The No. 3 Iowa wrestling team is set to host on Rutgers at 7 p.m. today.
By Jordan Hansen
When Rutgers steps into Carver-Hawkeye this season, it’ll be looking to pull an upset of Iowa and turn the small amount of noise it has been making this season into a crescendo.
While the Scarlet Knights are not ranked in Flowrestling’s tournament rankings, the team does come in at No. 9 in the outlet’s dual rankings. Rutgers has beaten No. 15 North Carolina, No. 10 Cornell and lost a close dual to No. 8 Oklahoma.
“We’re getting ready for a good team coming in here and we aren’t looking at anything other than that,” Iowa head coach Tom Brands said. “We have to be ready to go.”
Rutgers has three wrestlers in the top 10 — No. 4 141-pounder Anthony Ashnault, No. 9 heavyweight Billy Smith, and No. 9 165-pounder Anthony Perrotti. Sean McCabe, a 125-pounder, also comes into Carver ranked this week at No. 18.
Based purely on rankings, Rutgers will be favored at 141, 165, and heavyweight, as Iowa does not have a ranked wrestler at any of those weight classes. However, it does provide Hawkeye heavyweight Sam Stoll — who has four pins in his last five matches — an opportunity to face a quality opponent before the Midlands Championships in late December.
“Every match counts with RPI and everything,” Brands said. “These matches have end of the year ramifications, if you don’t qualify automatically in the conference, then these are big matches.
“There are 10 matches to be wrestled and we need to be ready.”
Iowa, however, should have the advantage in six of the seven remaining matches, and it boasts five top-five ranked wrestlers.
To put it simply, the Hawkeyes are the better team and a win by Rutgers would be a major upset.
“They say they’re up there [in the rankings],” second ranked 125-pounder Thomas Gilman said when asked about Rutgers. “They think they’re up there. We’ll see.”
The Scarlet Knight wrestling program has never been anything special, which helps explain some of Gilman’s skepticism. Rutgers has totaled just 10 NCAA All-Americans and two conference champions in its 85-year history.
Current Rutgers coach Scott Goodale is in his ninth season and has coached two of those All-Americans — Ashnault and Perrotti. Goodale owns a 134-26-1 record as the team’s head coach, though that success didn’t translate last season as his team moved from the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association to the more competitive Big Ten.
After going 44-11 in Goodale’s first seven years coaching the Scarlet Knights, his team went 2-7 in Big Ten dual meets last season, finishing 11th in the conference tournament.
However, with optimism surrounding the 9-1 record start to the season Rutgers’ trip to Carver will serve as more than a Big Ten opener. It’s a chance for the Scarlet Knights to prove they are legitimate to the wrestling world.
“They’re coming in here to try to make a statement in our arena,” Iowa 184-pounder Sammy Brooks said. “We just have to keep doing what we have been doing well and improve on the stuff we’re not.”
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