IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa wrestling team will travel to Ames, Iowa, for the opening rounds of the NWCA/Cliff Keen Division I National Duals on Feb. 12. The NWCA announced the tournament format today.
The Hawkeyes will face a regional tournament field that includes Northern Iowa, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and host Iowa State. The NWCA/Cliff Keen Division I National Duals Presented by Hibiclens and The Marines, will be held on the campuses of Cornell, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Rutgers. The 24-team field includes 15 teams ranked in the top 25.
The tournament format will be wrestled in three rounds on two mats at each facility. Teams will be seeded No. 1 through No. 6 and will wrestle according to its seed.
In the first round, seeds 1 and 2 will receive a bye with seeds 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 wrestling each other. The winners from the first round matches will move into the semifinals for round two against the top two seeds. The winners of the semifinal matches will then advance to the final round. At the same time the final round is being wrestled, the first round teams that lost will wrestle their second match.
The winner of each region will move on to compete February 19th for the National Championship. The host site for this event will be announced soon.
Below is the breakdown of the twenty-four teams broken down into four regionals (the first team listed is the host team):
- Iowa State, Iowa, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and Northern Iowa.
- Cornell, Central Michigan, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, and American.
- Rutgers, Minnesota, Kent State, Michigan, Missouri, and Cal Poly.
- Oklahoma State, Boise State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Chattanooga.
Rutgers will host their regional on February 11th, while the other three regional tournaments will take place at Cornell, Iowa State and Oklahoma State on February 12th. Start times and tournament seeds have not been announced.
Ticket and more specific event information are available at nwcaonline.com.
