Who: Utah Valley 1-3 (0-1 Big 12) vs #16 UNI 0-2 (0-0 Big 12)
Where: West Gym, Cedar Falls, IA
When: Saturday, January 4th, 2019 – 5:00 PM
Watch: Flowrestling (Subscription required)
It’s a fast turnaround for the UNI Panthers as they return home for their Big 12 dual opener against Utah Valley. After wrapping up second place at the Midlands on Monday evening the West Gym will be open Saturday night for their battle with the Wolverines.
While this isn’t the most exciting dual on paper there are a couple of Panthers who dropped their matches against UVU last season in Orem. Namely Bryce Steiert and Taylor Lujan. Both men lost close matches against their ranked UVU counterparts, but neither wrestler is scheduled for a rematch. Lujan’s opponent from last season, Kimball Bastian, is still at 174 pounds and is not scheduled to wrestle this dual, while Steiert’s loss came to Demetrius Romero, who is also not slated for this weekend’s action at 165.
This year the pair should walk away with wins; Steiert only has to make weight at 174 pounds to get his hand raised, and Lujan will wrestle unranked Ashton Seely or Jacob Armstrong. Considering Lujan’s fairly dominate performance at the Midlands a few days ago, he should be ok.
Other than that the only potential matchup between ranked wrestlers is #8 Tate Orndorff going up against #14 Carter Isley. There’s no guarantee that Orndorff will wrestler though, as UVU has two wrestlers listed on their potential lineup list.
Overall this should be a good dual for UNI to jump into the busy dual season. Next week they’ll see a pair of opponents in South Dakota State and Missouri, before a trip out west to Northern Colorado and Air Force. All five upcoming duals lead into the Big 12 showdown with Oklahoma State on January 25th.
Utah Valley vs #18 UNI
125: Will Edelblute or Josiah Nava vs Jay Schwarm
133: Taylor LaMont vs Jack Skudlarczyk
141: Cameron Hunsaker or Nick Rino vs Michael Blockhus
149: Landon Knutzen or Brigg Hoopes #7 Max Thomsen
157: Jerry Rubio vs Keaton Geerts or Paden Moore
165: Koy Wilkinson or Grant LaMont vs Pat Schoenfelder or Austin Yant
174: Open vs #5 Bryce Steiert
184: Ashton Seely or Jacob Armstrong vs #4 Taylor Lujan
197: #14 Tanner Orndorff vs Noah Glaser
285: #8 Tate Orndorff or Chase Trussell vs #14 Carter Isley
Intermat rankings used