The 4-3 Iowa State Cyclones return to the mat on Wednesday January 8th to take on #17 West Virginia in Morgantown West Virginia. The dual features 16 ranked wrestlers, with 5 total head to head ranked matches. The match-up of the night takes place at 149 as its a battle of two top wrestlers.
History: Iowa State leads the series with 21 wins to 2 losses. Included in that run is a 6 match win streak enjoyed by the Cyclones.
Keys To Victory: Iowa State is favored in 7 of the 10 matches, They need to win those and hopefully pick up a win at 174 as well. West Virginia needs to win the 3 matches that favor them and possibly pickup bonus points at 141, and 165.
125 Kysen Terukina #16 vs Jace Schafer
133 Osmany Diversent or Evan Frost #5 vs Jett Strickenberger #18
141 Jacob Frost or Anthony Ecemendia vs Jordan Titus #15
149 Carter Fousek or Anthony Ecemendia or Panerio Johnson vs Ty Watters #3 or Sam Hillegas
157 Cody Chittum #7 vs Sasha Gavronsky
165 MJ Gaitan vs Peyton Hall #3
174 Aiden Riggins vs Brody Conley #23
184 Evan Bockman #14 vs Dennis Robin #24
197 Christian Carroll vs Austin Cooley or Rune Lawrence
285 Daniel Herrera or Yonger Bastida #4 vs Michael Wolfgram
Conclusion: I have Iowa State taking 7 of the 10 bouts, and picking up bonus points at 157. Taking a 23-10 victory over a tough West Virginia team. Lots of unknowns still exist for Iowa State, they are still dealing with injuries and a few wrestlers are shifting weight classes. It will be interesting to see how the dual takes shape.