By Pete Ruden
For the first time this season, the Iowa wrestling team will face a ranked opponent when it takes on No. 20 South Dakota State today.
Iowa heads into the dual ranked No. 3 with a 3-0 record that includes wins over Iowa Central, Cornell College, and Purdue.
After rolling, 34-3, over its first Big Ten opponent of the year last weekend, the Hawkeyes will go up against competition that has a chance to make the dual competitive. South Dakota State seeks to become a real championship contender, and in order to do that, it must compete with the best.
“If you’re a coach that’s aspiring to be the best, it doesn’t matter if you’re at South Dakota State or Iowa, or a powerhouse or a nontraditional powerhouse,” head coach Tom Brands said. “He believes, and so he’s trying to schedule the best teams. That’s how he runs his program. He’s looking to wrestle the best competition, and we have to be ready.”
A program that keeps getting better has the potential to upset a lot of good teams. Even though Iowa leads the all-time series 5-0, with its most recent victory coming last year by a score of 28-15, it’s a new season, and anything can happen.
With Brands praising the team and the coaching staff the Hawkeyes will face, his lineup is still motivated to prove that it is better with a win.
“I think they’re an up-and-coming program. That’s good for them, and I think it makes the sport better,” senior 174-pounder Alex Meyer said. “It also gives us a good challenge. It makes us get up and get ready for the dual, and not just walk in there and take care of business, but really focus.”
One of the most intriguing matches of the night will be at 133 pounds, in which Iowa’s No. 1 Cory Clark will take on South Dakota State’s Seth Gross, a former Hawkeye ranked No. 7.
The two wrestled and sparred every once in a while in the year they were both in Iowa City together, when Gross was at 141, while Clark was at 125.
Because of those stints, both wrestlers have an idea about what the other is going to do.
“I know he’s a competitor and is going to come out and wrestle,” Clark said in a release. “Whatever he has to do to win is what he is going to be doing. I have an idea of what that is going to be, but I have to not be worried about what he’s going to do. I have to get to my stuff, and I should be fine.”
If Iowa does pick up a victory tonight, it will be Brands’ 200th win of his career. Brands has a record of 199-37-1 in his 13 years as a college head coach with a 91.3 winning percentage in his time at Iowa.
Iowa will have to work a bit harder in the coming weeks, as the schedule picks up. After South Dakota State, Iowa has Iowa State at home, followed by the Midlands Championships in Evanston, Illinois.
“I’m looking forward to Friday. That’s the next dual,” Meyer said. “Then after Friday, then we look forward to Iowa State the next weekend. The season’s here. We’re getting right into the thick of things: ranked opponents, ranked guys. It’s fun. This is a fun part of the year.”
