no one really knew what to expect. Preston Wiegel was an AA in 2017, but clearly was injured at NCAAs, and has spent most of this season on the shelf. Meanwhile Jacob Warner was a bluechip recruit who was coming off making a Junior world this summer. But he took some losses during his redshirt year, as well as to Rocco Caywood and Tanner Sloan this season. The dual will very likely be tied or within a couple points when this one happens.
With Iowa releasing their probable starters, we know that it will be Max Murin going for the Hawkeyes at 141. The redshirt freshman did not wrestle against Nebraska or Wisconsin, leading some to believe that Vince Turk could be the selection for Big 10s. Either way, he'll be facing a Kaid Brock experiencing the worst season of his career, having lost three of his past five matches.