#1 MINNESOTA (18-1, 6-0) at #9 WISCONSIN (18-2, 4-2)
Location: Madison, Wis.
Arena: UW Field House (10,300)
Date: Friday, Feb. 16, 2007
Time: 7 p.m. (CST)
Live Webcast: Live audio will be available on Wisconsin's website at www.uwbadgers.com.
#1 MINNESOTA (18-1, 6-0) at #10 IOWA (13-4, 4-2)
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Arena: Carver-Hawkeye Arena (15,500)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007
Time: 6 p.m. (CST)
Live Results: Live results will be available through Iowa's website at www.hawkeyesports.com. Results will be updated after each weight class.
GOPHER WRESTLING NOTEBOOK
THE SERIES VS. WISCONSIN
Minnesota leads the all-time series against Wisconsin, 53-30-1. The Golden Gophers snapped a two-meet losing skid against the Badgers with a 26-12 victory last year in Minneapolis. Head coach J Robinson holds a 15-9 record against Wisconsin during his career. In the 15 wins, Minnesota has won by an average of 21 points.
WHERE DID THESE GUYS COME FROM?
Wisconsin has not traditionally been a Big Ten power in wrestling, but the Badgers have forced the rest of the nation to take notice with an 18-2 record so far this season. After entering the season unranked, the Badgers have climbed to as high as No. 7 in the USA Today/InterMat/NWCA coaches' poll, their highest ranking in five years. The highlight of Wisconsin's season was a 21-14 victory over Iowa on Jan. 27, its first win over the Hawkeyes in 42 years.
STORIED RIVALRY
Iowa leads the all-time series against Minnesota by a 62-23-1 margin. The Hawkeyes have dominated throughout much of the history of the rivalry, holding a winning record in each decade except the 1940s (MN 6-4) and from 2000 to the present (MN 5-4). Minnesota's longest win streak was six meets from 1936 to 1942, while the Hawkeyes had a streak of 19 straight victories over the Gophers during a 20-year span from 1974 to 1994. From the 1973-74 season to 1996-97, Iowa won 23 of the 24 meetings between the two schools.
Minnesota has turned the corner against the Hawkeyes in the last decade, however, with eight wins in the last 13 meetings. The turning point in the series came in the finals of the National Duals at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Jan. 18, 1998. The Gophers trailed 17-12 entering the heavyweight bout before seventh-ranked Shelton Benjamin pinned eighth-ranked Wes Hand in 2:16. With the 18-17 victory, Minnesota became just the second team in 16 years to beat Iowa in Carver-Hawkeye.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Golden Gophers' 25-9 win over Iowa last season was their biggest win over the Hawkeyes since a 23-6 victory in 1941.
CLASS OF THE CONFERENCE
Since snapping Iowa's run of 25 consecutive conference titles at the 1999 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Golden Gophers have claimed five of the last eight Big Ten Conference crowns to overtake the Hawkeyes as the class of the conference.
The Golden Gophers have finished either first or second at the Big Ten Championships in eight straight seasons and have placed in the top three each of the past 10 years.
Minnesota has had a Big Ten-best 23 individual Big Ten Champions since 1999, including four last season. Dustin Schlatter, C.P. Schlatter, Roger Kish and Cole Konrad all claimed individual titles last year.
SEEKING PERFECTION
With a 6-0 start to the Big Ten season, Minnesota hopes to complete a perfect season in Big Ten dual meets for the fourth time in Head Coach J Robinson's tenure. The last time the Gophers went undefeated in the conference was 2002 (8-0) before they went on to claim their second straight NCAA Championship. The Gophers also finished a perfect 8-0 during their first national title run in 2001. Robinson guided Minnesota to its first undefeated Big Ten season since 1957 when he led the Gophers to a 9-0 conference record in 1999.
WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
Following a season-opening loss to Hofstra at the Northeast Duals, Minnesota has rattled off 18 straight dual meet wins, currently tied for the fourth longest winning streak in school history. The Gopher will look to extend that streak this weekend against Wisconsin and Iowa.
Minnesota began the 2005-06 season with 19 straight victories before suffering their only loss of the season at Michigan on Feb. 17. The 19-match winning streak stands as the third-longest in school history. Here is a look at the longest winning streaks in school history:
Longest Winning Streaks in School History
1. 33 (Jan. 11, 2001 - Nov. 15, 2002)
2. 23 (Jan. 22, 1999 - Jan. 23, 2000)
3. 19 (Dec. 2, 2005 - Feb. 17, 2006)
4. 18 (Nov. 25, 2006 - current)
....18 (Feb. 2, 1997 - Jan. 18, 1998)
....18 (Dec. 12, 1993 - Feb. 19, 1994)
20 WINS WITHIN REACH
With two wins this weekend, Minnesota would reach 20 dual meet wins in a season for just the fifth time in school history and fourth time under Head Coach J Robinson. The Golden Gophers posted 20 wins last season for the first time since the 1993-94 team went 20-2. Minnesota's other 20 win seasons came in 1964-65 (20-5) and 1992-93 (21-3-1).
The Golden Gophers have reached double digit wins in 14 of the last 15 years. In 2004-05, the Golden Gophers finished 9-9.
A CUT ABOVE THE REST
Minnesota, Oklahoma State and Iowa have combined to win the last 17 NCAA Championships. The Golden Gophers (2001-02) and Cowboys (2003-06) have won the last six titles. The last team outside of those three to win a national title was Arizona State in 1988.
MACK RETURNS HOME
Junior Mack Reiter returns to his home state this weekend to face the team he idolized growing up. The first four-time Iowa state champion to wrestle for Minnesota, Reiter was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year following his individual title in 2005 and has earned All-America honors in both of his first two years as a starter. After missing the first three months of the season due to a knee injury, Reiter returned to the starting lineup two weeks ago and is currently ranked ninth in the nation at 133 pounds.
STREAKY GOPHERS
Senior heavyweight Cole Konrad is currently riding the second-longest winning streak in the nation at 65 consecutive matches and will be going for numbers 66 and 67 this weekend. Each win Konrad gets the remainder of the season extends his school-record winning streak. He broke Tim Hartung's school record of 58 consecutive victories with his win against Penn State on Sunday, Jan. 21.
Sophomore Dustin Schlatter is not far behind Konrad with 58 straight victories of his own, which currently ranks as the third-longest streak in school history.
Konrad's and Schlatter's streaks currently rank second and third in the nation, respectively, behind only Missouri's Ben Askren, who has won 77 in a row. Junior Manuel Rivera boasts the nation's fifth-longest winning streak at 33 consecutive matches. Here is a look at the longest active winning streaks in Division I wrestling:
Streak....Wrestler
77...........Ben Askren (Missouri, 174)
65...........Cole Konrad (Minnesota, Hwt)
58...........Dustin Schlatter (Minnesota, 149)
50...........Johny Hendricks (Oklahoma State, 165)
33...........Manuel Rivera (Minnesota, 141)
26...........Sam Hazewinkel (Oklahoma, 125)
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