Friday Night's Five Matches To Watch
Friday Night's Five Matches To Watch
A preview of the five matches we can't wait to watch Friday night.
Dual season is upon us and it is glorious. This Friday evening, myself and David Bray, along with you all in the app chat, will be tuning in and hanging out via watch party.
There will be plenty to watch Friday evening, just check out this slate of duals along with their start times in Eastern time.
Friday Night Duals
The Citadel at Appalachian State, 7:00 PM
SIU Edwardsville at Clarion, 7:00 PM
Cleveland State at Kent State, 7:00 PM
Binghamton at Lehigh, 7:00 PM
Penn State at Maryland, 7:00 PM
Indiana at Rutgers, 7:00 PM
Purdue at Nebraska, 8:00 PM
Central Michigan at Northern Illinois, 8:00 PM
Northwestern at Wisconsin, 8:00 PM
Minnesota at Iowa, 9:00 PM
Northern Colorado at Cal Poly, 10:00 PM
And now, let's focus in on five of the best matches we could see.
Peyton Robb vs Kendall Coleman
These two met in the 2020 Big Ten semifinals with Kendall Coleman coming away with a 3-2 decision. It was a first-period takedown that made the difference in the match.
Watch Peyton Robb and Kendall Coleman’s Big Ten semifinal below.
However, Peyton Robb was all the rage for the first several weeks of the season. The Minnesota native knocked off NCAA champion Austin O’Connor before taking another NCAA champion, David Carr, to the wire before falling in overtime.
These two avoided hitting each other at CKLV by medically forfeiting out after falling on the front side.
John Poznanski vs Donnell Washington
No one has started the season hotter than Donnell Washington. The Indiana sophomore is 10-0 with eight pins. He currently leads the nation in pins among undefeated wrestlers. Despite this fact, John Poznanski will be a heavy favorite. After placing fourth at NCAAs last year as a freshman, Poz is 10-0 so far on the year. My predictions for this match are at least feet to back attempt and more than one set of back points.
Yahya Thomas vs Austin Gomez
This match is incredibly intriguing. Similar to Washington, Austin Gomez always has the big move threat in his back pocket. However, Yahya Thomas is incredibly sound defensively.
Gomez suffered his first loss of the season up at 149 lbs last week at the Illinois Matmen Open to Josh Heil. 1-1 heading into OT, Heil won the match with a go behind off of a Gomez single leg. I think there’s a chance this one could end up with a similar score.
Kaleb Young vs Brayton Lee
These two could not have been closer last season. They met three times: the dual, Big Tens, and NCAAs. Young won the dual 4-3 in tiebreakers, Young won at Big Tens 3-2 in tiebreakers, and lastly, Lee won at NCAAs in regulation 3-2.
Having won the last meeting and based on the two’s season so far, I’d give a slight edge to Lee. Lee is 11-0 while Young is coming off a 1-2 performance at Collegiate Duals where he got pinned and majored. This is in Carver, however, so who knows?
Watch Brayton Lee and Kaleb Young’s tiebreaker dual match below.
Gable Steveson vs Anthony Cassioppi
I have no insight here as to whether or not Gable Steveson is wrestling or not, but I’m choosing to be optimistic. He did wrestle in both of Minnesota’s duals in the first half of the season, after all. Obviously, Gable will be a huge favorite. On FRL Wednesday, the line was set at Gable -10.5. The only thing that should give Hawk fans some hope is that Gable has never wrestled the newly trim Anthony Cassioppi.
Watch Gable Steveson and Anthony Cassioppi’s match from 2020 NCAAs below.
