Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeyes' Wrestling WEAK spots: A closer look at their Big Ten Tournament lineup

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, we know for sure that Penn State is going to finish number one at the Big Ten tournament, but it's not a guarantee that Iowa comes in second. You are locked on college crossover part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. You are locked on to some Big Ten Wrestling. Thanks so much for making this locked on crossover your first listen and watch today. My name is Zach Seiko, the host of Locked On Nittany Lions.

Starting point is 00:00:33 He is Trent Condon, host of Locked On Hot Guys. And we are breaking down the Big Ten Wrestling tournament that is set to take place this Saturday and Sunday. At the time of this recording, we still don't have the official precedes, but I think it's safe to say where everybody is going to line up in their brackets. Today's show is brought to you

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Starting point is 00:01:11 So Trent, we know that Penn State is going to dominate at the big 10 tournament. We know that they're going to dominate at NCAAs, but it's not exactly a guarantee that I was going to finish in second because of Nebraska, because of Ohio State. Now personally, I think Iowa still finishes in second, but what is the concern level for the Hawkeyes that the Cornhuskers and the Buckeyes make this a little more challenging? You know, after we talked before the Penn State Iowa Duel and the week after that, I thought it was going to be real trouble. I would tell you one thing. I was incredibly impressed the way that Iowa has bounced back after that dual loss and just getting pulverized by the Nittany Lions. I You hate to say that it was a dead season already, right that they were gonna be in that kind of trouble

Starting point is 00:01:55 But I was impressed of what they've been able to do and and maybe my concern of not even finishing in second place in the big 10s that is dissipated. No, it still could happen I mean we know that and and we've seen this happen to some Iowa wrestling teams in the past. But normally you kind of see this coming where you see, boy, they look tired. They look lethargic. They look like there's nothing left in the tank. And that does feel a little bit different this season from what we saw at the end of the regular season. We've talked about this before, Zach, and you know this. Ultimately, for Iowa to track down Penn State, it's gonna take basically everything that could go wrong for Penn State to go wrong, and everything that could go right for Iowa to go right, and even then,

Starting point is 00:02:34 it might not be enough, but maybe it'd be close in that scenario. That's what we're still talking about here, but yeah, I'm excited about this and hoping hoping more than anything kind of big picture Going forward because we've seen some of those lethargic Iowa big tens and see double A's here recently Maybe the Brands brothers and company Maybe they come up with a new formula and keeping a little bit more in the tank for these guys when we get to March And that's just it I think I mean there's there's a lot of wrestling that's going to go on and just it. I think, I mean, there's, there's a lot of wrestling that's going to go on. And Iowa certainly challenges itself by scheduling in Oklahoma State to finish the season. I've given my take on why Penn State doesn't have that out of that non-conference high profile matchup.

Starting point is 00:03:15 But just to kind of give a reader's digest, it's because they don't have to. And I know Iowa chooses to, but they've proven everything over the course of the regular season the way they defeated Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State, etc here. But I think that is a point of debate that does Iowa go into this maybe a little exhausted at the end of the season and Penn State's rejuvenated and ready to go because the chatter over here is well, Braden Davis is the healthiest that he's been. And we know that in a similar case, Jacori Teamer has been dealing with injuries throughout the season. So kind of, and I for an eye in that instance, so when you look at Iowa's lineup overall, what are

Starting point is 00:03:55 the weight classes where we need to hit this home or else we do lose out to Nebraska? Ohio State does steal a couple weight classes from us and somehow we end up in third by proxy. You know, I think you start right at the top with 125 and what we've seen from Joey Cruz this year. It's been very up and down. You guys saw the low of it, the loss to Lyndon Dahl in that duel, but he's got a lot of nice victories this year, a lot of high quality victories that he's been able to beat some of the better wrestlers in the NCAA. I believe he has six ranked wins on the season. So, you know, Joey Cruz would be a guy. I could see him finishing anywhere

Starting point is 00:04:33 from third all the way to eighth. And, you know, then he'd get into that tricky criteria what the number is going to be and the qualifiers and the likes. So Joey Cruz is one guy that I would start with on that front. And then the other one, I think the major one is going to be a 141. It just has been a hole in the lineup all season long for Iowa. Cullen Schriever is the projected at least from full wrestling, the 11th seed in this one, as you mentioned a little bit earlier, crazy. We're sitting here recording in the middle of the week and we still haven't got those pre-seeds yet from the big 10. But Shriver would be the guy that you'd look at there.

Starting point is 00:05:09 If he can get up there potentially, just punch his ticket in, maybe score a point in the backside of the bracket, things like that. That's all you're looking for, but it's just been such a hole in the lineup. Those would be probably, I think, the two spots that have the biggest concern of just qualifying for nationals. I got to get your thoughts on it. And I know we're going to break down each individual weight class, but I want to jump to one 49 right now, just because of the projection.

Starting point is 00:05:33 Kyle Parko is the three seat, somebody who goes 17 and one overall defeats the projected number one seed and Ridge love it. And you get punished. No good deed shall go unpunished here. So Kyle Parko has to be be, and Iowa have to be angry that they're gonna end, that he's going to end up being the three seed. And then he has a difficult path in the sense that

Starting point is 00:05:53 you're gonna face the Shane Van Ness in the semi-final most likely. Well, and I think it goes back to what we saw in just the domination by Van Ness in that match at 49, when the two went head to head. You know, you got the three wrestlers, all of them, with an argument at minimum to be that number one seed at the big tens. But it comes down to Parko, you know, margin of victory for Van Ness pushes him over the top. In fact, if I was Van Ness, I'd almost be arguing he should be the number one because

Starting point is 00:06:18 I'm saying we got two close ones there. And if it goes that direction, regardless for Parko, he's either got to beat love it a second time in the semi finals, or he's going to have to be Van Ness in the semi finals. Both of them appear to be a pretty difficult there. Parko has nothing. And speaking of inconsistency, he's been such an interesting guy. Outside of the Van Ness one, there's been times, well, this can be a major decision. Maybe he's going to get even more bonus points, tech ball, a pin, and he just, not all the time does it. And then there's times he looks absolutely tremendous. Maybe one of the more inconsistent elite level wrestlers that I can remember here lately

Starting point is 00:06:51 for Iowa. To kind of give the same perspective for Penn State, looking broadly across the weight classes, you know, 125 for, for Iowa, 125 is a point of contention. Okay. There's some tougher paths for a Kyle Parker or or a Jacory teamer in this case, for Penn State to go from, you know, a solid margin, right? This is expected, this is, but to make this unprecedented, to absolutely just wipe out the rest of the competition.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Luke Lillardall is going to have to surprise some people and take out potentially a Matt Ramos early. He's going to face him at some point. I think as that projected four seed, he's going to face him at some point. I think as that projected four seed, he's gonna have to surprise. And then you have Braden Davis who I think when healthy is not necessarily just as good as a Drake Ayala or Lucas Bird, but it's closer.

Starting point is 00:07:36 They're a lot closer than people realize. He won a big 10 tournament a season ago as a true freshman at 125. I get a different circumstances, 133. He's gone through some growing pains, if you will, some injuries, maybe not necessarily a metaphorical growing pains, but Brayden Davis is not a bad wrestler. He's not a liability.

Starting point is 00:07:54 He's shown that he can defeat all America talent when he's not 100%, when he's closer to 75. So if you do get him as close to 100% as possible, changes the entire complexity of it. And then it's those toss ups. So can Greg Kirkfleet's surprise, can Bo Bartlett make sure that he defeats Jesse Mendez once again, not in the regular season,

Starting point is 00:08:16 but in the post season when it really matters. Other than that, Penn State's got it locked down at 57, 65, 74, 84. 97 is another one of those where Josh Barr can get some extra points by defeating Cardenas again. So we're gonna go through all of those, each individual weight class, but that's the blueprint. If Penn State wants to turn this from,

Starting point is 00:08:36 okay, solid margin of victory to, whoa, this is the best team in history. And that's why we're gonna go through each individual weight class one by one to break down the paths for the respective Penn State and Iowa wrestlers. That is coming up next here on this Locked On Crossover. The Armada Team of the Week is brought to you

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Starting point is 00:10:24 classes on the collegiate level getting ready for the Big 10 tournament again we are still awaiting those pre-seeds so we're just going off of some projections here which is absolutely wild but I will take it as we can all right let's stop here Zach start at 125 the projections from Flow Wrestling have Linda Dahl with the four seed Joey Cruz from Iowa with the five seat personally. I'd like to see Cruz drop down to the six and be potentially on the bottom half of that bracket from Ramos and company and of course a little doll after what we saw in the duel. That's what I personally hope for here and that path for Luke that's going to be difficult because that means

Starting point is 00:11:01 a semi-final obviously against Matt Ramos of Purdue. Well, and that's just it. You get a rematch where Luke Lilladal ended up tech falling Joey Cruz the last time that they met. So this is a large gap in the four versus five match up here hypothetically between Lilladal and Cruz. And I would take Lilladal again. I've been talking about that throughout the week that try to avoid Matt Ramos or whatever.

Starting point is 00:11:24 You're gonna have to face somebody in this bracket. Lillidall vs. Caleb Smith was close. But Joey Cruz is going to get knocked out at some point. It's just a matter of when. Is it against Lillidall? Is it against Matt Ramos? Whereas I think Lillidall does have a chance to upset Ramos. I think Lilladal has a chance to win the 125 title as a true freshman, like his counterpart, Braden Davis, once upon a time last season.

Starting point is 00:11:53 So that's kind of the difference here. 125, the sky is the limit for Penn State. Whereas I think there's a clear, there's, there's a clear path for what Joey Cruz is going to have to do here. Maybe he can wrestle back and finish third at consolations, but I don't know that it's going to be any better than that. Yeah, it's just about punching your ticket to nationals for this one. I believe from the Iowa perspective, Joey Cruz making his way in and making himself at least getting to the final 33 and the NCAA tournament. Let's jump to 133. This is where Iowa, one of their number one seeds, likely Drake Aiella, a tremendous season

Starting point is 00:12:26 that he has put together. He sits as the number one seed and for Iowa to get that stranglehold on the number two, it's not just Drake Aiella winning 133, doing it with some bonus points along the way. Yeah, and that's what I fully expect. I think that Drake Aiella is going to pick up some bonus points, but is it a guarantee that he wins the Big Ten title outright? I mean, Lucas, Lucas Byrd went just watching him against Braden Davis and seeing him at the NWCA All-Star Classic. I think Lucas Byrd is a national title contender. I know that Ayala has defeated him in the past, but that it's kind of like Bo Bartlett

Starting point is 00:13:02 and Jesse Mendez. That, that doesn't mean anything just because of the way the last matchup went up. So for 133, are you confident that Ayala wins? Yeah, I am. I feel really good. He looks to be just wrestling tremendously. I really, I think that he has a pretty big advantage here. And this is a guy I may be about as confident in him

Starting point is 00:13:22 as almost everybody, anybody on the Iowa roster I think he's got a really good shot of ultimately winning that championship and and likely with a big 10 championship That's gonna punch his ticket as the number one seed overall at 133 when we get to Nationals moving on we go to 144 141 and we talked about this one Zack a little bit earlier You guys are obviously in great shape with Bo Bartlett and for Iowa, this is their hole in the lineup. It's kind of the most concerning weight, certainly from the Hawkeye perspective.

Starting point is 00:13:50 And he concerns it all for Bo Bartlett. I want to throw something in about Braden Davis real quick, just and then get to Bo Bartlett. For Davis, I think he can finish, I think he should finish third. I think the Drake Ayala, Lucas Byrd,ayden Davis podium is very likely at 133. Even with Brayden Davis at 100%, I don't know, or close to it, I don't know that he gets through Ayala or Byrd in this case, wherever he ends up,

Starting point is 00:14:16 because he could be seated fourth, he could be seated fifth. I've seen people seat him sixth. So it depends what his path is, but I think when he runs, he is the third best wrestler in this bracket, but I think when he runs he he is the third best wrestler in this bracket and I think he'll that's where he'll place for Bo Bartlett Jesse Mendes. Yeah that's that's the concern because it's deja vu all over again is that Bo Bartlett did this last season he won in the regular season and then ultimately lost in big tens and NCAAs and that's what everybody remembers oh you won the Oh you won the regular season,

Starting point is 00:14:45 Dool? Well what happened in the postseason? So it's shaping up to be a similar situation just because of how good Jesse Mendez is, but Bo Bartlett can win on any given day, Jesse Mendez can win on any given day, Andrew Alirez when they're factored into the three of them. It is that close of a race overall at 141. I know that we already talked about it. Iowa probably won't have anybody near this part of the bracket, but it is, it'll be interesting to see how Bo Bartlett responds in a similar, the exact situation, just try not to let history repeat itself. Zach, another intriguing one that we talked about at 149, I touched on this one, the three-way kind of round robin

Starting point is 00:15:26 that's happened this year. Lovett fell to Kyle Parco. Van Ness beat Parco and beat him decisively and then Lovett got the win against Van Ness. So all three of these guys have shown success against one of them and losses on the other one. Interesting how this is going to play out. We do know though in whatever order when the seeds come out these will be one, two, three. And I believe that there is a chance. Flow Wrestling has Lovett as the number one. I think Vannessa is going to get it personally. How about you? That's the argument that I made. I think that now this is strictly from the Big Ten point of view, but something's got to give, right? There is no clear piece of evidence that says Lovitz the number one wrestler here van Ness is I think I think Van Ness has the best case because of margin of victory and

Starting point is 00:16:16 overall record and Van I mean Van Ness Being the number one wrestler makes a lot of sense to me but there I there's a loser in all of this because none of these wrestlers deserve to be the three seed. Let's just put it that way because even though I might think that, okay, well, Van Ness should be the number one seed. Okay.

Starting point is 00:16:36 Then that means Kyle Parker is the number two seed. And then that means that Ridge Lovett's the three seed. So something's got to give. So I understand the precedent that well, Ridge Lovett is the defending Big Ten champion at 149. So you have to use something, I think it's overall record in this season because this season is what counts. And that's where you just have to factor it in

Starting point is 00:16:57 because you really don't have a lot of other points of contention here. You don't have a lot, I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that debate amongst the coaches. I think that Shane Van Ness is regardless of seeding the number one wrestler at 149. I think it was a learning experience to go up against Ridge Lovett, but I do think Van Ness is actually better. We've seen this for Lovett. Lovett had a really strong season last year.

Starting point is 00:17:20 And then I don't necessarily, he probably, he would probably say it that he fell apart when it came to the postseason for example Tyler Kasach had a major decision against him as a true freshman after Ridge Lovett dominated him the first time that they met so Lovett as a veteran ends up falling to a true freshman it's just it seems like when Lovett gets to these points in the postseason that he's not as solid of a guarantee to win the big matches. I don't know if it's a clutch factor. I don't know if it's running out of steam. I don't know if he was dealing with an unknown injury last season, but whatever it is, that's kind of my concern is that love it isn't at his strongest when we get to the

Starting point is 00:17:57 postseason. So Shane Van Ness and Kyle Parko are the subjectively speaking, number one and number two wrestlers in my mind. We go to 157 pounds as we make our way through the first half of the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament, and at 157, Flow Wrestling has Ethan Miller projected as the number one, nationally ranked number five, but no goose eggs against Big Ten opponents, and that's a big step up for him. Kasich as the two, then Antrel Taylor as the number three seed, Jokore Timur from Iowa at number four. That means if we play out according to the seeds, the semi-finals would be Miller against Timur, Kasich against Taylor. I'll be interested

Starting point is 00:18:35 to see. I think there's going to be plenty of arguments in the room for this one at 157. I think it's actually pretty straightforward as Jori Timmer and Tyler Kasach are going to rematch. And Ethan Miller, it's respectable, he went 20 and 0. And the reason that Kasach is the two seed is because he ultimately injury defaulted against Miller of Maryland. And that's a head-to-head matchup. And it's well, it's an injury default. It's not a true victory. You know, you can make a case for KSAC You can but when you injury default at big tens or NCAAs you lose you fall to the consolation bracket So you kind of have to apply that thinking here Ethan Miller speaking from the results should be the number one seed KSAC as the two

Starting point is 00:19:18 jacory teamer kind of has a subjective element here just because he hasn't wrestled the entirety of this season but You know just because of the national rankings that he's a top wrestler. If Timor's the four seed, that is an ideal path for him because I think he's better than Ethan Miller. And then him and KSAC get that rematch hypothetically in the championship. Five weight classes down, five more to go as we preview the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament. Zach Zacco from Lockdown Nittany Lions. I'm Trent Condon from Lockdown Hawkeyes. We continue as we finish up the five weight classes on this crossover edition of Lockdown. 165 we know how this is going to go. It's

Starting point is 00:20:00 going to be Mitchell Messenbrink and Michael Caliendo. And it's going to be Messenbrink winning. But what is that margin? Now that that's just because history continues to repeat over and over and over again. Regular season last time, big tens. And they meet Nancy double A's. Why? I'm I'm completely blanking on that.

Starting point is 00:20:19 So it's just every, every step of the way that Mitchell Messen and then regular season this time around. So we shouldn't really expect anything different. Caliendo has gotten so much better. He looks like he could win an NCAA title if Mess and Brink wasn't there, but Mess and Brink is there and he's going to be there for the next couple of seasons. So put all of my money that it's going to be Mess and Brink and Caliendo and the championship, but Mess brink wins well and from the caliendo perspective i mean we saw what happened obviously in the duel and it was domination for mess and brink and it's been domination for him he's just such a tremendous wrestler and such a great athlete but you know for caliendo all right

Starting point is 00:20:57 you come up with a game plan right for this one and like you said the other thing about 165 you know we talk about the depth of all these weight classes in the Big 10. That is not the case of 165. In fact, after the top two, I mean, that drop off is precipitous at that weight class. But that aside, you know, for Caliendo, all right, let's come up with a game plan. Try something different here. See if it works in that championship match. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. It's all about winning a national championship, right? So come up with a game plan, try something new, try something different, try something a little bit crazy. If it goes poorly, that's okay. You know, you're still going to be on the other side of the bracket from mess and brink when we get to national. So I think that's got to be the game plan here. You got to come up with a different

Starting point is 00:21:36 game plan and see if there's anything that you can find out on the mat on that Sunday that gives you potentially some kind of path to win nationals when we get there coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm also eager to see this is where Nebraska might surprise in an instance. Maybe at least make it a point of contention where Christopher Mento has a lot of potential as a freshman 18-2 in his first year starting for the Cornhuskers. So I'm not saying that he upsets Caliendo. I think Caliendo could win an NCAA title if it wasn't for Messenbrink, but Minto, if he

Starting point is 00:22:07 peaks at the right time, at least makes it interesting and why Nebraska is debatable maybe taking that second spot. So we go to 174. Patrick Kennedy will represent Iowa. Levi Haynes will represent Penn State. This is similar to 165 in the sense of Penn State has this weight class lockdown. I am eager to see Carson Hartschle again against Levi Haynes, but I'm fully expecting Haynes to win the 174 pound bracket and become a three time Big 10 champion here. Patrick Kennedy is most likely going to be the four seed here and would wrestle Haynes and we

Starting point is 00:22:39 saw how that went the first time around. So Kennedy doesn't seem like he's going to avoid Haynes at any point in time prior to the championship. Yeah, it looks like he's going to be on that top side of the bracket with Haynes there likely facing him in the semifinals as long as he can get past the number five seed because the top four are pretty solidly I think in the book there. Pinto with that head to head that he has is going to definitely help out. But what do you look through this weight class class and that's Kennedy hoping to get that number three seed and stay on the other side. But overall Haynes, the gap is really significant. And I got to give a shout out to my cousin, Lucas Condon, the potential 11th seed out of Wisconsin. He's actually not my cousin, but we don't

Starting point is 00:23:19 see many condons in athletics. So I get excited when I see Lucas Condon there for the Badgers. I'll certainly be rooting for him to shake up the power structure, the power dynamics of these brackets because I feel like we have easy answers when we're discussing most of these in this case. I just sometimes you just want to see absolute chaos here at 184. You're not going to see that maybe at 197, maybe at the top of the of the bracket but let's go through 184 and Gabe Arnold is going to be in Carter. Starachi is the projected favorite It's most likely that we're going to see Max McEnally of Minnesota versus Carter Starachi

Starting point is 00:23:58 One versus two and McEnally is really impressive I'm eager to see where Mac McEnally is in his development as a freshman wrestler going up against Starachi. Trent, if you can speak to the whole, the crowd that says, well, Angela Ferrari should be entered in, Gabe Arnold's been benched multiple times now, and we see why. I imagine I, for me, that would shake my confidence. But just regardless, I think the bigger thing is here. Yes, we're probably going to see Starachi versus Arnold at some point in this in this bracket if they project one and four which they which they do in the semi finals. But Angela Ferrari, I would never burn his red shirt in this instance, even though I would hope that I for whatever reason did. Yeah, and it comes down to that I was not winning a national championship this year. Penn State's going to win it. And so you look towards the future

Starting point is 00:24:45 and the future is Angelo Ferrari, a potential three, four time champion. That's what he's shown certainly during the campaign here in his freshman year and what he has put together. This is gonna be a guy to be messed with the next four years, but yes, you maintain the red shirt status. Gabe Arnold's a very good wrestler. Gabe Arnold likely is going to be an all American this year.

Starting point is 00:25:04 So it's not like you're putting out some stiff out there on the mat for it. Just you have a guy a little bit better and they'll figure out going for what that means. Gabe Arnold potentially, you know, can he cut back and be a 74 pounder next season? They'll worry about next year, next season. On the here and now, Gabe Arnold,

Starting point is 00:25:20 punch that ticket to Nationals, get your shot against Starachi and maybe get your nose rubbed in the mat a little bit after some of the comments going into the duel, when of course he didn't go out there on the mat, but that'll be fun to watch. And I think it'll add a little extra juice there to 84. It just doesn't carry the same interest for me because the way that Arnold was benched, not once, but twice, you talk all that talk back to when you were in high school and now it's okay, Starachi versus Arnold finally happens. And that's how I look at it. Oh, it's just

Starting point is 00:25:50 happening. Who cares? Who cares? Well, because that talk doesn't carry the same weight anymore. So be it. 197, well, I mentioned chaos, but that's because it's kind of like any of these other three man races at 149, eventually 141 when Andrew Alirez gets involved with Jesse Mendez and Bo Bartlett. 197, these are three national title contenders. Stephen Buchanan, Josh Barr, Jacob Cardenas are the projected one, two, and three seeds. And they're the top three national title contenders at this weight class. Maybe you want to make the case for AJ Ferrari saying that he's, but I think one of these guys is winning the national

Starting point is 00:26:27 title in addition to the big 10 title here. So Steven Buchanan is going to be the favorite. Barr is going to have to go through Cardenas again. And it was so close. I would not be surprised if Cardenas gets his revenge against Barr. But even in that instance, Cardenas against Buchanan, it is no guarantee that Buchanan wins either. You know, the interesting part about that, you mentioned AJ Ferrari being in the mix when we get to Nationals, is whoever wins this, the path is going to be,

Starting point is 00:26:54 you'd anticipate so much better to get back to a National Championship match at 197. So the importance of this, you know, we talk about all the time, look, they're going to be in, all these top level guys are going to be wrestling in nationals. You don't worry about it. But the potential path at 97, I think is going to be so much better for the number one seat. This might be one of the more important winners who comes out of 197. and end up having to wrestle in Andrew Alirez at the other side of the bracket because whoever wins, Jesse Mendez or maybe Andrew Alirez is the number I have to bring up 141 because it's so intriguing to me where Andrew Alirez maybe he's the number one seed because of how he does in his respective conference tournament and then Bo Bartlett and Jesse Mendez wrestle again in the semi-final as two and three seed so we'll we'll see how that ultimately

Starting point is 00:27:42 how that ultimately goes. Heavyweight we finally reached the end of it here. Gable Steveson, Greg Kirkfleet, that's a crash course matchup. I'm eager to see how close Greg Kirkfleet is to Steveson. If this is a multiple takedown advantage for Steveson, okay, then back to the drawing board. But I think Kirkfleet can keep this close, even though I think Steveson wins. This is actually a pretty loaded big 10 heavyweight class. It's just so top heavy was the Stevenson and how unprecedented he is great.

Starting point is 00:28:12 Kirk fleets a defending big 10 and NCAA champion, but Josh Heinzelman, Nick Feldman, Slovak Husky, leftman, Ben Keeter from Iowa. If if it wasn't for Stevenson and Kirkfleet, just basically being so far ahead of the rest of the competition, I don't know that I could make a selection and make a prediction as far as who would come out on top amongst the rest of the competition. I don't know who's going to take third place. Yeah, and you love that backside of the bracket. I think it's gonna be incredibly intriguing what happens there.

Starting point is 00:28:41 And then we get to culminate the Big Ten tournament, likely with Gable Stevenson against Kirkfleet. I mean just how great is that to end the Big Ten tournament and that's how that thing's going to finish off and we'll see these two undefeated guys going up against each other number one and number two. Yeah it's absolutely incredible what we're going to get here and at 285 maybe another one of those incredibly intriguing ones. Big Tens are going to be great, excited for it. Do you think Keeter can take third? What's the likelihood that he takes third? I don't think so. I still, against some of those bigger wrestlers,

Starting point is 00:29:09 those guys that are pushing right up at 285, he still has struggled. We know he's an incredible athlete, and he was a guy, boy, just did not go well for him in his last duel against Oklahoma State. So I don't think so. Maybe fifth is kind of where I'm looking, maybe the high water mark for Ben Keeter.

Starting point is 00:29:29 If I have to go with the third place choice, I'll go with Nick Feldman. I think if he's healthy too, I know he's been dealing with injuries. I think Nick Feldman is the best of that group, but the margin is so close between all five of those guys. It is insane. That's going to do it for this locked on crossover. Thank you so much for checking out this episode of Locked On Nittany Lions and Locked On Hawkeyes previewing the Big Ten tournament. If you have thoughts, analysis you wanna contribute, let us know your thoughts down in the comment section. Please leave a like and share this episode with friends and family.

Starting point is 00:29:56 And if you're not already becoming everydayers, subscribe to Locked On Nittany Lions. Subscribe to Locked On Hawkeyes on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Trent, thanks so much for the time and can't wait to do this again for NCAAs as well.

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