On Wednesday, we gave you the low-down on the new faces in the Hawkeye lineup at 141 and 157. Today, 165 and 197 are on the docket.
165
Your guess is as good as anyone’s when trying to decide what's happening here. There's highly-touted recruit and true freshman Alex Marinelli, there are a few quality guys (or, at least guys that look like quality wrestlers) in Joey Gunther and Jeremiah Moody. Both showed promise in their redshirt seasons and met in the Luther Open finals, where Gunther bested Moody.
Marinelli has the highest ceiling of any Hawkeye at this class, wrestling an aggressive style that will hopefully translate to big points at the collegiate level. But, as a true freshman, there’s the likely event of a redshirt season.
This is a weight that we’ll watch play out as Gunther and Moody split time in the lineup through November and December while Marinelli wrestles in open tournaments. As is the case with a good amount of Tom Brands’ lineup decisions, we’ll probably get a starter after that. It’d be a gutsy move to pull the shirt off Marinelli, but if there’s one person it’s going to happen for this year, it could be the Ohio native.
197
Again, your guess is just as good as the next guy’s at this weight, vacated by former All-American Nathan Burak. Redshirt freshmen Cash Wilcke and Mitch Bowman squared off in the finals at Luther, with Wilcke coming out on top. However, Bowman scored more bonus points than his counterpart in the matches leading up to the finals, so this weight is one big ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Neither Wilcke nor Bowman were super highly-touted coming into Iowa City, but the hope here is for serviceable point-scorers. I’d be lying if I told you I was expecting a lot from these guys come the postseason, but hope I’m pleasantly surprised. Like a lot of the weights in question — and especially more so here given the Luther results — don’t expect a consistent starter until after the Midlands roll around.
We’ll see folks, we’ll see.
Iowa City Duals
The Hawkeyes are scheduled to wrestle Iowa Central and Cornell College — yes, only two teams this season as opposed to three in years past — Friday morning. Those duals start bright and early at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., respectively. Who doesn’t love morning wrestling?
You can follow along on TrackWrestling. Here’s the link for Iowa Central, and here’s the one for Cornell.
These matches are also available on BTN2Go, which requires a subscription unless you’re on campus wifi. Students, enjoy that.
It looks like Grace and Ironside should be on the call as well. You can check your local Learfield affiliate here.
Twitter accounts for you to follow: @IowaWrLive, @Hawks_Wrestling, @Andy_Hamilton,@kjpilcher, @IAwrestle, @hagertony, @RossWB, @rossbcheck and, as always, @BHGP.