Two

Two

Pete Ruden, Sports Editor

It’s that time of the year. Postseason basketball and wrestling are in the air, and we’re heading right toward Big Ten postseason for both sports.

At this point in the year, it’s weird to see Hawkeye wrestling without any individual grapplers ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes, but here we are.

That doesn’t mean one won’t win a Big Ten title, though. In fact, two will.

I think Spencer Lee is almost a lock for a conference championship at 125 pounds. There’s no way he loses to Northwestern’s Sebastian Rivera twice in the same season, especially with a Big Ten title on the line.

After getting stuck for the first time this season against Nick Piccininni of Oklahoma State in Iowa’s last dual meet, Lee’s going to be hungry to bounce back. He’s going to get back on track in Minneapolis.

For the second Big Ten champion from Iowa, there are two toss-ups: Austin DeSanto at 133 pounds and Alex Marinelli at 165.

If I had to guess, I would say Marinelli finds a way to topple Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State. He has done it before, so what’s one more time? With the season Marinelli is having, doubting him at this point would not be the best decision, as he finally finds what he has been looking for since last season.

DeSanto also has a chance to win it all and make it three, but with Rutgers’ Nick Suriano and Michigan’s Stevan Micic in the same bracket, his path to gold won’t be easy.

So I’m officially predicting a Big Ten title for Lee and another one for Marinelli or DeSanto (but probably Marinelli).