Friday night duals in the Big Ten are much different now-a-days, but one thing has stayed consistent, the Iowa Hawkeyes dominate Golden Gophers or whoever is thrown out there. Spencer Lee and Iowa traveled to Minneapolis to wrestle the Minnesota Gophers and Gable Steveson.
The Hawkeyes and Golden Gophers squared off in a match on paper that should have been closer, but Iowa does what Iowa does best and waxed the Gophers in 9 out of 10 head to head matches, 7 of which were top 25 wrestlers going toe to toe. Spencer Lee is exactly the type of wrestler you want at the top of your lineup, a multi time national champion who already has racked up tons of world medals. He is a bonus point machine and Friday night was no different, pinning another 6th ranked Patrick McKee in the first period, and from that point on they never looked back.
Now this lineup is stacked with guys who feel like they have been wearing the black and gold singlet for a decade with all the years of extra eligibility that have been granted to athletes. Their hammers like Eirman, Desanto and Marinelli all using their extra years to keep dominating guys winning by major, tech and major respectively.
The Gophers lone win came in the final bout of the day, in what was the best match on paper, #1 Gable Steveson vs #3 Tony Cassioppi. The highly anticipated bout turned out to be nothing of the sort as Gable dominated the All-American start to finish in a 15-6 major. The final dual score was 35-4.
The Hawkeyes look like the team to beat write now with Penn State having not wrestled a match since the world was flipped on it’s head in March, making Iowa the team with the expectations come conference tournament time.
TL//DR: Hawkeyes dominate Golden Gophers 35-4
