Iowa vs Minnesota is one of the first duals starting of the big ten season and it is not lacking in fun exciting matches. There are 3 main ones that need to be talked about here and let’s get into it.
Patrick McKee vs Drake Ayala-
Now this depends solely on if Iowa decides to pull his redshirt. McKee was a third place All American last year and defeated Ayala 6-5 en route to winning the tournament. Whether Iowa will pull his redshirt or not is really dependent on if they think they should hold on to Drake till after Spencer leaves or just toss him out there now and hope he can be an All American this season.
If this match does go down it would have to still be in favor of McKee technically with there not being much to go off of after that match and the matches being so close together time wise. The match is in Carver which may be just what Drake Ayala needs to take the bout so nothing should really be counted out here.
Overall there is not much to this matchup at this moment but with Lee out for the season this weight class has gotten interesting and it will be cool to see if they have another tier one ready to fill in now or when Lee is gone.
Kaleb Young vs Brayton Lee-
This match has been an absolute bloodbath every time it has gone down in the duals with Kaleb Young leading the all time series 2-1. Young won both times in the tiebreakers and Lee claimed his one win over the Hawkeye in regulation 3-2.
No matter who wins this one expect to see a tough physical and gritty match that will go 7 minutes. Young has historically been able to pull big moves out of his back pocket when down late so that will always be something to look out for.
Judging by their performance this season Lee will be the clear favorite this time but don’t sleep on Kaleb Young he could very well grab the win here.
Gable Steveson vs Tony Cassioppi-
There might not be too much to watch for here in terms of it being a competitive match but these two have some bad blood or at least some disdain for each other based on their past matchups dating all the way back to high school.
Steveson will probably end up winning this matchup by a major decision but it will be better to finally see Gable Steveson on the mat again should he decide to wrestle.
Cassioppi has not looked too bad this season apart from his match at Princeton. He has wins over All American’s Jordan Wood and Matt Stencel so that seems to be a solid start so far. He has ways to go this season with how heavyweight has progressed but this will be a good match for the Hawkeye to see where he is at this point in the season.
