Hawkeyes head east to face new Big Ten foe Rutgers

Who: #2 Iowa vs. #24 Rutgers
Date: Friday January 2nd, 2015
Time: 6:00 PM – Central
Location: Piscataway, New Jersey
Radio: 800 KXIC AM
TV: This dual will be live on BTN
Online:A BTN video stream is also available online at btn2go.com.
(InterMat Rankings – Pre-Midlands)

#2 Iowa Hawkeyes 5-0 (1-0)
125- #4 Thomas Gilman
133- #4 Cory Clark
141- #6 Josh Dziewa
149- #10 Brandon Sorensen
157- Mike Kelly or Edwin Cooper
165- #7 Nick Moore
174- #2 Mike Evans
184- #8 Sammy Brooks
197- #6 Nathan Burak or Kris Klapprodt
285- #3 Bobby Telford

#24 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 9-0 (0-0)
125- Sean McCabe or Josh Patrick
133- Scott DelVecchio
141- #11 Anthony Ashnault or Jalen Ramos
149- Ken Theobold
157- #13 Anthony Perrotti
165- Nicholas Gravina
174- Phil Bakuckas
184- Hayden Hrymack or Anthony Pafumi
197- Andrew Campolattano
285- #9 Billy Smith

The Iowa Hawkeyes will head east this weekend and will face Rutgers and Ohio State (that preview will come later) to really get into Big Ten action. For Rutgers this will mark their first dual in Big Ten competition and they will be going up against one of the giants in the Big Ten in Iowa. With three top 20 ranked wrestlers, there will be two bouts where we will get a chance to see two ranked wrestlers battle head-to-head.

The last these two teams met Iowa got the win in Piscataway, New Jersey winning 33-3. With the Rutgers off to their best start in program history, they will try and continue their already historic season by claiming a victory over the Hawkeyes.

If the Rutgers are going to win tonight, they will need three big wins, starting with #11 Anthony Ashnault at 141, who will try and take down Josh Dziewa. Dziewa is coming off of that 4th place finish at the Midlands, so he is riding a strong tournament performance into tonight’s dual.

The next biggest match for Rutgers is fittingly the biggest wrestlers on the team as #9 Billy Smith will try and defeat Midlands champion Bobby Telford (who is also coming off a Big Ten wrestler of the week honor). This match is probably the co-feature match along with the 141 battle that will take place.

Senior Mike Kelly is coming off a strong 3rd place finish at the Midlands and he will get ranked opponent #13 Anthony Perrotti if he is the man that goes at this weight. If Brands decides to roll with Cooper I would say Rutgers becomes the strong favorite at this weight, as Cooper is coming off a rather disappointing Midlands tournament.

In what could be sneaky good match is at 197 where Rutgers will get their first opportunity to test Andrew Campolattano. Campolattano originally wrestled for Ohio State before transferring back to his native state of New Jersey to wrestle for Rutgers. Campolattano is unranked only because he was not able to wrestle until this semester so he should be a top 20 wrestler before the year is done. If Midlands champion Nathan Burak gets the nod in this match look for this to be a great battle and possibly one of the best matches of the night.

The rest of the Hawkeyes should be heavily favored in their matchups and I would expect to see Brands push his wrestlers to try and pick up some bonus points here on the road before they head to Columbus to face the Buckeyes.