This Friday’s dual in Columbus will feature as many as 17 ranked wrestlers and seven ranked-versus-ranked matches
With a pair of road duals this weekend, No. 2 Minnesota (10-1 overall, 6-1 Big Ten) will wrap up its Big Ten regular season. The first of these contests is this Friday, when the Gophers visit the site of this year’s Big Ten Championships – Columbus, Ohio – to take on No. 5 Ohio State (11-3 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) at 6 p.m. CT in a dual that will be streamed live on BTN Plus.
The Gophers head into Friday’s showdown with the Buckeyes in an unfamiliar position after dropping last Friday’s dual to Iowa. That loss was just the second dual loss for Minnesota in its last 31 contests. Recent history is on Minnesota’s side as the Gophers look to rebound from that defeat, as the Maroon and Gold has not lost consecutive duals in more than four years, a streak that stretches over the team’s last 65 contests.
Minnesota began the season 10-0, a run that included six victories over ranked opponents and a seventh over Wyoming, who was not ranked back on Nov. 15 when it hosted Minnesota, but has been ranked for the past several weeks.
Like Minnesota, Ohio State has wrestled against some of the nation’s top competition. In their non-conference schedule, the Buckeyes defeated a ranked Virginia squad, and also dropped a pair of duals by a single point each, first to Virginia Tech and then to Missouri, both top-10 teams. Since losing its conference-opener to Iowa in early January, Ohio State has won seven consecutive duals, three of which were against ranked teams.
Both of these teams have been involved in several close duals this season, but with very different results. While Ohio State suffered a pair of heart-breaking one-point losses, Minnesota has won all of its close duals this season, three by one point (Michigan, Illinois and Penn State) and a fourth by two points (Northwestern). This season is the first since 2002-03 in which the Gophers have won three duals by a single point.
Both Minnesota and Ohio State competed in the Cliff Keen Invitational in December. Minnesota won the team title in the event, outpacing second-place Ohio State by 32 points. The Gophers also claimed a pair of individual titles – No. 1 Chris Dardanes at 133 and No. 1 Dylan Ness at 157. One Ohio State wrestler – three-time NCAA champ and current No. 1 at 141, Logan Stieber – captured an individual title for the Buckeyes.
Despite taking the top two spots in that event, there was little overlap between the Gophers and Buckeyes in the tournament brackets. Only one match on Friday’s card will be a rematch from Las Vegas, a top-12 contest at 184 between No. 11 Brett Pfarr and No. 12 Kenny Courts. When the two met in December, Pfarr upset then-No. 6 Courts, 7-2.
While thin on rematches from recent years, Friday’s card is saturated with ranked wrestlers and as many as seven of the dual’s matches will pit ranked wrestlers against each other. Highlighting these bouts between highly ranked competitors will be 141, where No. 4 Nick Dardanes will face top-ranked Stieber. Neither has lost a dual match to this point in the season. The card includes another battle between top-five wrestlers, as No. 5 Scott Schiller, a redshirt senior, will take on No. 3 Kyle Snyder, a true freshman, at 197. In addition to these matchups, potential ranked-versus-ranked matches appear at 133, 157, 165, 174 and 184.
Friday’s dual will be the 57th all-time meeting between the Gophers and Buckeyes. Minnesota leads the series 41-12-3, a winning percentage that is the second-highest the Gophers hold against any Big Ten opponent. The Gophers have won four straight over the Buckeyes, the last two of which have been in Columbus. Most recently the two teams met in the semifinals of the 2014 NWCA National Duals competition. Minnesota took seven of the 10 matches that day, winning the dual 25-10 en route to the team’s third consecutive National Duals championship.
Friday’s meet will be streamed live on BTN Plus beginning at 6 p.m. CT. BTN Plus requires a user subscription to stream live events. For updates throughout the dual, follow Gopher Wrestling on Twitter. A full recap of the event will be available on GopherSports.com shortly afterwards.
Minnesota Match Notes (OSU)
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