BIG dual for minnesota!

pin2win

@hagertony
#4 Minnesota vs. #3 Oklahoma State
(Line-ups may change)
Projected Line-up
  • 125: #5 Zach Sanders vs. #9 Jon Morrison
  • 133: Bart Reiter or Thane Antczak vs. #1 Jordan Oliver
  • 141: #4 Mike Thorn vs. #12 Luke Silver
  • 149: Danny Zilverberg vs. #5 Jamal Parks
  • 157: Joe Grygelko vs. #10 Albert White
  • 165: #11 Cody Yohn vs. #8 Dallas Bailey
  • 174: #12 Scott Glasser or TBD vs. #8 Mike Benefiel
  • 184: #20 Kevin Steinhaus vs. #7 Chris Perry
  • 197: #5 Sonny Yohn vs. #4 Clayton Foster
  • Hwt: #10 Tony Nelson or Ben Berhow vs. Blake Rosholt
Well there are a few questions for Minnesota again this week. What kind of condition is Scott Glasser in? Will we have any chance of seeing Bart Reiter or David Thorn in this Dual? Who will go 157? Who will go Heavyweight? That sure seems like a lot of question marks heading into their biggest dual of this young season.
Oklahoma State seems to be going in the other direction. It hurt losing “Zâ€￾ for an extended amount of time but they still have 9 of 10 wrestlers ranked in the top 20. They get Mike Benefiel back and that helps their cause.
One paper we have Minnesota favored at 3 weights (125, 141, and Hwt). We have Oklahoma State favored at 7 (the rest). On paper this seems like one tall Mountain for Minnesota to climb. Minnesota will need upsets and some bonus points to pull this one out in their home opener. Their best chances come at 165, 174 (If Glasser is healthy) and 184.

The Match-ups

125: Well we start off with what we view as the match of the night. We are very much looking forward to this one. Morrison has been on fire this season. Sanders has looked his usual self as well (less the All Start match). One thing we noticed from Sanders this year is that he has really been looking to turn guys more. I think we will see Sanders really push the pace in this one and try to really open things up in that 3rd period. Sanders wins.

133: Well this almost seems like a gimmie for the pokes. Oliver is #1 and has looked very good so far this season. We have noticed him getting more aggressive and attacking more on his feet then he did last year. Minnesota will need to really try and avoid giving bonus points in this one.

141: Here we expect to see Thorn and Silver square off. Thorn won a 3-0 match a few weeks ago at UNO. Can silver close the gap? Sure he can, but on the flip side of that coin Thorn could widen the gap. The Gophers need him to really try. Much like Sanders Thorn has the ability to open things up later in matches and we think he will try to do just that in this one.

149: Another one on paper should be an obvious win for the Cowboys. Parks will take on freshman Zilverberg for the Gophers. Zilverberg is talented but Parks has looked solid all year and after watching last weeks dual we think Zilverberg needs some more seasoning. With that said we fully expect this to be a more exciting match then some may think.

157: Joe Grygelko will most likely get the nod for the Gophers against the Cowboys Albert White. White, who moved up after a wrestle off loss to Parks, has been winning.

165: Here we will get a rematch of the Kaufman-Brand Finals where Bailey was trailing and earned a fall over Yohn. This should be a close one again and should be considered one of the better match-ups in this dual. We see Yohn reversing that pin in this one.

174: Well we are going to look at this from the perspective that Glasser will wrestle in this one. We know we are going out on a limb as Glasser did look to be in a lot of pain last weekend. Benefiel is a favorite here, but we do not think you can count Glasser out of this one. This is another key match-up for both squads. They last met a few weeks ago with Benefiel winning in OT 2-1. If Glasser is healthy he could reverse this one. If he isn’t we see Benefiel coming out on top. If Glasser does not go look for the Cowboys to put up some bonus points.

184: Yet another match we are interested in watching. Steinhaus has been impressive and grinds his opponents down. Perry edged him out by 1 at UNO and if Steinhaus opens up some he could reverse that result. We have Perry as the slight favorite here in the rematch.

197: Well the question is can Yohn make a big improvement over the All-star result with Foster? We are not so sure that Yohn has an answer for Foster on his feet. The best chance he will have is to see if he can get on top and control the match. We do not see that happening and see Foster winning here.
Hwt: Based on last week it looks like Nelson has the upper hand right now for the Gophers. He looked pretty solid losing on riding time to Trice. He does need to get more aggressive on his feet, but seems to be coming along well. He will face Blake Rosholt for the Cowboys who is filling in for the injured Z. No matter if it is Nelson or Berhow we see the Gophers winning here.

TOM’s Prediction
Oklahoma State – 17
Minnesota – 15

TOM Duals of the Week of December 5th | OpenMat News
 




I'd love to see Okie St get knocked down but I don't see it happening. I don't think youll see bonus points at 33 but I figure Minnesotas got to win all the matches they're favored in (25, HWT, 141) and atleast 2 of the 4 tossups (65,74,84,97) just to be in this.

But what I find interesting is these relatively unproven underclassman are ranked so high (perry,morrison) in the past a first time starter was rarely ranked let alone ranked top 10. I remember when T-shirt was a freshman everyone knew he was going to be a stud and have an impact as freshman and he wasnt ranked top 20 by intermat until second semester. I just find it interesting that these rankings have stopped reserving judgment on these kids and put pressure on them out of the gate.
 






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