[Herky] Wrestling

[Jeff Napier]

Iowa won two dual meets this weekend against IL and NW.  As we approach the end of January I thought I would give my impressions on where the team is right now. Obviously there is a lot of time left and so things can change but on the whole I have to say I am pretty bearish at this point.

125- Lee (ranked #2) did not wrestle today against Rivera who beat him at the Midlands and is now ranked #1. Not real reason given by Brands for Lee not wrestling.  Lee is not wrestling at the high level we expect.  The best I can guess at from what I have read is that he might have had some type of sickness earlier in the season and it is going to take some time for him to get to full speed and strength.  I hope this is the case and not that Rivera has caught up to him or passed him.

133 - DeSanto has been getting better and better. He beat Suriano last week and has shown that he is a top 5 type guy.  The main concern for him has been keeping his composure. At the end of a couple of matches his actions have cost them team points.  Depending on who you listen to it was terrible or was borderline bad.

141 - Murin still seems like a 15-20 type guy.  Not bad for a FR wrestling his first season but I thought after his freestyle  season last summer that he might be a guy who might be close to an AA type.

149 - Lugo has gotten better since his poor start but I am still not seeing a guy who some thought was a top 5 guy.  I am thinking fringe AA at best right now.

157 - Young has  gone from a top 15-20 guy to #5.  But the last few matches have not looked good and he lost to the #13 guy on Friday.  This seems to be the right weight for him and over all I like the progress he has made but I would say he is still a fringe AA guy right now.

165 - Marinelli has been excellent so far this year.  He is undefeated and has been hammering people.  He is ranked #2 right now and that is right where he should be.

174 -  With Kemmerer down for the season the expectations are pretty low for this weight. I had some hope with Bowman going down to 174 but he has not shown much so far and it appears he is injured at the moment.  They are currently down to Keegan Shaw who wrestled at 157 a month ago.  I have to say that I have been impressed with what he did this weekend.

184 - Wilcke has been okay but again seems to be a top 15 type guy.

197 -  I really had high expectations for Warner. While he is ranked #5 he has not looked like the guy I saw this summer when making a World team.  He does not show the same energy and he seems really average on his feet.  If there is anyone on this team who can make a big jump in the next couple of months I hope it is Warner.

285 - Stoll has only wrestled 6 time this year as he recovers from his shooting accident.   I think he needs 10 matches to qualify his spot for the NCAA auto qualifier for the BT.   I doubt we see him in many more matches than that.  He has looked better than I thought he would  but I think hopes of seeing him in the finals are probably not realistic.

Coming into the season I thought Iowa was probably the second best team in the country. With Kemmerer out and the performance of the team so far I think we are probably a 4-5 type team.  There is a long way to go and I am hopeful that if they can get every one healthy they can make the jump to  challenging for second. I don't see anyone overtaking PSU for first.
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