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Looking ahead to Iowa State’s weekend as they head West to face Utah Valley and Boise State. Check out the Cyclone’s website for more information. Also Trackwrestling will be carrying updates for the dual.
Up first I will preview the Utah Valley squad:
With it being so early in the season, none of the Iowa State or Utah Valley wrestlers have any common opponents, so our best guess to make a judgement off of where Wrestle Stat rankings has the two teams wrestlers in their calculations.
125 – #36 Chasen Tolbert
Utah Valley was at the Clarion Open and it was there Tolbert was able to make the finals by pulling an upset over the #2 seeded wrestler Sean Russell of Edinboro. Tolbert lost in the finals to a top 20 wrestler Ben Willeford 9-4. Wrestle Stat has Kyle Larson coming in at #44 so this will be an actual test to see how good Larson is at this weight.
133- #12 (@125) Jade Rauser
This match will probably be the marquee match of the dual as Rauser appears to be bumping to 133 this season and he also took second at the Clarion Open. Earl Hall is ranked #5 in the rankings, but with a lot of wrestlers not having any matches entered yet he jumped three spots so he is actually a lot closer to Rauser than the numbers show. This will also be a good measuring stick match to judge Hall on as both of these wrestlers are former 125 pounders moving into this weight class.
141- #70 Dalton Brady
This will be a match of two guys who have not competed yet this season, and this is another matchup where numbers are still slightly skewed. Just because John Meeks is ranked #90 by Wrestle Stat I don’t think that is a true indication of where he really is at this weight. Hopefully since Meeks has sat out the last two weekends he is at full strength and ready to burst on to the scene this weekend.
149- #88 Trevor Wilson
Wilson had the best Clarion Open so I picked him as the starter to face #30 Gabe Moreno who won his match over Briceno and should be the starter. I think Gabe will really enjoy being up a weight and I don’t look for him to have any trouble against Wilson.
157- #173 Logan Addis
Had the best weekend among Utah Valley’s 157 wrestlers so I tabbed him as the starter. He will be facing a veteran Luke Gottel (#30) who is another Cyclone moving up a weight class. I think Gottel gets it done here.
165- #190 Dalton Harmon
Ross Taylor wrestled up at 184 at the Clarion Open and Harmon performed the best of Utah Valley’s 165 wrestlers. He will be facing #3 Mike Moreno so I am going to have to say no matter who Utah Valley uses here, it should be all Moreno.
174- #85 Ethan Smith
Smith only went 2-2 last weekend at the Clarion Open, but appears to be the best wrestler in the roster at this weight, but #8 Tanner Weatherman is going to be a tough one for him to beat. Weatherman shouldn’t have too much difficulty here.
184- #142 Ross Taylor
Taylor is a bit of an unknown for Utah Valley he went 3-2 at the Clarion Open, but that was his first competition at his new weight. He’ll still be up against stiff competition in #18 Lelund Weatherspoion, but since I don’t know too much about Taylor I won’t call this a lock.
197- #16 Derek Thomas
Thomas is one of the best wrestlers pound-for-pound on this roster, but he will be going up against perhaps Iowa State’s best pound-for-pound wrestler as well. #3 Kyven Gadson should put him away.
HWT- #9 Adam Feger or #104 Jordan Karst
I question whether Adam Feger, who defaulted out of the Clarion Open after three matches is healthy yet. If he is ready to go I don’t think #32 Quean Smith can handle him, but if it is Karst it could be a different story.
Iowa State should be heavily favored in this match.
Boise State
125-
Boise didn’t send any 125 to the Wyoming Cowboy open, and didn’t have 125 listed in the intrasquad action. Wrestle Stat has #75 Carson Kuhn listed, but I am not sure. I think this should be a win for ISU no matter if Larson faces someone or not.
133- #209 Michael Cook
Cook was second at the Cowboy open, so he should be better than his ranking shows. I would still think Hall should be able to come out 2-0 this weekend, but he will have one of the toughest weekends for the Cyclones.
141- #209 Geo Martinez
Another ranking that is still dealing with the early season skew of matches entered. Martinez took fourth at the Cowboy open and won’t be a push over for Meeks to go through to try and come out 2-0 this weekend.
149- #47 Chris Castillo
Castillo is listed as wrestling off (and winning) at 165, but he was at 149 for the Cowboy open so I guess this is where he will be. This could be an interesting matchup for Moreno, because if the intrasquad notes are true, Castillo could be a big 149 wrestler who relies a lot on strength.
157- #58 Steven Hernandez
Hernadez was victorious over teammate West at the Cowboy open to take 3rd so I think he will be the man opposite of Gottel. This should be a better test for Gottel (as opposed to Utah Valley) at how he has handled the weight change.
165- #68 Holden Packard
Again this weight should be of little concern for Cyclone fans as Moreno takes care of business. Packard will probably be a better matchup than Harmon of Utah Valley, but like I mentioned, Moreno should be 2-0 this weekend.
174- #67 Austin Dewey
Dewey didn’t place at the Cowboy open and neither of his two wins jump off the monitor at me so I think Weatherman will show up and take care of business.
184- #224 Cody Dixon
Dixon hasn’t wrestled a lot of matches, but I am a believer in Weatherspoon. Dixon has yet to win a match this season, and Weatherspoon looked really good the other weekend – even if it was against lesser competition.
197- #179 Colton Grossaint
Grossaint won the intrasquad match, and he won his division of the Cowboy open (Amateur) so I wonder if we will see him this weekend. I still wouldn’t be overwhelmed by anyone thrown out against Kyven Gadson.
HWT- #179 (@197) Gabe Gonzalez
Looking at both matchups through Wrestle Stats I feel fairly confident that ISU will kick off their dual season 2-0, with only a handful of matches that appear to be in question on paper.
Gonzalez appears to have moved up after winning the intrasquad match over Edmo. Since he is another wrestler we haven’t seen much at his new weight I will again hesitate to call this a lock for Smith, but I do believe that he will be favored.