Who: #2 Iowa vs. Northwestern
Date: Sunday, January 10th, 2016
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Video (Online): BTN Plus (Subscription required)
Play-by-Play: IAWrestle.com
InterMat Rankings
#2 Iowa Hawkeyes 9-0 (3-0) vs Northwestern Wildcats 1-5 (0-1)
125- #2 Thomas Gilman vs Garrison White
133- #2 Cory Clark vs Dominick Malone
141- Topher Carton vs Jameson Oster
149- #2 Brandon Sorensen vs #3 Jason Tsirtsis
157- #16 Edwin Cooper Jr. vs Forfeit
165- Patrick Rhoads vs Luke Norland
174- #10 Alex Meyer vs Mitch Sliga
184- #8 Sammy Brooks vs Regis Durbin
197- #3Nathan Burak vs Jacob Berkowitz
285- #8 Sam Stoll vs Conan Jennings
After defeating the Illini 26-12 on Friday, the Hawkeyes will conclude their weekend road trip tomorrow against Northwestern. The dual will be at 2:00 PM and will air on BTN Plus. Plus is an add-on subscription service offered by the Big Ten Network.
In keeping with history, this will be a dual that will favor heavily on the Hawkeye side. Iowa enters the matchup the favorite in seven matches, and are technically the favorite at 149 as well which would give the Hawkeyes eight matches.
Going through the lineup of both teams, the only match that stands out to have potential is the 149 pound weight where there will be a Midlands finals rematch between #2 Brandon Sorensen and #3 Jason Tsirtsis. This will be the fifth career meeting between the two wrestlers, and the series is evenly split 2-2. Sorensen’s win over Tsirtsis at the Midlands actually earned him Big Ten Wrestler of the Week honors.
The rest of the dual doesn’t provide much in terms of exciting matches, with the Hawkeyes having a lot of opportunities to rack up some bonus points.
Last year’s dual got off to an 11-0 start for the Hawkeyes as Thomas Gilman needed only 4:16 to rack up a 21-6 technical fall over his opponent Garrison White. Teammate Cory Clark was able to follow that performance with a first period fall over Dominick Malone.
It looks like Edwin Cooper Jr. will only be required to make weight to earn his team six points on Sunday. An injury to Brice Brill has caused the Wildcats to forfeit 157 most of the season.
Both Sammy Brooks and Sam Stoll have been men on a mission this year, with Brooks starting the year on a ten match winning streak all by bonus. Similarly Stoll has also scored bonus points in several of his matches, and is tied for team lead with five falls on the season.
Alex Meyer looked slow in his Midlands semifinals match, suffering a loss to Ohio’s Cody Walters, and but he rebounded well against Illinois opponent Isaac Reinemann with a technical fall. Meyer will look to continue his success against Mitch Sliga.
A potentially good match could occur at 141 pounds where Topher Carton will be called upon to take on Jameson Oster. Oster is currently unranked by InterMat, but is ranked by WIN Magazine.
The last time Patrick Rhoads was in Evanston he snuck onto the medal stand at the Midlands with a seventh place finish, wrestling above seed.
(Photo by Rachel Jessen)