OSU Wrestling: Five Questions for the Northern Iowa Dual

OSU has a tough road test this weekend with two of the Big 12’s best in Northern Iowa and Iowa State. I’m going to preview Northern Iowa here with five storylines to follow in the dual.

1. Can OSU keep it close with UNI’s heavy hitters?

When you analyze this dual, the way you could feasibly see UNI pulling the upset is if it snags an upset or two and gets bonus in the matches where it is heavily favored. On paper they should have a shot at bonus at 74, 84, and 285. If the Cowboys can keep these three tight it’ll be really difficult for UNI to win. If UNI comes in and blows OSU out in all three that could set the tone for them to have a shot.

2. Does UNI pull any upsets?

The other potential piece of the equation for OSU to get beat here is for them to give up any upsets. At 125, 157, and 165, OSU will be favored heavily and have to win those. At 149 and 197 they should expect to win as well and 133 and 141 are close to toss-ups. The Cowboys will need to win where they’re supposed to win.

3. Home Mat Advantage?

UNI is a tough environment to wrestle in. It’s going to be a little different than what we usually see as they won’t be in the West Gym, but I expect their fans to be pretty fired up for this one. Add in the travel factor and another dual for the Cowboys less than 24 hours later, this could take a toll on the Cowboys

4. Can Cowboys maintain momentum?

OSU wrestled really well vs. Pitt last weekend and had a pretty good dual vs. WVU the day before. In my opinion it was the best we’ve seen the Cowboys this year. if they roll into this weekend and keep that momentum in Iowa then the Cowboys will have no issues. If they lose some steam from what we saw last weekend it might be tighter than expected.

5. Will weight be a factor?

OSU wrestles UNI on Saturday at 7 PM then will travel to Ames for a dual with Iowa State on Sunday at 2 PM. That means the Cowboys will weigh-in at 6 PM, wrestle the dual, then have travel, rest, etc… before they weigh-in again at 1 PM on Sunday. That means they really won’t be able to get comfortable with what they eat/drink on Saturday to replenish as they’ll have a really limited window of time to cut it again before the weigh-in on Sunday. I expect there may be some guys that will be hurting here and it could impact what the Cowboys do.

Ultimately it should be a pretty solid dual. This will be streamed live on FloWrestling.