Nick Suriano of Rutgers is expected to face Daton Fix of Oklahoma State on Sunday (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The dual meet season is upon us and the wrestling world will be treated to nine top-25 duals from Friday to Sunday, with the potential to see a few additional ranked match-ups depending on how the Virginia Duals play out in Hampton, Va.
There will be a pair of top-25 duals on Friday, four top-25 duals on Saturday, and three top-25 duals on Sunday.
Friday
Virginia Duals (9 a.m.)
The 39th annual Virginia Duals return to the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, and features three teams ranked inside the top-25: No. 13 Virginia Tech, No. 14 Lock Haven and No. 16 Arizona State.
If the seeds hold, Arizona State will meet Lock Haven in the semifinals for an opportunity to take on the winner of Virginia Tech and Old Dominion in Saturday night's finals.
No. 9 Wisconsin at No. 19 Rutgers (7 p.m.)
Coach Chris Bono and the ninth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers head to Piscataway, New Jersey, for their first dual in over a month when they take on coach Scott Goodale's No. 19 Scarlet Knights.
Both teams are looking to bounce back after dropping their last duals.
Wisconsin (1-1 in the Big Ten, 6-1 overall) is looking to rebound after falling to No. 3 Ohio State 23-13 on Dec. 9. Rutgers is coming off a 22-15 loss to No. 7 Minnesota.
Though this dual has five wrestlers currently sitting inside the top 10 and has at least one ranked wrestler in eight of the ten weights, there are no projected top-20 match-ups.
Other ranked wrestlers in action:
125: No. 15 Connor Brown (Wisconsin)
133: No. 3 Nick Suriano (Rutgers)
149: No. 2 Anthony Ashnault (Rutgers)
157: No. 15 John Van Brill (Rutgers)
165: No. 3 Evan Wick (Wisconsin)
174: No. 10 Ryan Christensen (Wisconsin)
184: No. 13 Nick Gravina (Rutgers)
285: No. 9 Trent Hillger (Wisconsin)
No. 1 Penn State at Northwestern (8 p.m.)
The top-ranked Nittany Lions head to Evanston, Illinois, to take on the Northwestern Wildcats. The premier matchup of the dual meet is at 157 pounds where Penn State's two-time NCAA champion Jason Nolf will wrestle Northwestern's third-ranked Ryan Deakin.
Nolf is 13-0 on the season and has scored bonus points in every match. He has nine falls, three major decisions, and one tech-fall.
His opponent, Ryan Deakin, is 16-1 on the season and is looking to bounce back after a 6-3 loss to Nebraska's second-ranked Tyler Berger.
Other ranked dual:
No. 15 North Carolina at No. 25 Princeton (7 p.m.)
Saturday
No. 2 Oklahoma State at No. 25 Princeton (1 p.m.)
The second-ranked Cowboys (5-0 dual record this season) travel east to take on the 3-3 Princeton Tigers. This will be Tigers' second-ranked dual of the weekend after they compete against No. 15 UNC on Friday night.
The featured bout of the match comes at 149 pounds, where Princeton's top-ranked Matt Kolodzik will wrestle Oklahoma State's sixth-ranked Kaden Gfeller.
Both guys are undefeated on the season and are coming off title-winning performances at the Midlands and Southern Scuffle.
Kolodzik won the Midlands with a 3-1 victory over Northern Iowa's No. 8 Max Thomsen, while Gfeller won the Southern Scuffle for the second consecutive year with a 3-2 win over Duke's No. 7 Mitch Finesilver.
Another bout to keep an eye on comes at 125, where Oklahoma State's fourth-ranked Nick Piccininni will wrestle Princeton's 10th-ranked freshman Pat Glory.
Piccininni, an All-American from two seasons ago, remains unbeaten this season (18-0) and has claimed titles at the Reno Tournament of Champions, and most recently, the Southern Scuffle.
Glory is coming off a third-place finished at the prestigious Midlands, and has a 15-2 record, with his only losses coming to Iowa's returning NCAA champion Spencer Lee.
The 197-pound bout will also feature a pair of top-10 wrestlers in Princeton's third-ranked Patrick Brucki and Oklahoma State's 10th-ranked Dakota Geer.
Other ranked wrestlers in action:
133: No. 4 Daton Fix (Oklahoma State)
141: No. 12 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State)
157: No. 18 Andrew Shomers (Oklahoma State)
165: No. 10 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State)
174: No. 5 Joe Smith (Oklahoma State)
184: No. 11 Jacobe Smith (Oklahoma State)
285: No. 3 Derek White (Oklahoma State)
Other ranked duals on Saturday:
No. 20 Pittsburgh at No. 24 North Dakota State (5 p.m.)
No. 18 Illinois at No. 5 Michigan (7 p.m.)
No. 17 Northern Iowa at No. 10 Nebraska (8 p.m.)
Sunday
No. 9 Wisconsin at No. 1 Penn State (1 p.m.)
Coach Chris Bono and the ninth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers head to Happy Valley with hopes of knocking off the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.
There will be 13 wrestlers competing in this dual meet who are ranked in the top 20. More impressive, Penn State will be sending out four wrestlers who have won NCAA titles and currently sit atop of the national rankings.
The premier matchup of the night will be the 165-pound bout, where reigning two-time NCAA champion and No.1 ranked Vincenzo Joseph squares off against Wisconsin's third-ranked returning All-American Evan Wick.
Joseph, the Keystone Classic and Southern Scuffle champion, is a perfect 13-0 this season, while Wick, who was a Midlands runner-up, is 18-1.
The second top-10 match-up comes at 174 [pimds. Mark Hall, Penn State's NCAA champion from two seasons ago, will wrestle Wisconsin's tenth-ranked Ryan Christensen.
The third top-10 bout will be at 285. Penn State's third-ranked Anthony Cassar will take on Wisconsin's ninth-ranked Trent Hillger.
Other ranked wrestlers in action:
125: No. 15 Connor Brown (Wisconsin)
133: No. 14 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
141: No. 4 Nick Lee (Penn State)
149: No. 9 Brady Berge (Penn State)
157: No. 1 Jason Nolf (Penn State)
184: No. 3 Shakur Rasheed (Penn State)
197: No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State)
No. 2 Oklahoma State at No. 19 Rutgers (1 p.m.)
Coach John Smith's Cowboys wrap up their New Jersey stint with a stop in Piscataway, New Jersey, to take on the No. 19 Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Yes, there will be 10 bouts in this dual, but none more critical or intriguing than the top-5 match-up at 133 pounds between Rutgers' returning NCAA finalist and third-ranked Nick Suriano and Oklahoma State's two-time age-level world champion, Daton Fix.
These two bring a combined 30-0 record into this dual. Nick Suriano, who has a career record of 38-1, enters this match with a 13-0 record, with 11 bonus point wins, while Fix is 17-0 on the season.
Aside from the aforementioned undefeated bout at 133, the 149 match between Rutgers' second-ranked Anthony Ashnault and Oklahoma State's sixth-ranked Kaden Gfeller is also another matchup between undefeated wrestlers that could happen.
This is all predicated on how Gfeller does against Princeton's top-ranked Matt Kolodzik in Saturday's dual when the Cowboys wrestle the Tigers.
A third top-20 matchup could happen at 157 pounds when Rutgers' No. 15 John Van Brill takes on Oklahoma's State's No. 18 Andrew Shomers.
At 184 pounds, No. 11 Jacobe Smith will wrestle No. 12 Nick Gravina in the fourth top-20 match-up of the dual meet.
Other ranked wrestlers in action:
125: No. 4 Nick Piccininni (Oklahoma State)
141: No. 12 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State)
165: No. 10 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State)
174: No. 5 Joe Smith (Oklahoma State)
285: No. 3 Derek White (Oklahoma State)
No. 4 Iowa at No. 7 Minnesota (2 p.m.)
Two of the most storied programs in college wrestling clash when the fourth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes invade Minneapolis for a top-10 dual against the seventh-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The Hawkeyes are 1-0 in the conference and 6-0 overall, while the Gophers are 8-1 on the season, with a 1-0 conference record.
There will be six matches that feature wrestlers who are ranked in the top 20 of this week's rankings, but none more anticipated than the heavyweight bout between the top two wrestlers in the country, Iowa's top-ranked Sam Stoll and Minnesota's second-ranked Gable Steveson.
Both are undefeated this season. Stoll is 3-0, while Steveson is 20-0 and claimed titles at the Cliff Keen Invitational, Daktronics Open and Bison Open.
Other top-20 matchups:
125: No. 2 Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. No. 6 Sean Russell (Minnesota)
133: No. 10 Austin DeSanto (Iowa) vs. No. 7 Ethan Lizak (Minnesota)
141: No. 15 Max Murin (Iowa) vs. No. 6 Mitchell McKee (Minnesota)
149: No. 12 Pat Lugo (Iowa) vs. No. 20 Tommy Thorn (Minnesota)
157: No. 5 Kaleb Young (Iowa) vs. No. 9 Steve Bleise (Minnesota)
Other ranked wrestlers in action:
165: No. 2 Alex Marinelli (Iowa)
174: No. 11 Devin Skatzka (Minnesota)
184: No. 14 Cash Wilcke (Iowa)
197: No. 6 Jacob Warner (Iowa)
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