Wrestling Wreport: Minnesota Preview
by Galen on Nov 18, 2011 5:00 PM EST
in Wrestling
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The Minnesota Golden Gophers come to town Sunday for a noon dual. It's a huge early season test for the Wrestling team as a whole and a litmus test for some of Penn State's young wrestlers. Why the Big Ten scheduled such a big match up of wrestling powerhouses so early in the season is beyond me but whatever the reason the scheduling quirk turns out to be a real treat for fans as this should be a barn burner. Penn State has 8 of their wrestlers ranked including 3 that are No. 1 and Minnesota has all 10 of their wrestlers ranked in the top 10.
Match-ups
| Wt. | Penn State | vs | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | #18 Nico Megaludis | #2 Zach Sanders | |
| 133 | Derek Reber | #7 David Thorn | |
| 141 | Sam Sherlock | #10 Nick Dardanes | |
| 149 | #1 Frank Molinaro | #5 Dylan Ness | |
| 157 | #11 Dylan Alton | #9 Jake Deitchler | |
| 165 | #1 David Taylor | #8 Cody Yohn | |
| 174 | #2 Ed Ruth | #9 Logan Storley | |
| 184 | #1 Quentin Wright | #6 Kevin Steinhaus | |
| 197 | #10 Morgan McIntosh | #2 Sonny Yohn | |
| 285 | #4 Cameron Wade | #3 Tony Nelson |
Last Season's results
Last season Penn State and Minnesota battled to an 18-18 tie in Minneapolis. David Taylor and Andrew Long got bonus points to keep Penn State's chances alive. Cody Yohn and Kevin Steinhaus were the guys for Minnesota getting major decisions and yes, if you look at my chart above you'll notice that Steinhaus is at Quentin Wright's weight and yes Q was at that weight last year. So putting two and two together (you get four by the way) Q was majored by Steinhaus. In the all-time series Minnesota leads 12-6-1.
Tough Match-ups
It goes without saying that EVERY weight will be a tough one. Reber and Sherlock will be key for Penn State, they need to stay away from giving up bonus points. I'm not saying that either are a lock to lose but if they do they need to keep it close. Minnesota matches up really well against the Lions if they had a lower ranked wrestler at one of the weights where we have a pinner (Taylor, Ruth, or Wright) I would feel good about our chances. Expecting a pin at any weight is crazy, Penn State will need majors from their big guns (Molinaro, Taylor and Wright) but expecting that may be a stretch. I won't say Quentin is looking for revenge because he already got it twice: once in the Big Ten championship finals (4-3) and again in the Nationals (8-4). I will say, however, that Quentin looks like a man possessed and this is a chance to make a statement.
Predictions
Minnesota takes on #5 Cornell tonight so we'll have a good idea of just how good the Gophers are. This match could go either way. This will be one of those duals that one match could mean the difference. Every match should be hotly contested. Penn State has the clear advantage at 149, 165, 174, and 184. Minnesota has the clear advantage at 133, 141, and 125 (sorry I know some of you believe in Megaludis' super-human ability but he's going up against a seasoned veteran). The other bouts will be toss-ups. It will be interesting to see if Cam keeps up the offense he showed against Bloomsburg. If Alton can get out from bottom I like his chances but that's a big 'if'. The 'X factor" will be the Rec Hall crowd. If Penn State fans 'pack the track' they could be a driving force. It should be a great one.
Penn State 15- Minnesota 14
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149 Minnesota-Cornell
Eifert upsets Ness from Minnesota, gets 10-7 decision, team score now 9-6 Minnesota
Wow Dardanes getting beat is a pretty big surprise. I’m also somewhat surprised Diechtler was able to keep it to 5 0 against Dake. He looked absolutely awful in the finals of the tournament they were in last week.
174: Minnesota-Cornell tied up again 12-12
Cornell’s Billy George beats Minnesota’s Ortiz (?) 6-1. Think Ruth can get bonus points here Sunday if Storley is still out
Wow
194: #1 Simaz picks up late pin on Minnesota’s #2 Sonny Yohn. Absolutely destroyed him. 21-12 Cornell in dual meet, 285 result irrelevant
Wow that’s impressive. Sounds like Minnesota needs to pick it up if they’re gonna win sunday. Either that or their gonna come in really pissed off.
Thanks for the updates.
No problem
Yeah, think Morgan is gonna get a pissed off Sonny Yohn on Sunday. Re: Steinhaus, think Quentin has his number now. Like you said though, it should be a good match. If it weren’t for a late reversal though, Bozak would have gotten a MD
Also
Think flowrestling is archiving the video of this dual meet in high quality, in case you want to watch yourself at some later point
Final 21-16 Cornell
At 285, Nelson majors Cornell’s Bennent 14-4.
Nelson-Wade gonna be a huge swing match on Saturday in all likelihood.
Can't wait to see/hear how
our two true freshman fair against Minnesota’s two #2 ranked veterans.
He completed 17 of individuals 26 passes for 192 lanscaping your yard and two touchdowns - Chan
Predictions (which I typically suck at)
After watching Rob Koll’s boys take it to a tired-looking Gopher squad last night (here’s the match-by-match breakdown)…..my predictions:
125 Sanders DEC Nico; 0-3; I’m still a Nico-watching virgin, but it sounds like these guys have very similar skills. Sanders moved around a good bit, but Perelli looked very average and the final was only 6-3. This could definitely go the other way.
133 Thorn DEC Reber; 0-6; Thorn looked good with a big throw and deck, but was only up 4-2 at the time. Reber’s #1 goal: prevent bonus.
141 Sherlock DEC Dardanes; 3-6; Dardanes was dominating from neutral and up 6-2 when Nevinger chose top for the third, whereupon he turned him twice for nearfalls and won. I say Sam defends better on his feet, wins some scrambles and pulls it out with riding time.
149 Tank MAJ Ness; 7-6; I had forgotten how long those Ness boys are. Gonna be an aesthetically interesting bout of body sizes. But yeah, same thing here, Thorn gas issues gave Eifert late TDs and the win. Tank’s gonna wear this boy out—just needs to score from top.
157 Deitchler DEC Alton; 7-9; There was only one TD, Dake in the first. After which Deitchler got the same treatment Tank did in the final last year. 2 escapes (from 2 Dake down choices—period start and after injury time) and RT later, and it was only 5-0. Deitchler looked like he got better from neutral as the match wore on. You could see how innate Deitchler is with leverage, even if he looked like he was still learning to come back to folkstyle. Dude’s gonna be hard to score on, but we never saw him on top. Gonna be interesting.
165 Taylor MAJ Yohn; 11-9; Bonus is the name of the game for DT again this year and especially so in close duals. With the new stalling rules, he’s just gonna gas him. I was giving the babies a bath, so missed seeing this & 174, but Peppelman hung with him, won the TD battle 1-0, but dropped 5-3 due to a 2nd period nearfall.
174 Ruth WBF Ortiz (Note: superfrosh #9 Logan Storley injury defaulted last weekend in a tourney and is a no-go this weekend); 17-9; cradle’s gonna be in full effect. Ortiz lost to unranked Billy George 6-1 & gave up two TDs & 2mins of RT.
184 Q DEC Steinhaus; 20-9; Get the Bosak really worked him with 2 TD’s, 2 nearfall, an escape & 1:41 RT. Q sounds sharp right now.
197 Yohn DEC MM; 20-12; this is only based on experience, not what I saw against Simaz, who’s clearly on a mission. Damn. Before the big throw & deck, Simaz had taken him down 3times & reversed him w/nearfall points. So, we know Yohn can get scored upon. But yeah, it was Simaz in beast mode, so not sure what MM will be able to do.
HWT Nelson DEC Cam; 20-15 PSU! ; Had forgotten how svelte Nelson is for a heavy. He had 6 TD’s and 3:15 RT for the maj vs. unranked Jace Bennett. As we know, Cam went 2-1 against him last year. I’m going with Nelson cuz I just watched him a few hrs ago and b/c I haven’t seen Cam since the knee injury.
I agree with most
I think Dardenes beats Sherlock, but Alton beats Deitchler. Also think a major or tech is more likely for Ruth. I’m gonna go with 18 15 Penn State.
I also agree Molinaro majors Ness. Tank hasn’t forgotten forgotten about J Robinson’s comments last year trust me.
Didn't know if Logan Storley was going to go this weekend
So in my preview I assumed he was going to be in the lineup. With him out it gives Penn State a slight edge. Ruth will need bonus if not a pin.
I also think Sam has a shot versus Dardanes
But I fear Thorn pins Reber at 133. I would hate to start down 0-9 like Cornell did last night, but that’s just what might happen.
No problem
Flowrestling has all the archived match videos from Minnesota-Cornell here.
Figure you’ll be in Rec Hall for the dual meet tomorrow, Galen? If so, who’s starting a live thread here for those watching on BTN?
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