Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - HOT SEAT? Penn State to Dominate, Tom Brands Faces Pressure – Iowa Wrestling Must RISE at Big Tens

Starting point is 00:00:00 Penn State and Kail Sanderson are trying to break records at the Big Ten tournament. Tom Brands is just trying to keep his job. You are locked on college crossover. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Fandul is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with the college basketball parlay. Profit boost.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Head over to fanduel.com to get started. My name is Zach Seiko. I'm the host of Lockdown Nittany Lions. He is Trent Condon, the host of Lockdown Hotkeys. And thank you so much for making this lockdown crossover, your first listen or your first watch of the day. And thank you for making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there. We're breaking down the Big Ten tournament as we do. When Penn State and Iowa wrestling get to meet different circumstances, radically different circumstances because this isn't about, okay, how close is Iowa? It's, you know, Ohio State, Nebraska, but we're going to go through all of it from the Penn State Iowa perspective. Starting with general thoughts here, Trent. Yes, Kail Sanderson and Penn State are just trying, they're trying to finish first, win another Big Ten title, chase after what Dan Gable set at Iowa, and the hot guys aren't even close to that. And I get the sense that Tom Brands is on the hot seat if he doesn't change something here going into the postseason.

Starting point is 00:01:29 Yeah, I mean, a postseason run if we see improvement out of this squad, because, I mean, we think back and Zach, as we've been doing this the last few years, he kind of look at maybe even the last half decade for Iowa, there's been so many times where at least there's a glimmer of hope, you know, there's that opportunity. You're going to have to thread the needle. Everything's going to have to go right. Penn State's going to have to have a bad tournament, those kind of things. But if all that happens, and then they go to either big tents or nationals, and they

Starting point is 00:01:54 lay an egg. And they take a step back from even, you know, what an average maybe performance would be. And that's happened so many times. We see it year after year after year where this Iowa wrestling program by the time we get to March, they look tired. They look lethargic and they didn't wrestle nearly as much this season. That was a hope that maybe that was going to be something that would help them come this time. Well, injuries have piled up, dismissals have piled up. There's been a lot that has happened with this program.

Starting point is 00:02:19 And because of that, not only they not look fresh and ready to go, but you just wonder about this lineup overall. There are a ton of questions about this wrestling program. The decision that the athletic director, Beth gets, needs to make. of what to do. Ultimately, I think it comes down to one thing, and that is a couple of the big money donors, the new wrestling room that was created, the ones that invested in it, the ones that go out and spend the money in NIL in order to bring in different wrestlers, those are the ones I think ultimately are going to have this way. For the longest time, they were epic supporters of the Brands Brothers. Has that change? That's a question I don't think outside of those people know the

Starting point is 00:02:56 answer to at this point, because we're still talking about a non-revenue sport. We're still talking about a sport even as Carver Hawkeye has filled up. We know the financials of it. Yeah. It's not profitable. It isn't when we look at it, at least the university side of things. It comes down to those donors. And until we know where they stand as it pertains to that, I think that is the question

Starting point is 00:03:16 mark. But you just look at the way that Iowa step back and the slip back that they've done, not just in comparison to Penn State, but just the top of college wrestling right now. It's dire time, certainly in Iowa City. I will also go through the precedes here. We'll get to that in a moment. So his job isn't necessarily safe. Do you think he's back next season?

Starting point is 00:03:35 Do you think a move is made in the off season here? I literally think that Zach, that this is a 50-50 proposition. I think it is a coin flip going into Big Ten's and then Nationals after that if he is going to be retained. And again, Beth Getz will make that decision. She made an incredibly difficult one once she was just on the job when she fired Brian Farrants, the offensive coordinator of Iowa a couple of years back, made that decision during the season. said that he will not be retained. She was kind of put in a difficult spot.

Starting point is 00:04:03 And when you're going up against, obviously, a guy that's going to have a statue, Kirk Farrant's right, and firing his son as the agency. It was obviously the right move. I think anybody outside, but there are so many other dynamics of play. And some of those dynamics are there also in Iowa wrestling. So that's the part of it. But I do think if this is a flop, if Iowa goes and they finish seventh, you know, in the big 10 tournament, they finish 10th in the NCAAs,

Starting point is 00:04:28 that might almost force her hand that when your program has fallen to those kind of levels, there's nothing that you can do to talk your way out of it. I blame Oklahoma State and David Taylor slightly, but also, I mean, it's their own doing. It's the Brands Brothers not necessarily adapting with the times and just this recent, it gets worse year after year after year. So as we pivot to the tournament itself and we're going to break each weight class down, the preseats, hey, Penn State, okay, there was one that was wacky, right? Levi Haynes being the number two seed after defeating Chris Minto of Nebraska.

Starting point is 00:05:03 So that, but across the board, hey, Penn State kind of controlled its own destiny and a lot of one seeds for the Nittney Lions. But it's the Iowa Hawkeyes that were hit the most by this new pre-seed formula where Angelo Ferrari is an eighth seed and is going to face is going to face potentially Rocco Welsh in a quarter final, right? Or Dean Peterson ranked way lower than he should have been. Ben Keeter's a 10 seed. And I know Gabe Arnold.

Starting point is 00:05:27 wrestling all the way up to 197 is a 13 seed here. So your thoughts on the on the preceding formula. I think it's dumb. I hope they overcorrect. I don't think they will though. But whatever they did this season, scrap it and move on for next year. Yeah. You know, recently we've seen there is still quite a bit of changes by the time we get the actual bracket.

Starting point is 00:05:48 And I anticipate that's going to be the case. I think you mentioned Ferrari and that's probably the most likely that he's going to bump up there. Dean Peterson, you talked about him at 25 for Iowa. He gets the number eight seed and talk about a difficult matchup, obviously, for him. And he wrestled a lot. He wrestled a lot this season. Yeah. And that's just the crazy component where the guy is ranked seventh in the country overall.

Starting point is 00:06:10 And you look at the number of wrestlers that are in front. You got a Vodek wrestler, Lehigh, NC State, Oklahoma State, all outside, obviously of the Big Ten. That was maybe the most befuddling to me. Ferrari, you can understand. Arnold, you can understand because of the weight class. Those are ones, even Keeter because he hasn't been wrestling very much. Those are ones, at least on the surface, makes sense. The Peterson, what I thought was the most difficult to come up with a rational reason why he gets the 18th.

Starting point is 00:06:36 I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Peterson, especially when he's defeated some of these other wrestlers and wrestled the full, because the idea was that, well, we want to benefit the wrestlers that had competed throughout the Big Ten duels and punish the ones that, whether it was for injuries or other circumstances, right? It was about the whole load management thing that, oh, if you don't wrestle in the Big Ten duels, you're going to be docked in the preseats here.

Starting point is 00:07:01 But I don't get it in some regards here. There definitely needs to be, just let the coaches get together and figure it out. They know this best, not some computer, not some algorithm. It's just a formula. It's not the people that said, well, this is just artificial intelligence. It's just, it's strictly a numbers game. You give points to a criteria, you add up all those points, and then whoever has the highest total, that's how you seed them. But clearly this is an issue when Dean Peterson is the eight seed at Big Tens, and he's the number seven overall wrestler in most of these rankings across the nation.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And another interesting thing that came out of it is Iowa fans were waiting what's this lineup going to look like for Iowa at 157. And it is not Williams, who was one of the transfers that came in from Arkansas, Little Rock instead. Voinovich gets the call at 57. He's the number 10 seed there. So that was something that we were waiting for, what that was going to look like, obviously. And it's just another one. You know, we've seen this happen recently too.

Starting point is 00:08:01 And I think this is getting more angst even this year, just because of the frustrations of the season, is the tinkering, the toying with the lineup that we've seen the brands do here recently when it comes to this. And it just, it's difficult to make sense. Now, if obviously Jordan Williams has an injury, we're having a completely different conversation. But with that, see, Voidovich get the call at 57.

Starting point is 00:08:22 It's just another head scratching decision and a lot of frustration that continues to build out, not just because of this season, but what we've seen the last couple of years. Well, we're going to go weight by weight class by weight class to discuss all of it, starting at 125 going all the way up to heavyweight. How Luke Lillodon, Dean Peterson factor and Marcus Blaze and Drake Ayala, right? Like I said, weight class by like weight class. That is all coming up next here on this lockdown crossover. And this episode is brought to you by Fandul.

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Starting point is 00:11:00 Then Lillodall gets his revenge at the Penn State Iowa dual meet. And now you get another rematch. You get part three here. I can't imagine that the result's going to be radically different. Could it be closer? Could it be a one take down type of match? Absolutely. But I'm still going to take Lilidol in that instance.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Do you like Peterson's chances at an upset to get a re-revenge? No, I mean, pulling an upset here, I think that's a hill too far. It's really going to be the backside. Now, the good news, I guess, for Peterson is the Big Ten did get nine in this weight class with the allocations that came out from the NCAA. So he should be in good shape. But I think we're going to talk about this a ton as we go through these weight classes. And it's so crazy for Iowa wrestling.

Starting point is 00:11:42 but it's going to have to be the work that they do on the back side of the bracket. We're just, we're not used to that. That's going to be the conversation, but that is the reality here for Peterson. It's likely going to be an early loss. And now he's going to have work to do on the backside of the bracket. Well, I would expect Peterson to take third or make it to that match. Maybe he'll lose that match to somebody else. But I can see Peterson wrestling all the way back and finishing either third or fourth.

Starting point is 00:12:05 I think this is Lilidol and Bazacus, a rematch at 1.25. Yeah, Bazacus is who I liked on the bottom side of the bracket. All right, we go to 133 Marcus Blaze and he could potentially, guess what, get a rematch against an Iowa wrestler in Drake Ayala. What's, Trent, what's going on with Drake Ayala? Because this, I, the way class is loaded, so I kind of expected a little bit of regression with some of the new faces in this class, whether it was Marcus Blaze, you know, within the Big Ten itself. Obviously, Jacks Forrest gets his red shirt pulled. But I was not expecting this kind of season from someone who was a Big Ten finalist and then an NCAA finalist. The only one that stood in his way was Lucas Bird,

Starting point is 00:12:44 but it was a total tumble here for Ialla. You know, you look at the record. You see the number of losses. That is eye opening. It definitely is for Drake Iyella. The issue, though, is against these top guys. He just has not competed. And then what happened in the finale is he was just absolutely worked all over the map

Starting point is 00:13:01 by Jacks Forrest. He dominated that one and just made Iyella look like a fish out there. It made that look like a guy that was an NCAA finalist. You do wonder with Iyella because he just, He doesn't look competent on the mat. And if it's something that is a little bit deeper than just the physical part of wrestling, if there's something going on upstairs, because he doesn't look comfortable, he doesn't look confident.

Starting point is 00:13:21 He certainly doesn't look like, which was at the time a year ago, at times one of the most aggressive wrestlers that they had on the mat. That Drake Ayala hasn't been there really throughout the course of this whole season. Now, we could say we could break down the Blaze versus Ayala rematch, but I don't even know if we get to that point. And Zan Fuget is an incredible four seed here with what I've seen on the freestyle circuit. And then he made a name for himself at the NCAA tournament just last year. Does Iala get past Fuget to get that rematch with Marcus Blaze?

Starting point is 00:13:51 Because of the issues that we've seen against the top level wrestlers, the top 10 guys throughout the course of the season, I say no. It'll be another one where Iowa going to have to do work on the backside. Same thing. He's going to be fine. I think to be an NCAA finalist. But, you know, and for Iowa, it's not about chasing down Penn State this year. It's maybe even can they even finish. in the top three, that seems like a stretch at this time. In order for that to happen, that

Starting point is 00:14:13 means, as we talked about, Dean Peterson has to wrestle back for three. Third, Iiella, maybe wrestles back and gets at minimum fifth, you know, those kind of things. Those are the things that are going to need to happen just to finish in the top five for Iowa wrestling at Big 10s. I can't believe we're talking about. Can we talk women's wrestling? That sounds more fun. Ben State doesn't have a women's wrestling team yet. So we're going to have to keep it here. Blaze, Blaze being the one seed is not shocking to me when you look at this class in particular, him having a better resume than Lucas Burr. I'd still give it to Byrd personally because he is the defending Big Ten champ.

Starting point is 00:14:47 That's where the human element comes into this. And in regards to Ayala, this is why we started the conversation, the way that we did. Is Tom Brands even going to be back next season because of a tumble like this where we don't even have confidence that Ayala is going to finish top three at this weight? I imagine fifth, maybe, again, he could get surprised. here by by somebody else. So there's a lot of allocations from this weight class. He'll be safe for NCAAs, but taking bronze or anything close to it might not necessarily be in the cards. 141. This is all Jesse Mendez. Brock Hardy did give him some fits a year ago, but Mendez has clearly widened the gap here. Nasir Bailey is a four seed from Iowa. Braden Davis slots in at a seven seed. He's going

Starting point is 00:15:29 to take on Joey Oliveri in the first round, Davis that is. And Bailey gets a tough matchup with Dylan Ragerson of Michigan. Okay, expectations here. I think Davis, I'm expecting better wrestling out of him overall, but to get an undefeated wrestler and a veteran of the sport in the first round like that. And the same thing with Bailey. Raggison coming off of injury was an NCAA place finisher once upon a time before he was injured. So Bailey and Davis do not have easy paths here whatsoever, even before they get to a potential Jesse Mendez matchup. Yeah, I like Bailey what we've seen at different times from him. Now, he's not an explosive guy.

Starting point is 00:16:06 He's not a guy that's going to go out there against good opponents and be able to win a 9-8 match. We haven't seen that. He keeps a low scoring. It's a very boring style. And it's a very boring style up and down the lineup for Iowa, unfortunately, anymore. But I think Bailey's got a shot here.

Starting point is 00:16:20 A shot to finishing that top five, certainly he's a four seed. You would anticipate that. We haven't seen him a ton on the mat throughout the course of this season. But I think he can ugly it up. He can keep it close. Lost one-nothing earlier this year to Brock Hart. So there's one. If he can find a way to get a takedown against one to these top guys,

Starting point is 00:16:37 Bailey might be the guy. If you're looking for somebody that can pull an upset, depending on the way that the actual seating plays out, and maybe even he bumps up to a three seed. I think he could give Hardy a run and maybe be a surprise finalist for Iowa, but he's not going to do it as it's currently constructed. As the four seed, I don't see him having any shot against Mendez.

Starting point is 00:16:54 That's the same. And at the time of this recording, right, the precedes could be changed and all of these matchup breakdowns. They might be all for not here. but yes, Bailey is the current four seed. Interesting matchups. If he moves on, he would face Jesse Mendez. And then that's kind of, that's kind of the end of it there in the winner's bracket,

Starting point is 00:17:12 down in constellations. I mean, Bailey could absolutely wrestle back and place top three if the matchups are favorable. Jesse Mendez and Brock Hardy will be your two big fish. And Braden Davis would have to go through all of Airy, potentially. Brock Hardy, Vance Von Bauer, it would be a crazy path for Davis. But I do expect better wrestling. Both of those guys will have no issues. when it comes to NCAA auto qualifications.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Hey, 149, Shane Van Ness is the one seed and should be the overwhelming favorite in this weight class here for Iowa. It's Rider Block, and Ryder Block gave Shane Van Ness a little bit of a fight until Van Ness took over late in that matchup. But I like what I've seen out of Rider Block, and I could actually expect him to, I could see him placing top three at Big Ten's, if I'm being honest. You know, he's the guy that at least embodies the Iowa style that we think about.

Starting point is 00:18:01 he's a guy that goes out there and he defeats. He doesn't go out there and just hope that he is going to hang around and maybe get a late take down. He goes out there and is aggressive. Now it's hurt him at times too because there are some certain guys that are just at this point in their career. It's just better than him. But I love at least the mentality that we see from Rider Block. So he's a guy, yeah, maybe he could catch somebody pull it upset here. You're looking for another upset type of candidate.

Starting point is 00:18:25 Rider Block has that for him. It's about qualifying for the NCAAs. The path as it's currently constructed is going to be a. incredibly difficult. But Blackie has been one of the few bright spots, I think, for Iowa this year. And he would have to go through Shane Van Ness if he is going to pull off one of those signature upsets. I imagine Van Ness gets the win again, but it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy the last time that they met in the Penn State Iowa duel meets. So hopefully we get to see that rematch again. Hey, 157. This is the one that was weird. It was odd for Iowa. Is Jordan Williams going to

Starting point is 00:18:55 wrestle. No, it's Victor Voinovich the third who's going to get the call in PJ Dukes, a two seed from PJ Duke's perspectives. See, Voinovich, hopefully he pulls off the crazy upset and is able to knock out Brandon Cannon, who is the number, was the number, it was a placeholder because he was dealing with an injury, but he was the number one overall wrestler at 157, and he's a seven seed here at the Big Ten tournament. That means he would face PJ Duke in a potential quarterfinal, but it also means that Voinovich would have to face Brandon Cannon in that first. round. Yeah, even that is going to be difficult against Cannon in the first round here. For Voidavitch, it's going to be tough. When you look at 157 and the allocation that was given to the

Starting point is 00:19:35 Big Ten, just eight spots. So finishing in the top eight, that is going to be certainly worked for him to do a real possibility that Iowa does not have a wrestler 57 in Nationals. And we'll continue with 65 all the way up to heavyweight coming up next here. Any more upset surprises here because Mitchell Mess and Brink Controls 65. There's some and we could get Rocco Welsh versus Angelo Ferrari in a quarterfinals matchup. If the seating holds, we're going to discuss that next here on this locked on crossover. This episode is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos. Deadlines are stacking up.

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Starting point is 00:22:57 And I imagine, but what's the, again, does it really matter? Okay, so Blaze and Caliando flip, yes, the earlier matchups matter, but I still think we're going to get a semi-finals crash course between Joey Blaze and Caliando, whether one's the two-seed and one's the three-seat or vice versa. Yeah, the pass look very similar. You're talking about likely a six or a seven-seat, not much difference between those two for Caliando and Blaze. They'll be able to decide it.

Starting point is 00:23:19 And it's not like you get some kind of advantage right. It's not like you get your choice twice. if you're the better seat or anything like that in the second and third period. So not a real big deal here. And I do think, yes, those will flip. But ultimately, you're on the other side of the bracket from Mess and Brink. You'll get him in the championship, whoever comes out of that side there with Caliando and Blaze, which should be a good one.

Starting point is 00:23:38 And one of the ones I'm looking forward to at 65. Well, and that's just it. Is Calliendo going to get a rematch with Mess and Brink? Or do you think that Joey Blaze, Marcus Blaze's older brother, knocks him out? I would lean Calliando. This is a guy that I have the confidence in that he's going to be able to get it done. one of the few guys in this lineup that you feel good at the top level. So absolutely.

Starting point is 00:23:59 That's one that I think that they're going to get there. And maybe potentially I was only finalist, very well could come right there. Follow up to that. Does he have any chance against Messenbrink in an 8th rematch now? Messon Brink is 7 and 0 against Caliando. Not feel good about that one. No, this is we've certainly seen this matchup and just mess and brink. He's just, he's better.

Starting point is 00:24:20 Yeah. All by himself in a tier of his own right now at 165. 174, this one's going to be changed. I imagine Christopher Minto will be the two seed. And even still, I don't know that that's justification either. It's not that, oh, just flip Levi Haynes and Chris Minto, but Minto has lost to a number of these other wrestlers in the weight class at 174 between Patrick Kennedy of Iowa, Carson Harchela of Ohio State. So even Minto being the two seed isn't necessarily justified. But as it stands right now at the time of this recording, Minto's number one, Haynes is number two. Patrick Kennedy is the three seats. So this,

Starting point is 00:24:54 This is where, one, I would expect Haynes and Kennedy if they're on the opposite side of the bracket, they would meet in a hypothetical Big Ten championship. That's what I would fully expect. I mean, Carson Harchela certainly has a case for Ohio State. This is a very top heavy 174 pound weight class at Big Tens. Yeah. And I think things certainly, what you hope you mentioned Haynes jumping up there to the number one seed when we get the official bracket. I think that's the hope for Patrick Kennedy, too. We see Levi Haynes.

Starting point is 00:25:21 He's major decision what the last couple of times out against Kenner. Kennedy in these matchups here. So hope to get to that final. You want Haynes in that top spot. Kennedy stays at the number three seed. That is the hope that certainly for Kennedy, at least to get to the finals. I mean, maybe Kennedy gets to the two seed. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm just expecting Haynes and Minto to flip.

Starting point is 00:25:41 But Kennedy can beat Minto again. Carson Harchla, I hope we get a Penn State. I hope we get a rematch of Levi Haynes and Carson Harchela, because Harchela gave Haynes a fight a year ago where, it was a late takedown. I mean, Haynes wasn't even leading going into the third period and needed a take down there. So Harchela can give, just for the sake of it, I think Haynes wins again, but I just want to see some more intriguing matchups here where Haynes really has to go down to the wire so that he's tested. If Haynes is the one seed and Kennedy's on that opposite side of the

Starting point is 00:26:14 bracket with him, nothing crazy where Kennedy drops down to the four seat or something like that, I could easily see a Penn State Iowa final here at 174. Yeah, absolutely. And a shout out to my cousin, Luke Condon 12 seed at out of Wisconsin. He's actually not my cousin. 184. I find that joke funny every single time because, you know, there is a Condon here every time we chat Big Ten wrestling. 184 Rocco Welsh versus Angelo Ferrari, not in a semifinal, not in a championship in

Starting point is 00:26:44 a quarterfinal. The second match, the first match for Rocco Welsh, it would be the second match for Angelo Ferrari. This is something that I do think we need to address, though. is he going to in fact wrestle or is this going to be an instance where he walks out onto the map takes an automatic forfeit and just says I'm going to go with the at large bid for NCAAs? I think it is going to be Ferrari from everything that we've been hearing. Yes, he is going to make it to go and be out there.

Starting point is 00:27:09 He's been a couple of times in Carver. There was one he was at a basketball game. He was bounding up the stairs. So we're just getting obviously secondhand information of people making their way up the stairs at Carver. But yeah, I think we're going to see him making it to go out there. I'd like to see it, obviously. It was, I mean, this was a two to one tiebreaker after all. And so I don't have, even if with Ferrari coming back with a little bit of rust, I don't say, oh, you know, well, I'm overly confident that Rocco Welsh is going to pull off a major decision or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:27:37 So if Ferrari is not held back, if he is not going to forfeit and we do see this matchup potentially in the quarterfinal or at any point in time, semi final, I'm not just automatically penciling Rocco Welsh. I think this is an extremely tough matchup and not one that I want to see. this early. Either wrestler could truly, because again, the difference was conditioning and endurance at the end of the day. So if Ferrari has something that he's, you know, he doesn't have any rest. He's ready to go. He could absolutely knock off Rocco Welsh and it's deemed an upset, even though I think these two are on the same level playing field. My hope is for Penn State's perspective to see Welsh maybe meet Max McInelly in the championship, of course, but that's only if he gets past Angelo Ferrari. It's a shame that it's a quarterfinal instead of a semi-final or a championship,

Starting point is 00:28:26 but it is what it is. So Ferrari should place top three because he is one of the three best wrestlers. And whether it's first, second or third, it's Welsh McInelly and Ferrari. It's just a matter of what order is that going to be in. Absolutely. And Ferrari, if it does play out this, I still think when we get the official bracket, Ferrari's not going to be the eight seed. I think we're going to see Angelo at least higher than that. And I think we're probably going to see him the bottom side of the bracket. I could very well see him, maybe bumping up to like the 60, something like that. The lack of matches are going to be the knock against him. But I also think the Big Tens are going to look at this and say, do we really want a quarterfinal with Ferrari and Welsh,

Starting point is 00:29:03 which very well could or should be the championship match? So I do think we're going to see a little bit of movement there, and Ferrari does bump up. 197. Josh Barr is kind of like Mitchell Messonbrink, but it's also, hey, Caliendo still is somebody that can get to the finals. Joey Blaze, really talented in a matchup that I'd like to see against Messenbring. Josh Bar just doesn't have that nature of the competition. There is no Mikey Caliendo equivalent. There is no Joey Blaze equivalent at 197 right now, which opens up an opportunity for Gabe Arnold to really make some noise here. Look, this isn't his weight class. He has bounced around from 74 to 87. He's been a placeholder everywhere. He's been a Swiss Army knife

Starting point is 00:29:41 for this Iowa team this season. So I'm glad he gets to compete in the postseason. It's just not it as weight class. But I also do see Arnold with the opportunity, to mess things up and potentially finish top three here at a 197 class that it's just Josh Barr and everybody else. You know, a lot of credit too to Gabe Arnold, a guy that stuck around coming into the season didn't look like there was going to be likely a spot in the lineup. He went out there and wrestled off and to stick around to do that. He could have been wrestling, you know, a ton of programs across the country, been a starter at his traditional weight class. He stuck around. A lot of credit to that guy. He's going to be given up a ton of size here at 97. But he'll go out there. He'll

Starting point is 00:30:18 compete, he'll wrestle hard. He will certainly give it a full effort. And that's what I love about Gabe Arnold, a guy that's had to be moved around the lineup a whole lot, has stuck it out, done a lot of good things here. At minimum, you hope he finishes in the top half. He's able to qualify for nationals and give himself an opportunity there. But more than anything, yeah, he's not going to run down Josh Barr. Nobody's going to run down Josh Barr at 97 in the Big Ten, but still a lot of credit to Gabe Arnold. And then we get to heavyweight as we'll wrap things up for the Big Ten tournament. Again, going down and state college, Bryce Jordan Center. Iowa has Ben Keeter as the 10 seed, which again, this is kind of the way. You didn't wrestle enough Big Ten duels. So this is

Starting point is 00:30:56 understandable to an extent. Cole Marasola as it stands right now is the four seat. I don't imagine too much reshuffling here at the heavyweight spot. Maybe Feldman and Mirasola switch, which would be a big deal in my opinion, because Marasola wouldn't have to face an elite caliber wrestler at this weight class. In Braxton Amos, Nick Feldman would have to. And then you would potentially meet AJ Ferrari in the semifinals match. So Godali of Michigan's one, Ferrari of Nebraska is two, Feldman is three, Mirosola's four, Amos is five. This is a weight class here.

Starting point is 00:31:28 Trent, when I look at Ben Keeter, I know that he's dealing with a lot of health stuff. I know his potential, but if he's not 100%, when he is 100%, this is a wrestler that can easily finish top three. It's just that so can Tay Godali, AJ Ferrari, Nick Feldman, Cole Mirasola, Brackson, Amos, I'll throw Luke Luffman into the equation out of Illinois as well. This might be, in terms of quantity, the most deep, uh, wrestling, weight class at big tens. It absolutely is a ton of guys that you look at and definitely can make it.

Starting point is 00:32:00 We don't have heavy weight. You don't have nearly as much scoring as compared to most of the other weight classes. So that's also a component here. But, you know, for me, when I look at Ben Keeter, from the Iowa perspective, I think this is just an overall indictment of the wrestling program. This is a guy at the national scene and the worldwide scene as a youth. as a teenager, we just saw how dominating he was. And he tried to play football along with wrestling.

Starting point is 00:32:23 I think that definitely hurt his development. You do wonder the way this season has gone if he makes the decision maybe to go back to football now, if that's something that makes more sense because it just hasn't popped this year. And you look through at what's happened here recently, even as we flipped the calendar into 2006, the losses that he had, not just a J. Ferrarra, but Mirosolo losing that one, four to three, getting majored by the guy from Michigan, Feldman beat him three. to two. There's just been so much. And the lack of offense, if you would have told me what I was watching this guy at the high school level, watching him on the international scene that we were

Starting point is 00:32:55 just going to see just another whole hum kind of heavyweight that's out there, a hand fighting for a while, slapping the head a couple of times and hoping for a late takedown. I would have called you crazy, but that's what we've seen here recently out of Ben Keeter. So for Cole Mirasola, that matchup early on, you get another test. I mean, Braxton Amos could definitely beat Mirosola, knock him down to consolations. Mirosola could also win. That's a toss up, but then after that, AJ Ferrari, toss up. You potentially meet, or if you get to that side of the bracket, right? The margin of error, the margin of talent is so close between these wrestlers.

Starting point is 00:33:29 I don't know that I can give you a top three. Colmarisola could be at the top of the podium. He could also finish in fifth place. The range of outcomes for this weight class is off the charts. So we'll see how that one is one of the ones in terms of overall placements, the one that I'm most intrigued by to see the, the overall order when this one's finalized. So this Saturday and Sunday,

Starting point is 00:33:51 Big Ten wrestling tournament at the Bryce Jordan Center, hosted by Penn State. And it's going to be a fun one, as it always is. We'll see how Iowa does. We'll see how Penn State does overall. And going into NCAAs, what kind of momentum each team can build.

Starting point is 00:34:05 My name is Zach Seiko. I'm the host of Lekton-Nitney Lions. He is Trent Condon, the host of Lockton Hot Guys for daily Penn State and Iowa coverage. Make sure you're subscribed to both of our YouTube channels and wherever you get your podcast, Trent. It's always great to connect. with you to catch up. And let's do this again for NCAAs. Let's do it. And maybe, maybe we can

Starting point is 00:34:22 have a little bit more positivity, but I'm not real helpful right now.

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