Weight-by-Weight: Who To Expect In Iowa's Season Debut
Weight-by-Weight: Who To Expect In Iowa's Season Debut
Weight-by-Weight: Who To Expect In Iowa's Season Debut
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Nearly every team in the country was in action for college wrestling's kickoff weekend, but a few top teams like Iowa did not compete anywhere. Instead, the Hawkeyes held public wrestle-offs in their room.
This Friday, the Black and Gold make their season debut in the Frenzy at the Field House. Hosted by Kent State, we'll see the Hawkeyes, Golden Flashes, Wisconsin, and CSU-Bakersfield in a series of duals. All three of the other teams have already had their season opening matches.
Watch Frenzy at the Field House Live on Flo
Fri. Nov. 9th | 3:00 PM Central
We had a pretty good idea what Iowa's lineup would like for the 2018-19 season, and even though it is clearly not 100% set, a few questions were answered at wrestle-offs. Let's take a weight-by-weight look at who Tom Brands and his coaching staff will be sending out for the 4:30 dual against CSUB and the 6 o'clock match with Kent State.
A quick note, Wisconsin and Iowa will not wrestle each other as they will hit on February 17 in Madison. But CSUB and Kent State will each wrestle three times on Friday evening.
Who To Expect For Iowa This Weekend
125: Spencer Lee will do Spencer Lee things. The Iowa fans love him, the Pennsylvania folks adore hm, and every team besides Iowa hates having to wrestle him.
133: There was no more talked about transfer this offseason, and the time has finally come for Austin DeSanto to make his debut in an Iowa singlet. Whether he likes it or not, he’s almost assuredly going to be perceived as the biggest heel in college wrestling this season. But Hawkeye fans have always loved wearing the black hat, especially when their guy wrestles with the kind of manic pace DeSanto has.
141: Max Murin took control of this weight by beating Carter Happel 3-1 and Vince Turk 5-4 in last week’s wrestle-offs. Currently ranked 16th, we assumed for most of the summer that he would be the starter for the Hawkeyes. A two-time Pennsylvania state champ, his run to the U.S. Open finals in April fired up Iowa fans. The redshirt freshman should be able to get a major against either Leno Ciotti or Cory Simpson of Kent State.
149: In baseball, pro teams have to pine over guys for years while their prospects toil in the minor leagues. Iowa got a little taste of that with Pat Lugo, who came to Iowa City with the understanding that he would redshirt the 2017-18 season while Brandon Sorensen finished out his eligibility. After beating Zach Axmear 14-3 on Thursday and pinning him in 36 seconds on Friday, the buzz about Lugo is starting to reach a fever pitch.
157: A sneaky important weight for the Hawkeyes this season. Much like 141 which probably won't be set after a couple wrestle-offs and one day's worth of duals, 157 could wind up being an open competition all year. Kaleb Young made a strong first impression at wrestle-offs though. After dropping down from 174 last season, he majored Jeremiah Moody on Thursday and then took down Jeren Glosser in overtime to earn the starting spot for this weekend. Sidebar, that makes four starters from PA in the first five weights.
165: Alex Marinelli is going to be one of the most consistent guys in the country. The Bull only did the World Team Trials in May, so expect his movement to be a little better after a summer recovering from the knee injury that kept him in a brace all of last season.
174: One of the missing pieces at wrestle-offs was Michael Kemerer, so this will be the first anyone has seen up up two weight classes from a year ago. There probably won't be much to learn, but why wouldn't you tune in to see one of the best guys in the country try out a new weight?
184: Once a fat cat, now a hungry wolf on the prowl (cc: Tom Brands), Cash Wilcke is down to the weight for which he was originally recruited. He took out last year's starter Mitch Bowman 9-5 on Friday, and was already a two-time qualifier up at 197. The only Iowa native in the starting lineup is ranked 13th heading into this match.
197: No Jacob Warner this weekend. Based on the wrestle-offs, the guy in his stead will be another redshirt freshman in Connor Corbin. I know what I just said about Wilcke being the only Iowa guy in the lineup, but this is a spot start for Corbin until Warner returns.
#Iowa coach Tom Brands says Jacob Warner won’t be in the lineup to start the season. Says he’s fine, and still training, just needed a break after preparing for Junior Worlds over the summer.
— Cody Goodwin (@codygoodwin) November 5, 2018
285: For at least this first competition, Sam Stoll will be suspended after his offseason incident in which he was shot in the knee. Although Aaron Costello lost to true freshman Anthony Cassioppi in the wrestle-off, I would be shocked if they didn't send out Costello for these duals. There's no reason to burn Cassioppi's redshirt when they've got a perfectly capable heavyweight in Costello who already used his redshirt.