Iowa City Press-Citizen-USA TODAY NETWORK
3/2: The Big Ten official pre-seeds were released after this article was published. For this weight, in order, they are: Eierman (IA), Lee (PSU), Rivera (RU), Red (NE), Duncan (ILL), Polanco (MN), D’Emilio (OSU), Mattin (MI), Filius (PU), Rooks (IU), Bertoni (MD), Santos (MSU), Valdiviez (NW), Dentino (UW)
The Big Ten will send its champion along with the next seven wrestlers at 141 pounds into the NCAAs, and others will have a shot at one of six remaining at-large bids. The Big Ten is incredibly strong at this weight, with three of the top five in the Intermat poll, and four of the top five in the National Wrestling Coaches Association coaches ranking. It includes three unbeaten wrestlers in #1 Jaydin Eierman, #2 Nick Lee, and #4 Sebastian Rivera. They are listed in what I expect to be their seeding order.
Iowa is still really, really good and 4 more college wrestling lessons learned
Hawkeye heroes claim 23 wrestling team titles
Share
The consistent storyline thus far in the 2021 wrestling season is the dominance of the Iowa Hawkeyes. This team further separated itself from the rest of the Big Ten conference over the weekend with a dominating 36-6 win over No. 9 Illinois.
Questions, however, still remain around how much of a threat Penn State will be to an Iowa title and how many All-Americans Iowa can put on the podium.
N.C. State, Oklahoma State and Nebraska also will attempt to put themselves in position to battle for a team trophy in March.
No. 3 Penn State wrestling (2-0) squared off against Northwestern Saturday afternoon in its second match of a tri-meet in Evanston, Illinois.
Following a generally loppy performance against Indiana earlier in the day, the Nittany Lions returned to the mat with a vengeance. Thanks to dominant performances from Nick Lee, Roman Bravo-Young, and Aaron Brooks, Cael Sanderson and his squad earned their second victory of the day, 29-13.
How It Happened
Penn State’s dual against Northwestern started off at 125 lbs., where the Nittany Lions forfeited after having no 125-pounders cleared to wrestle.
At 133 lbs., No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young got things started against Dylan Utterback from Northwestern. Utterback displayed some impressive defense early in the first period but Bravo-Young turned up the pace and scored five takedowns in the last minute to give himself a 10-4 lead. Bravo-Young continued the pace in the second and earned a pinfall victory early in the period. The pin erased Northw
Wrestling: ‘Cats split duals against Maryland, Nebraska
Cannon and Thomas remain dominant against Big Ten foes.
Share this story
Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images
Continuing its Big Ten road trip Saturday, No. 25 Northwestern (1-2) traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska, for a double-header against Maryland (0-5) and the No. 7 Cornhuskers (3-1). With a couple of typical starters returning to the lineup, the ‘Cats delivered more promising results compared to their season opener against Purdue and picked up their first win of the season against the Terrapins.
NU came out of the gate hot against Maryland, picking up victories in three of its first four matches. Returning to the mat at 125 in place of former All-American Michael DeAugustino, junior Matt Vinci bounced back from last week’s loss with a solid 8-5 decision over Zach Spence. Immediately after, 18th-ranked Chris Cannon earned his second victory of the season with a pin against Jackson Cockrell. After a hard-fought loss at
Wrestling: Huskers Impressive in Triangular
Share this story
Jon Johnston / CORN NATION
The No. 7 Nebraska wrestling team bounced back from its loss to No. 1 Iowa with two dual wins over the weekend to improve to 3-1 on the season. The Huskers downed No. 25 Northwestern 26-10 before blanking Maryland 38-0 Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.
Match-By-Match Breakdown
125 pounds
Nebraska did an amazing job in bringing in No. 8 Liam Cronin (3-1) as a graduate transfer from Indiana this season. He’s proven to be an upgrade and has been one of the best in the Big Ten this season at 125.
Cronin started things off with a 15-5 major decision victory over Northwestern’s Matt Vinci that saw the Husker notch six takedowns. He then finished his day with a first-period pinfall over Maryland’s Noah Spence.