New Faces in Sunday's Iowa/Oklahoma State Dual

Sunday evening, two of college wrestling's traditional blue bloods will collide in one of the best non-conference rivalry matches of the season. The #5 Iowa Hawkeyes will travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for another edition of their storied rivalry against #3 Oklahoma State. The two schools met in November in the semifinals of the National Duals Invitational, so that should provide us with a blueprint for how Sunday’s match should go? Right? Well, not necessarily. Actually, there’s a lot on both sides of the mat that has changed since November. We’ll outline them below. The 133 lb elephant in the room surrounding this dual and the collegiate postseason is “will he or won’t he?” The “he” is Jax Forrest, the Senior World Team member who gave up his final high school postseason to join the Oklahoma State team earlier this year. Forrest is fresh off a wild, 10-9 victory over previously unbeaten freshman Aaron Seidel of Virginia Tech. Iowa’s Drake Ayala won the NDI dual with a 7-4 in extra time against another true freshman, Ronnie Ramirez. With Forrest in the fold, that match could certainly go Oklahoma State’s way. Up a weight at 141 lbs, Nasir Bailey was not listed in Iowa’s probables and has been replaced by Kale Petersen in Iowa’s February duals. In Big Ten dual competition, Petersen has gone 3-2; however, none of his wins came over past national qualifiers. Both losses came to returning All-Americans. Against, #2 Sergio Vega, Petersen might be in danger of giving up bonus points, as well. During the NDI dual, Vega and Bailey were scoreless in regulation before Vega prevailed in sudden victory. Iowa won the 149 lb contest in Tulsa and they will be even more of a favorite to do it again in Stillwater. In November, Ryder Block shocked All-American Casey Swiderski during his 5-3 upset. The NDI Tournament proved to be an early-season rough patch for Swiderski, but he has been good since then. Unfortunately, he’s missed the Cowboys' last two duals and could miss Sunday. In those duals, true freshman Beau Hickman got the call. Hickman fought hard and lost close matches to quality opponents from Little Rock and Virginia Tech. While Block is the favorite, don’t be surprised if this match is closer than you initially thought. After majoring All-American Daniel Cardenas in his collegiate debut, Landon Robideau showed he was no fluke with a 4-0 performance at the NDI. At that event, Robideau majored Hawkeye Victor Voinovich. That match could happen again; however, #14 Jordan Williams is also listed as a potential starter in Iowa’s match notes. The difference between Williams and Voinovich might not be enough to change this from a major to a decision or even move the match to the Hawkeyes. We’ll probably have a completely new match at 184 lbs as #2 Angelo Ferrari and #9 Zack Ryder are both banged up and not expected to compete. Iowa won’t miss much, as they can turn to Gabe Arnold. Arnold is 14-4 on the year with a win over Nebraska All-American Silas Allred and is on a three-match winning streak. Since Ryder has been out of the lineup, David Taylor’s staff has turned to veteran Trevor Dopps. Dopps has gotten the call for OSU in each of the last three weeks. He has been competitive, but hasn’t gotten his hand raised. One of the key wins for Iowa in Tulsa came from 197 lber Massoma Endene. Endene is no longer with the Hawkeyes and Tom Brands’ team has had difficulty finding a replacement. Harvey Ludington can fill that role on a long-term basis, but he will be kept in redshirt. That means Iowa will send out redshirt freshman Brody Sampson. While his opponents have been top shelf, Sampson has given up bonus points in all three dual appearances. The good thing for Iowa is that Sampson’s probable opponent, Cody Merrill, isn’t a huge scorer. He might dominate the bout positionally, but not as much on the scoreboard. Iowa closed out its NDI win by forfeiting at heavyweight. At the time, Ben Kueter was still working himself into wrestling shape. Kueter comes into this match with a 5-5 record after getting majored by Taye Ghadiali on Friday. Kueter’s record isn’t sparkling, but he has wrestled a “who’s who” of top heavyweights. His opponent, Konner Doucet, has an excellent record (13-2), but hasn’t faced the same level of competition. Doucet is coming in off of a solid 6-1 performance against a top 20 opponent in Jimmy Mullen of Virginia Tech. As you can see, there are lots of moving parts and lots of variables, so just because Iowa won a few months ago, doesn’t mean it’s a lock to happen again. We could end up only seeing three rematches from the National Duals Invitational.

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New Faces in Sunday's Iowa/Oklahoma State Dual

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