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THIS WEEKEND IN PEACOCK WRESTLING… Upper Iowa returns home to Dorman Gymnasium for competition for the first time in 2015 this Friday and Saturday with home duals against the University of Mary and Northern State University. The Peacocks opened their 2014-15 campaign at home, but haven't wrestled in Dorman since defeating Waldorf (42-3) and Truman State (28-17) at the inaugural Mike Olson Duals on November 6.
SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS... The University of Mary wrestled at Minnesota State University, Mankato on Thursday night. U-Mary dropped the dual 24-12 to the Mavericks, but wrestled tough claiming four of the ten matches. U-Mary got wins by decision at 133, 149, 174 and 285 pounds thanks to victories by Hunter Menendez, Dane Fischer, Riley Nagel and Travis Smith. After the loss, U-Mary fell to 1-8 overall and 0-2 in the NSIC.
SCOUTING THE WOLVES... Northern State lost three dual matches Saturday at the second annual Nebraska-Kearney Midwest Duals. The Wolves faced some strong competition at the event, losing to Colorado Mesa 50-3, Western State (Colo.) 46-3 and Lindenwood (Mo.) 41-6. At 157 pounds, Sean Havlovic had the best day for the Wolves (0-6) as he went 2-1. Against Western State, Havlovic defeated Shawn Beiriger 10-8 and a hard-fought, back-and-forth match. Havlovic finished the day with an 8-5 decision over Lindenwood's Derrick Weller. At 197, Joe Gomez went 1-2, picking up a 9-7 sudden victory win over Colorado Mesa's Francisco Retana. Grant Steen picked up a 6-1 win at 149 for NSU against Lindenwood's Tony Arellano as well.
GOING FOR THE BONUS... This season officials have raised Upper Iowa wrestler's hands 350 times at the end of matches. The Peacocks are claiming victories in 58.2% of their matches. More impressive is the ratio of bonus-point wins for Upper Iowa so far this campaign. The Peacocks have recorded 156 wins by fall, 13 by technical fall and 37 by major decision. The 206 bonus-point wins leave Upper Iowa with 126 wins by decision and 18 wins by forfeit, medical forfeit or injury default. UIU is scoring bonus points in 58.8% of their matches this season.
Blake Sorensen leads the varsity competitors with 10 falls, while
Dalton Westerlund has 9 pins.
Jordan Rinken leads the team in bonus-point victories with 12 including 6 by fall, 4 by tech fall and 2 by major decision.
PEACOCKS IN THE POLLS... Upper Iowa is currently ranked 6th in the latest NWCA Top 20 Poll and three individuals also ranked in the top 8 in the nation. The ranked Peacocks are
Jordan Rinken (157, #6),
Blake Sorensen (184, #6) and
Logan Hopp (HWT, #7).
