ST. LOUIS — Three Big Ten heavyweights have qualified for the 2021 NCAA Wrestling Championship semifinals slated for Friday evening at the Enterprise Center.

Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, Michigan’s Mason Parris, and Iowa’s Tony Cassioppi have battled for Big Ten supremacy for the last two years, and now they’re all set to clash in front of national audience on ESPN in primetime.

Steveson and Parris are seeded No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Cassioppi is the tournament’s fifth seed at 285-pounds.

Steveson is 15-0 on the season — including NCAA Championship action. Parris is 11-1, and his only loss of the year came to Steveson at the 2021 Big Ten Wrestling Championships in State College, Pennsylvania, March 6.

Cassioppi is 0-5 on his collegiate career against Steveson and Parris. In two matchups with Parris, Cassioppi has been pinned twice. Steveson has defeated Cassioppi twice by decision and once by major decision.

Steveson is 2-0 against Parris on his career.

“Big Ten’s the best wrestling conference there is,” Cassioppi said after his Session IV victory over Arizona State’s Cohlton Schultz. “It’s the toughest, and that’s why I went to Iowa — wrestling the toughest guys I can to just push myself to the highest level possible.”

The Big Ten’s three semifinal heavyweights never had the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Championships in 2020, as the event was canceled because of COVID-19.

While the collegiate season was in limbo, Cassioppi competed unattached from the University of Iowa at the Hawkeye Wrestling Club Showdown Open in November.

In October, Parris won USA Wrestling’s 2020 Senior Nationals at 125 kilograms at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.

“It feels good [to participate in the NCAA Championships],” Cassioppi said. “I’ve been thinking about this tournament ever since last year’s got canceled. I’m just really thankful that I can be out here wrestling, and you know, thankful I got Hawk fans and family out in the stands cheering for us.”

Iowa State’s Gannon Gremmel is the other heavyweight semifinalist. The Hawkeyes and Cyclones did not engage in a Cy-Hawk showdown in 2021 as Iowa and other Big Ten teams wrestled league-only schedules.

Cassioppi has wrestled Gremmel once in his career. The Roscoe, Illinois, native outlasted the Cyclone senior, 6-0, at the 2020 Cy-Hawk wrestling meet in Ames, Iowa.

Gremmel is 18-1 this season and entered the NCAA Championships seeded sixth.

With a trip to the finals on the line, Gremmel will face Parris, and Cassioppi will take on Steveson.

NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship semifinal action begins at 7 p.m.

Below is a complete list of Iowa wrestling’s semifinal matchups:

125-pounds: No. 1 Spencer Lee vs. No. 4 Drew Hildebrandt (Central Michigan)

133-pounds: No. 4 Austin DeSanto vs. No. 1 Daton Fix (Oklahoma State)

141-pounds: No. 1 Jaydin Eierman vs. No. 4 Tariq Wilson (North Carolina State)

174-pounds: No. 1 Michael Kemerer vs. No. 12 Bernie Truax (Cal-Poly)

285-pounds: No. 5 Tony Cassioppi vs. No. 1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota)