UNI Hosts Eastern Michigan in MAC Opener

After a couple weeks off for the holidays the Panthers return to the West Gym for their first conference dual of the season against the Eagles of Eastern Michigan. The last time we saw the UNI in action they went 1-2 at The Grapple at the Garden.

UNI will also honor the 1974-1975 squad, which won the NCAA Division II National Championship. The Panthers had three individual champions that year in Jim Miller, Ken Snyder, and Randy Omvig, while Dave Cunningham and Dick Erickson were runners-up.

As far as the dual is concerned UNI (3-3, 0-0) will be looking to keep a perfect record intact against the Eagles (5-2, 0-0). The Panthers are 6-0 against Eastern Michigan all-time. There are not any matches that are exactly big draws, but Leighton Gaul getting the #3 MAC wrestler in Vincent Pizzuto should be a good gauge of where Gaul is in terms of conference competition.

Whoever Coach Doug Schwab decides to go with at 141 they will be getting a solid test in Michael Shaw who is ranked fourth in the MAC. Again that will be a good litmus test for how far along UNI is at 141 within the MAC.

At 157 Jarrett Jensen and Brandon Zeerip will square off in a rematch of a MAC Tournament match from last year. Jensen held off Zeerip for a 5-4 win last year. Zeerip took 8th place at The Midlands last weekend as well. This will be the only rematch on the day as the two teams did not meet in a dual last year.

The dual is scheduled to start at 2PM on Sunday, in the West Gym on UNI’s campus. We will post all the results from the dual in this thread, and you can also follow us on Twitter – @IAWrestle – for live results.

Projected lineups, the Panther is listed first, and all the rankings are from Intermat:

125 – #7 Dylan Peters (12-2) vs Shayne Wireman (9-1)
133 – Leighton Gaul (5-9) vs Vincent Pizzuto (5-7)
141- Jesse Etherington (8-3), Jake Hodges (7-9), or Tyler Willers (10-7) vs Michael Shaw (4-3)
149 – Gunnar Wolfensperger (14-5) or Zach Witte (12-5) vs Nicholas Barber (7-4)
157 – Jarrett Jensen (13-7) vs Brandon Zeerip (10-3)
165 – #11 Cooper Moore (12-3) or Taylor Berger (11-6) vs Devan Marry (7-8)
174 – Curt Maas (16-3) or Kyle Lux (9-8) vs Kayne MacCallum (10-4)
184 – Cody Caldwell (9-2) vs Mike Curby (5-9)
197 – Jared Bartel (10-6) or Basil Minto (14-7) vs Anthony Abro (8-5)
285 – #15 Blaize Cabell (14-4) vs Cole Dillman (6-5) or Gage Hutchison (7-6)