Rutgers wrestling’s tri-meet could lead to lineup shakeups with postseason closer than you think
Updated Jan 29, 2021;
Rutgers is not ready to blow up its lineup quite yet, but Scott Goodale and his staff are well aware it gets late early out there during this strange pandemic season.
The No. 20 Scarlet Knights have only three weigh-ins and six dual meets left before the postseason, starting with Sunday’s tri-meet against No. 15 Minnesota and No. 19 Purdue at the RAC in Piscataway. Time is of the essence. So while Goodale is not yet ready to make big changes, he admitted fans “probably will see some new faces” on the mat for this weekend’s matches with a little over a month to go before the Big Ten Championships.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A busy weekend is in store for the No. 11 Ohio State wrestling team. It starts by hosting No. 23 Michigan State on Friday evening at the Covelli Center and then the Buckeyes will hop on a bus on Saturday to head for College Park, Md., for a Sunday afternoon dual with the Terrapins.
The match on Friday night against the Spartans will be streamed live on BTN Plus+. Action begins at 4 p.m. with seven extra matches. The teams will then begin the varsity dual at approximately 5:15 followed by three more extra matches. The Spartans enter the match at 1-1 overall but have not wrestling since Jan. 16 as their dual against Penn State last Sunday was postponed.
Ohio State won its first home dual meet of the season, winning 6 of 10 bouts and defeating Rutgers 19-14 Sunday afternoon. The Buckeyes improved to 2-1 on the season, but have plenty to work on as the meet could have easily gone the other with the Scarlet Knights picking up a pair of upsets along the way. Malik Heinselman, Sammy Sasso and Kaleb Romero remain undefeated on the season, each picking up their third win. No. 11 Tate Orndorff secured his first victory after going winless a week ago, and redshirt freshman Dylan D Emilio fell to 0-2 after facing one of the toughest men in the country in his weight class.
Rutgers-Ohio State wrestling preview, prediction: Scarlet Knights have path to breakthrough win
Updated Jan 23, 2021;
Rutgers has another shot at knocking off a member of the Big Ten’s upper echelon, and this may be its best yet.
Scott Goodale calls them the “big four.” While Nebraska has been a top-10 fixture in recent seasons and Michigan looks like a national title threat this year, the conference has been dominated by Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State in the last decade. Those programs have combined to win the last 13 national championships (and Iowa would have been the heavy favorite to make it 14 if not for the coronavirus pandemic last year).
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