Scouting report: Looking at the six Hawkeye finals matchups
Iowa leads all teams with six wrestlers competing in the finals Sunday.
March 7, 2021
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Champions will be crowned at the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday. And for Iowa, it’s not so much if the team will win individual titles, but how many it will win.
Spencer Lee (125 pounds), Austin DeSanto (133), Jaydin Eierman (141), Kaleb Young (157), Alex Marinelli (165), and Michael Kemerer (174) will all compete in Sunday’s final round for the first-place Hawkeyes.
Iowa, whose 126.5 points lead the 2021 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament heading into day two, has two more wrestlers in the finals than any other school (Penn State is second with four).
Here’s a look at the six Hawkeye finals matchups.
125 — No. 1 Spencer Lee vs. No. 7 Devin Schroder (Purdue)
This matchup is a rematch of the 125-pound Big Ten finals last season, a match Lee won by 16-2 major decision to win his first conference title.
Lee won 17-0 in the only other matchup between the two wrestlers during the 2019-20 regular season. Schroder entered the tournament as a seven-seed and upset the No. 2 and 3 seeds on his way to the finals.
This is Lee’s third time competing in the Big Ten finals. He is 1-1 in his first two attempts.
133 — No. 2 Austin DeSanto vs. No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
Here we go again.
This is a matchup fit for the conference finals. DeSanto and Bravo-Young have met four times before in their college careers. DeSanto won the first two meetings. First, during the 2018-19 regular season, DeSanto won by 12-8 decision. He followed that up with a 7-2 decision later that season in the NCAA Championships bracket.
Bravo-Young won last regular season because of an injury to DeSanto. The two met again at the 2020 Big Ten Championships and Bravo-Young won by 3-2 decision.
This is DeSanto’s first appearance in the Big Ten finals.
141 — No. 1 Jaydin Eierman vs. No. 2 Nick Lee (Penn State)
Eierman has already won three MAC Conference Championships in his time with Missouri. On Sunday, he’s going for the top spot on the 141-pound Big Ten podium in his first season as a Hawkeye.
Eierman and Lee have only met once before. When he was at Missouri, Eierman defeated Lee by 12-4 major decision in the 2017-18 NCAA Tournament bracket.
157 — No. 2 Kaleb Young vs. No. 1 Ryan Deakin (Northwestern)
Young didn’t place at last year’s conference meet. He’s attempting to jump all the way to the top of the podium with a win on Sunday.
These two wrestlers have met three times before in college, with all of those meetings occurring over the 2018-19 season. Deakin won by 6-2 decision in the regular season that year. But Young got his revenge by beating him twice in the NCAA Championship bracket, both times in sudden victory.
165 — No. 1 Alex Marinelli vs. No. 3 Ethan Smith (Ohio State)
There have been 18 three-time Big Ten Champions in the history of the Iowa wrestling program. Marinelli is competing to be No. 19.
“The Bull” will meet Smith in Sunday’s 165-pound finals. This is the third consecutive year Marinelli is competing in the tournament’s final round. He defeated Penn State’s Vincenzo Joseph in both of the past two years.
Marinelli could also become the 26th Hawkeye overall to win at least three conference titles. Seven Iowa wrestlers are four-time Big Ten title winners.
Marinelli won the only previous meeting with Smith last regular season. He won by 14-10 decision at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
174 — No. 1 Michael Kemerer vs. No. 3 Carter Starocci (Penn State)
Kemerer is making his third appearance in the Big Ten finals, but is still seeking his first finals victory.
At 157 pounds in 2017, Kemerer lost to Penn State’s Jason Nolf in the finals. Last season, another Nittany Lion — Mark Hall — defeated him in the 174-pound finals.
Kemerer has never wrestled Starocci. Maybe attempt No. 3 against a Nittany Lion in the finals will work better for Kemerer this time around.