Myles Martin will face Max Dean in a rematch from the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The dual season wraps up and comes to an end with six ranked matchups, headlined by a pair of top-10 showdowns. The first top-10 match will take place on Friday night when the sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes take on the seventh-ranked Cornell Big Red. The second top-10 match will happen on Sunday afternoon when the third-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes square off against the second-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Thursday
No. 11 Iowa State at No. 18 Northern Iowa (8 p.m.)
Coach Kevin Dresser brings his 10-2 Cyclones into Cedar Falls, Iowa, with an opportunity to match the program's most wins since the 2014-15 season when Iowa State went 11-2.
They'll take on a 6-5 Northern Iowa Panther team that has won four of their last five duals, with their only loss coming to the hands of the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys who are 14-0 this season.
Ranked matchups:
141: No. 11 Ian Parker (Iowa State) vs. No. 7 Josh Alber (Northern Iowa)
149: No. 14 Jarrett Degen (Iowa State) vs. No. 10 Max Thomsen (Northern Iowa)
Friday
No. 6 Ohio State at No. 7 Cornell (6:30 p.m.)
Coach Tom Ryan's sixth-ranked Buckeyes will make the road trip to Ithaca, New York's Friedman Wrestling Center to wrestle coach Koll's seventh-ranked Cornell Big Red.
The Buckeyes won back-to-back duals against Purdue and Nebraska after getting thumped by Penn State, and have an 11-2 record, while Cornell is 13-2 and have won eight straight duals after falling to Missouri and Lehigh.
This dual meet features six top-20 matches, with three of those being top-10 showdowns, but the most significant match comes at 141 pounds.
At 141 pounds, for the first time in their careers, Cornell's defending NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis will wrestle Ohio State's defending Big Ten champion Joey McKenna.
Diakomihalis is the top-ranked 141-pounder in the nation and has a perfect 17-0 record this season, while McKenna, the third-ranked wrestler in the country, is 16-1 this season. McKenna's only loss came to Penn State's Nick Lee.
Other ranked matchups:
125: No. 17 Malik Heinselman (Ohio State) vs. No. 8 Vito Arujau (Cornell)
133: No. 6 Luke Pletcher (Ohio State) vs. No. 13 Chas Tucker (Cornell)
174: No. 19 Ethan Smith (Ohio State) vs. No. 14 Brandon Womack (Cornell)
184: No. 1 Myles Martin (Ohio State) vs. No. 7 Max Dean (Cornell)
197: No. 2 Kollin Moore (Ohio State) vs. No. 7 Ben Honis (Cornell)
No. 10 North Carolina State at No. 14 Virginia Tech (7 p.m.)
The top two ACC teams from last season will clash on Saturday when the defending ACC champion North Carolina State Wolfpack head into Blacksburg, Virginia, to take on Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech has won nine of the last 10 duals against the Wolfpack, but Coach Pat Pop and company grabbed the 19-15 win last season and are looking to win back-to-back duals for the first time since the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Ranked matchups:
133: No. 7 Tariq Wilson (NC State) vs. No. 14 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech)
184: No. 3 Nick Reenan (NC State) vs. No. 5 Zack Zavatsky (Virginia Tech)
Other ranked dual:
No. 15 Pittsburgh at No. 21 Virginia (7 p.m.)
Sunday
No. 3 Iowa at No. 2 Oklahoma State (3 p.m.)
The premier dual of the weekend takes place on Sunday when two of the most storied programs in college wrestling, second-ranked Oklahoma State and third-ranked Iowa collide in historic Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla.
Both teams hold an undefeated 14-0 record into this dual and are coming off wins over top-20 opponents.
The Cowboys are coming off a 19-15 win against a fifth-ranked Missouri squad that was riding a 35-dual win streak, and the Hawkeyes are coming off a 35-2 win against the No. 17-ranked Wisconsin Badgers.
There are eight ranked matches in this dual, but without question, the match that everyone will be paying attention to will be at 133 when second-ranked No. 2 Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) takes on third-ranked Austin DeSanto. (Iowa).
The wrestlers bring a combined 41-2 record into Sunday's match. Fix is 25-1 and has won five consecutive matches since Pittsburgh's fifth-ranked Micky Phillippi handed him his first career loss. Phillippi won that match, 3-1.
DeSanto is 16-1 this season and has reeled off 12 straight wins after falling to Iowa State's ninth-ranked Austin Gomez. Gomez won that match 14-9.
Sunday's match will be the first time in their careers that these two youngsters have met.
Other ranked matchups:
125: No. 2 Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. No. 4 Nick Piccininni (Oklahoma State)
141: No. 16 Max Murin (Iowa) vs. No. 14 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State)
149: No. 12 Pat Lugo (Iowa) vs. No. 14 Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma State)
165: No. 2 Alex Marinelli (Iowa) vs. No. 10 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State)
184: No. 12 Cash Wilcke (Iowa) vs. No. 9 Jacobe Smith (Oklahoma State)
197: No. 4 Jacob Warner (Iowa) vs. No. 6 Preston Weigel (Oklahoma State)
285: No. 8 Sam Stoll (Iowa) vs. No. 2 Derek White (Oklahoma State)
No. 5 Missouri at No. 11 Iowa State (6 p.m.)
Coach Brian Smith's Missouri squad will be looking to bounce back from a loss for the first time in 35 duals when the fifth-ranked Tigers head to Ames, Iowa to scrap against coach Dresser's 11th-ranked Iowa State Cyclones.
Sunday's dual will be the first time these two teams have squared off since the 2011-12 season, when the Tigers welcomed the Cyclones into Columbia and won seven of ten matches and grabbed the 31-10 victory.
The Tigers are 15-1 this season and are trying to rebound after Oklahoma State snapped their 35-match dual win streak last weekend.
The Cyclones are 10-2 but have won nine of their last 10 duals, with that only loss coming to the hands of the second-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys.
There will be a quartet of ranked matches in this dual and one of the biggest matches to keep an eye on is the top-10 matchup at 133 pounds, where No. 9 Austin Gomez (ISU) will wrestle No. 10 John Erneste (Missouri).
Gomez is 16-3 this season and has grabbed wins over Iowa's No. 3 DeSanto and Penn State's No.11 Roman Bravo-Young. Of his three losses, two came against second-ranked Fix. His third loss was to Rider's Anthony Cefolo.
Erneste, who is 14-4 on the season, also lost to Fix. In addition to losing to Fix, Erneste fell to two NCAA runner-ups in Rutgers' Nick Suriano and Minnesota's Ethan Lizak. His fourth loss was to Lehigh's unranked Brandon Paetzell.
Other ranked matchups:
141: No. 4 Jaydin Eierman (Missouri) vs. No. 11 Ian Parker (Iowa State)
149: No. 5 Brock Mauller (Missouri) vs. No. 14 Jarrett Degen (Iowa State)
184: No. 15 Dylan Wisman (Missouri) vs. No. 17 Samuel Colbray (Iowa State)
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