Nationals Preview

It’s time. The NCAA National Wrestling Championships begin tomorrow at 11 AM in Kansas City, Missouri. The biggest tournament of the year. A great time of the year to be a wrestling fan.

This has been a unique season for Iowa Wrestling with a few new twists and turns. It all comes down to three days of combat in the T-Mobile Center in the heartland of Kansas City.

The Iowa Hawkeyes have nine wrestlers that qualified from an always rugged Big Ten Tournament. Iowa is ranked #2 according to InterMat, WIN, Flo and NWCA. In each of the rankings Iowa was ranked only a few points ahead of at least two other teams.

Considering the seeds, overall I believe Iowa has really good draws. As a Hawkeye fan you cannot ask for more than what we have for a draw at 125,141,157,165, and 174. 197 did us no favors for a draw but that’s the way it is.

I feel confident that Iowa will outperform their seeds at Nationals and that will result in a second place finish.

If I had to pick a dark horse to finish above their seed then I am going with #10 seed Jared Franek at 157. Each match will be tough including in the first round. I just see Franek winning the close ones and getting his hand raised quite often. I like his path to the finals.

I am trying to only focus on the First Round tomorrow. 9-0 would be a great start to the tournament. To echo the old saying…One match at a time.

Every year at Nationals there are upsets in the first round on Thursday and the quarterfinals on Friday. Making weight early in the morning is a tough road for some wrestlers and that is a big contributing factor to those upsets.

That scenario could benefit the Hawks in the always important quarterfinals at 11 AM on Friday morning.

I am always saying on this blog that Iowa Wrestling is my entertainment. I plan on being entertained over the course of this tournament.

Let’s get ‘em in the middle.