A Look at the 2016-2017 Iowa Wrestling Season So Far - Part 2

Earlier this week, I looked at the lighter weights on Iowa's roster and how they are performing so far this season. Now it's on to the big boys, who aren't quite as glamorous in their performances but may be more interesting as there are still a lot of things to be decided, and it's nearly impossible to tell where some of these guys will end up.

165 - Joey Gunther and Alex Marinelli
165 is the biggest question mark for Iowa this season. Gunther has been the starter and manged an undefeated record in the early meets, but the Midlands was his first real challenge, and he failed to impress as he went just 2-2 against less than elite competition. I think he's fairly borderline to make the NCAA Tournament, and if he does, I can't see him managing more than a single win there.

And then there is the true Freshman, super recruit, Alex Marinelli. He was considered the second best recruit in the entire class this year (of course the top recruit went to Penn State), so he entered with some fanfare. Maybe he was overhyped to me, but he's only been fine. At a tournament meant to showcase his talents like the Grand View Open, he only won two of his matches by decision. At the Midlands, he looked better, especially when he controlled Clark Glass of Oklahoma. He got outclassed by Isaiah Martinez of Illinois (no surprise there, I-Mar is awesome) and got pinned by Anthony Valencia of Arizona State. He took fourth place which is a great accomplishment for a true Freshman, but I'm not sure if he's going to be the first Iowa wrestler to go from high school to competing as a true Freshman under Tom Brands. He's already good enough to score points at the NCAAs, and he's only going to get better, but I have trouble seeing him as an All-American, so I'm not sure if it's worth burning that redshirt. We'll likely find out soon with Iowa facing Michigan, Oklahoma State, Penn State, and Ohio State in the month of January. If the redshirt gets pulled, it's going to happen this month.

Also, a special shoutout to Iowa's other true freshman at 165, Kaleb Young, who took fifth at the Midlands. He wrestles a fast pace and really pressures opponents. With Marinelli there, his future is likely at 174, so if he can add good weight, he could make an impact next year.

174 - Alex Meyer
Alex Meyer, like Brandon Sorensen, is going to wrestle close matches. Unfortunately, Meyer is not quite on Sorensen's level of winning those close matches. Stop me if you've heard this before, but Meyer was undefeated against mostly easy competition before going to the Midlands. He was disappointing at the Midlands as he only took fourth place. 174 is a weaker weight class this year, and Meyer can wrestle guys tough, but I don't see how he can have the consistency to be a top guy. He lost to two guys he has beaten before, but that's kind of the story with Meyer. He can compete with anybody, and he lets just about anybody compete with him.

184 - Sammy Brooks
The man with the mullet is now in one of the most stacked weight classes in NCAA wrestling. He had a solid performance at the Midlands, with a third place finish. He lost to Nate Jackson from Indiana but did manage to avenge that loss in the final match. Sometimes Brooks seems to fall too in love with big throws as he's got good lower body takedowns as well, and when he made that switch against Jackson, he took over the match. Brooks has wrestled the best at this weight class, and he's nearly impossible to blow out. He had a close match with the two-time NCAA defending champion, Gabe Dean a couple years ago, so there is nobody he should be afraid of, but consistency is key. He's the same guy he's been for the last two years. If you told me he was in the NCAA finals, I'd believe it, if you told me he wasn't even an All-American, well, I'd believe that too. Here's to hoping it's the former.

197 - Cash Wilcke and Steven Holloway
Everything I wrote about Joey Gunther above can basically be said about Wilcke. He might be good enough to make the tournament, but I can't see him making an impact when he gets there. The difference is that there isn't a super freshman breathing down Wilcke's neck.

However, that doesn't mean there are no other options. Steven Holloway has wrestled the beginning of this year at heavyweight despite having being a true 197. Now that Iowa's starter is back, Holloway could compete for that starting spot. He was very aggressive when wrestling at heavyweight, but just couldn't overcome the massive weight advantage that his opponent had. I'm not sure if he is better than Wilcke, but I wouldn't mind him getting some chances to prove himself during the second half of the year.

Heavyweight - Sam Stoll
Stoll made his debut at the Midlands, and it was about as well as could be reasonably expected. He beat two good, not great, heavyweights with Collin Jensen from Nebraska and Ross Larson from Nebraska, and he also got his first pin of the year in his third place match. His only loss was to top-10 ranked, Tanner Hall, from Arizona State, and part of that looked like a gas tank issue, which is to be expected since he hasn't been in any matches for over nine months. Still, he looked good in his matches, and outside of Kyle Snyder, he can compete with any of the top heavyweights in the nation. There's a decent chance that he puts up the most points at the NCAA Tournament out of any of the Iowa wrestlers I talked about today.

And that wraps things up. Overall, I would say Iowa is in fine shape. They are not going to be the favorites to win the National Title, but that doesn't mean that if they get guys peaking at the right time, that they couldn't pull off something special. I'm looking forward to the second half of the season.

A Look at the 2016-2017 Iowa Wrestling Season So Far - Part 1

With the wrestling season about halfway over, I thought now would be a good time to check on how Iowa is performing so far this season. Although about half of the year is gone, there are still a lot of question marks, as most of the first half of the schedule provides more cupcakes than proven commodities. Still, things have started taking shape, and we'll go weight-by-weight to break things down.

125 - Thomas Gilman
Gilman has been, without a doubt, the best Iowa wrestler so far this season. He has gone out there and destroyed everything in his path, with the exception of a tough semifinal matchup this past week at the Midlands against Josh Terao from American, who used a whole lot of funk to keep it close but still came up short. Outside of that, he's gotten bonus points against everyone else he has faced this year. With Megaludis graduating and Tomasello moving up to 133, Gilman is the favorite to take the national title at 125, and judging by his wrestling so far this year, I have every reason to believe he will live up to the hype and get an asterisk this year.

133 - Cory Clark and Phillip Laux
Clark started the year off as everyone expected, by going out and dominating his opposition. His closest match was against his teammate, Phillip Laux, but even that match was never in doubt. Unfortunately, after that, Clark suffered an injury that appeared to be non-serious. They said he could have wrestled against Iowa State had he been needed, but he took that off, and three weeks later, the Midlands came and went without Clark seeing the mat. Hopefully it is just precautionary, as Clark is Iowa's second best chance at a National Champion behind Gilman.

Laux has been his replacement, and unfortunately for him, he took over the starting job right before the competition took a big step up. He got manhandled by Seth Gross of South Dakota State but then has held his own in his other matches, including against Iowa State All-American, Earl Hall. Still, Laux is small for the weight and just doesn't have the horsepower to overcome that disadvantage against top competition. He managed to go 2-2 at the Midlands, and he always competes; that's really all you can ask for.

141 - Topher Carton
This weight was originally supposed to be contested between Carton and Vince Turk, but Turk suffered a knee injury early in the season, so Carton was given the starting job to run with. Carton looked great early in the season as he was steamrolling overmatched opponents in nearly all of his matches. However, he finally ran into real competition at the Midlands, and things got far more difficult for him. Kevin Jack of North Carolina State controlled him in their match, which isn't too surprising as Jack is a national title contender. But he also lost a close match to Rohlfing from CSU Bakersfield, and it's those kinds of matches that he needs to find ways to win. He still doesn't have a marquee win, but he also hasn't had a lot of opportunities for one. He's definitely good enough to qualify for the NCAAs, but it's tough to tell how much he can do once he gets there until he starts facing consistent competition during the B1G conference schedule.

Also, fun fact, I was super confused when he was referred to as Christopher Carton at the Midlands. My first thought was that his middle name must be Topher, and then I finally realized that Topher is short for Christopher. It is clear that I have never met a Topher in my life.

149 - Brandon Sorensen
Sorensen has gone out and nearly gotten bonus points in all of his matches, and despite that, it still seems rather unimpressive. Sorensen is clearly the second best guy at 149, but it's also clear that he's still nowhere near #1 ranked Zain Retherford. He was in way too many matches that were too close for comfort, but he managed to come out on top against everyone but the Zain Train. I guess I'm just preemptively complaining about a possible upset loss in a close match at the NCAAs that may or may not happen. He hasn't lost one of those in a long time, so I guess it's best to just sit back and enjoy the terrifyingly close ride.

157 - Michael Kemerer
I am so freaking excited about Michael Kemerer. Iowa doesn't often have explosive athletes on the wrestling team, but when they do, they are so much fun to watch. The first name that came to my mind when watching Kemerer was Montell Marion. Marion came achingly close to a couple national titles, but never could pull it off, but that doesn't diminish how great it was to be able to watch him compete. When his offense was on, he could blast through people on the feet. Marion wasn't great at scoring on top, and right now, that's still a question mark for Kemerer as well, but the guy won the Midlands as a Freshman in maybe the most exciting match of the tournament against Nebraska's Tyler Berger. He's undefeated and seen as a top-5 guy. This is going to be fun.

Note: The only disappointing thing about Kemerer is his nickname is KemDawg. How is it not KemTrails? I might have to start a petition.

That's it for today. I'll finish up tomorrow with the big boys.