Arguably, one of the biggest matches of the year will take place on Friday night when Penn State travels to Ohio State to take on the Buckeyes in St. John Arena. These two programs have combined to win the last eight NCAA team titles. Penn State owns seven titles, and Ohio State won the team title in 2015.
Friday
No. 11 Virginia Tech at No. 16 North Carolina (6 p.m.)
Coach Robie and company ride their eight-match win streak into Chapel Hill to take on coach Scott's No. 16-ranked Tar Heels in an ACC dual meet.
The 8-2 Hokies dropped their first two dual meets to Missouri and Northwestern but have since tallied eight straight wins, including a pair of victories over conference opponents, improving to 2-0 in the ACC.
The Tar Heels are 10-5 this season but have won four out of their last five dual meets. They are also 2-0 in the ACC after grabbing wins against No. 17 Pittsburgh and No. 21 Virginia.
The lone ranked matchup in this dual meet comes at 184 pounds as No. 4 Zack Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) takes on No. 14 Chip Ness (North Carolina). These two returning All-Americans met in last season's dual meet, with Zavatsky narrowly winning 4-3.
Northwestern at Michigan State (7 p.m.)
Though it's not a ranked dual meet matchup, the 125-pound bout features two wrestlers in Sebastian Rivera and RayVon Foley who are ranked inside the top 10 and combine for a 45-1 record.
Rivera is 19-0 on the season and has a win over Iowa's returning NCAA champion Spencer Lee, while Foley is 26-1 and has only lost to Oklahoma State's fourth-ranked Nick Piccininni. That loss came in the finals of the Reno Tournament of Champions.
Nebraska's David Jensen celebrates after beating Iowa's Sam Stoll (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)No. 7 Minnesota at No. 10 Nebraska (8 p.m.)
The seventh-ranked Gophers are set to bring a four-match win streak to the Devaney Center to take on the tenth-ranked Cornhuskers, who are looking to bounce back after falling to the fourth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes last weekend.
There will be five ranked matchups in this dual meet, with two of those matches featuring wrestlers who sit inside the top 10. Those matches will come at 157 pounds and heavyweight.
At 157 pounds, No. 2 Tyler Berger (Nebraska) will meet No. 8 Steve Bleise (Minnesota) for the first time in college. Berger is 19-2 this season and has won three straight matches after falling to top-ranked Jason Nolf of Penn State. Bleise is 13-3 this season, but two of those losses came in his last five matches.
At heavyweight, top-ranked Gopher Gable Steveson will lace up against No. 10 David Jensen. Steveson has a perfect 25-0 record this season and has scored bonus points in four of this last five matches.
Jensen, who is coming off a win over Iowa's former No. 1-ranked Sam Stoll, is 14-2 and has grabbed a trio of wins after dropping back-to-back matches to No. 9 Youssif Hemida (Maryland) and No. 3 Anthony Cassar (Penn State).
Other ranked matchups:
125: No. 6 Sean Russell (Minnesota) vs. No. 16 Zeke Moisey (Nebraska)
141: No. 10 Mitchell McKee (Minnesota) vs. No. 19 Chad Red (Nebraska)
174: No. 12 Devin Skatzka (Minnesota) vs. No. 9 Mikey Labriola (Nebraska)
No. 1 Penn State at No. 5 Ohio State (8:30 p.m.)
The top-ranked Nittany Lions invade St. John Arena for a Big Ten clash when they take on Coach Ryan's fifth-ranked Buckeyes.
Penn State owns a perfect 10-0 record this season and is coming off a 25-11 win against the fourth-ranked Michigan Wolverines, who defeated the Buckeyes 19-17 two weeks ago.
Last weekend, Penn State and Michigan combined to have five of the nation's top-ranked wrestlers competing in one dual meet. That will be the case again this weekend when Penn State throws out their quartet of national champions and top-ranked wrestlers Jason Nolf (157), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Mark Hall (174), and Bo Nickel (197), while Ohio State sends out their NCAA champion and top-ranked Myles Martin (184).
If Penn State's Roman Bravo-Young wrestles at 133 pounds, this dual will pit ranked wrestlers against each other in nine of 10 weight classes and will have a pair of top-two showdowns at 184 pounds and 197 pounds respectively.
At 184 pounds, top-ranked Martin (Ohio State), who is 13-0, will wrestle second-ranked Shakur Rasheed (Penn State), who is 16-0.
At 197 pounds, No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State), who holds an 18-0 record, will take on No. 2 Kollin Moore (Ohio State), who owns a 13-0 record.
Other ranked matchups:
133: No. 15 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)* vs. No. 6 Luke Pletcher (Ohio State)
141: No. 5 Nick Lee (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Joey McKenna (Ohio State)
149: No. 11 Brady Berge (Penn State) vs. No. 3 Micah Jordan (Ohio State)
157: No. 1 Jason Nolf (Penn State) vs. No. 6 Ke-Shawn Hayes (Ohio State)
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) vs. No. 12 Te'Shan Campbell (Ohio State)
174: No. 1 Mark Hall (Penn State) vs. No. 18 Ethan Smith
285: No. 3 Anthony Cassar (Penn State) vs. No. 19 Chase Singletary (Ohio State)
*Roman Bravo-Young did not compete last weekend and may not wrestle again this weekend.
Saturday
No. 19 Princeton at No. 9 Cornell (1 p.m.)
Coach Ayres and the Princeton Tigers travel to Ithaca (N.Y.) to scrap with Coach Koll's ninth-ranked Cornell Big Red.
The Tigers, who are 6-5 on the season, are looking to rebound after falling to in-state rival No. 14 Rutgers 19-18, while the Big Red are 9-2 and riding a four-match win streak.
The top matchup in this dual meet comes at 125 pounds where the pair of freshmen, No. 10 Patrick Glory (Princeton) and No. 11 Vito Arujau (Cornell), square off against each other.
Glory, who has lost twice this season to Iowa's No. 2 ranked Spencer Lee and once to Oklahoma State's No. 4 ranked Nick Piccininni, is 19-3 on the season, while Arujau, is 18-1 on the season, and has won 15 straight matches since falling to teammate Chas Tucker at the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open.
The 197-pound bout will also feature a pair of ranked wrestlers. Third-ranked Patrick Brucki (Princeton), who owns a perfect 22-0 record, will wrestle No. 14 Ben Honis (Cornell).
Sunday
No. 17 Pittsburgh at No. 8 North Carolina State (1 p.m.)
Coach Gavin and his Pitt Panthers make the trip to Raleigh to take on the No. 8 Wolfpack with hopes of getting back on track after dropping their last three duals.
The Panthers started the season 8-0, but have since dropped matches to No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 11 Virginia Tech and No. 16 North Carolina.
The Wolfpack have a 15-2 record and have only lost to No. 6 Ohio State and No. 13 Wyoming.
The featured matchup of the dual meet will take place at 133 pounds if NC State's seventh-ranked returning All-American Tariq Wilson is healthy enough to wrestle against Pittsburgh's third-ranked Micky Phillippi.
Wilson is 12-2 on the season, but suffered an injury while wrestling against Ohio State's Luke Pletcher. Phillippi is 14-2 this season and got back to his winning ways after dropping his match against Virginia Tech's Korbin Myers two weeks ago. His other loss came in late November to Rutgers' No. 4-ranked Nick Suriano.
Ranked matchups:
157: No. 11 Taleb Rahmani Pittsburgh vs. No. 4 Hayden Hidlay (NC State)
184: No. 13 Nino Bonaccorsi Pittsburgh vs. No. 3 Nick Reenan (NC State)
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