Iowa Wrestling does Iowa State: Your Primer

Well, it’s hard to be more successful against the Cyclones than the Hawkeyes have been in major sports this season. Football, men’s hoops, women’s hoops, manager hoops! When 7 p.m. Saturday rolls around, we should be able to add wrestling to that list too.

The No. 2 Hawkeyes have won 12-consecutive meetings, which is more than impressive — couple that with the fact the Cyclones are unranked and are having a hot-garbage start to the year, and things are looking pretty. And it’s at Carver. And, oh yeah, Iowa’s really, really good.

The Hawkeyes haven’t faced a ton of competition, but are 4-0 while the Cyclones have faced a slightly stiffer crowd and are 1-3. Northern Colorado is the only win for Iowa State, folks.

Matches to Watch

Everything should be a blowout except for three weights — 133, 174, and 184. We’ll work our way up.

Cory Clark is, of course, out for the Hawkeyes, so it’ll be Phillip (Brands called him Phil, Phil sounds better) Laux against No. 7 Earl Hall, who’s having a weak year, by his standards. He’s 8-3 and dropped this week from No. 5 in Flo’s rankings. There’s a good wrestler in there somewhere — we’ll see if he shows up against the backup.

Hopefully Laux doesn’t get teched like he did last week against Seth Gross, who teched Hall’s backup, Nathan Boston, earlier this season. For the record, that was 16-0, not 15-0 like Laux’s match. We’ll see how this one goes.

At 174, No. 7 Alex Meyer gets 11th-ranked Lelund Weatherspoon, which should be a good one. Meyer has yet to lose, while Weatherspoon owns a 12-3 mark. This is a good chance for Meyer to take the next step for the Hawkeyes. During his time in Iowa City, he’s seemingly been just outside of the team’s top-tier guys — this is a good chance to take the next step and continue to prove he’s more than that. I think he is, yeah?

The highlight of the evening is a matchup between guys with perfectly generic names, No. 8 Sammy Brooks and No. 9 Pat Downey. Both are undefeated, one will not be at the end of the bout. Downey’s wrestled only four times this season while Brooks is 8-0. Expect the defending Big Ten Champion to push the pace and try to work Downey heavily — there are always bonus points waiting to happen with Brooks, part of me thinks that’s happening Saturday. Just a hunch.

Also, Alex Marinelli is listed on the probable bout sheet with Joey Gunther. That’s going to be the case the rest of forever, probably.

How to watch and follow, probable lineups

If you have a BTN Plus subscripition, you’re good to go. Lucky you.

If not, the dual’s on the usual Hawkeye Radio Network stations and you can follow along on Twitter as well with these accounts.

@IowaWrLive, @Hawks_Wrestling, @Andy_Hamilton, @kjpilcher, @IAwrestle,@hagertony, @RossWB, @rossbcheck, and, as always, @BHGP.

Iowa Probables

125 / No. 1 Thomas Gilman, 7-0
133 / Phil Laux, 6-4
141 / Topher Carton, 9-0
149 / No. 2 Brandon Sorensen, 9-0
157 / No. 6 Michael Kemerer, 9-0
165 / Joey Gunther, 9-0/Alex Marinelli, 4-0
174 / No. 6 Alex Meyer, 8-0
184 / No. 7 Sammy Brooks, 6-0
197 / Cash Wilcke, 7-1
HWT / Steven Holloway, 5-2/Sam Stoll, 0-0

Iowa State Probables

125 / Kyle Larson, 5-2/Markus Simmons, 13-3
133 / No. 7 Earl Hall, 8-3, Nathan Boston, 2-2
141 / Gabe Moreno, 4-4/John Meeks, 4-3/Kanen Storr, 19-3
149 / Chase Straw, 12-5/Blayne Briceno, 7-4
157 / Colston DiPlasi, 12-6/Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer, 4-5
165 / Dane Pestano, 5-4
174 / No. 11 Lelund Weatherspoon, 12-3
184 / No. 9 Pat Downey, 4-0/Carson Powell, 8-6
197 / Joe Teague, 4-6/Marcus Harrington, 1-2
HWT / Quean Smith, 5-2