This Week in Peacock Wrestling... The Peacock wrestling program is on the road to restart their action in the Northern Sun Conference. No. 19 Upper Iowa is 1-0 in the conference thanks to a 33-11 win over Minot State back in December. UIU travels to southern Minnesota for a pair of duals against the No. 9 Mavericks of Minnesota State University, Mankato on Thursday, Jan. 17 and the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University on Friday, Jan. 18. Both duals are slated to begin at 7 p.m.
 
UIU in Duals this season… The Peacocks are 4-3 in duals this year coming off an eighth place finish at the NWCA National Duals in Louisville, Kentucky to begin 2019. UIU opened the season with wins over Truman State University (56-0) and Minot State University (33-11). At the National Duals, Upper Iowa defeated West Liberty University (36-12) and Gannon University (24-12) around a loss (27-12) to No. 2 St. Cloud State University to earn their place on day two. UIU fell to No. 8 Lindenwood University (26-21) and the No. 13 University of Central Oklahoma (24-12) to close out their time in Louisville.
 
NCAA Leaders…  The NCAA has released the debut standings for the 2019 NCAA Wrestling Awards that will be awarded in March at the respective Division I, II and III Wrestling Championships. For falls and tech falls to be counted they must come against opponents in the same division (i.e. Division II vs. Division II). Ties in the two categories are broken based on the aggregate time. A three-way tie with eight falls marks the Division II standings between Lake Erie's Evan Loughman, Upper Iowa's Justin Folley and Seton Hill's Alan Diltz. Loughman wins the tiebreaker with an aggregate time of 17:01 at heavyweight to rank first ahead of 133-pounders Folley and Diltz. UIU's Jordan Gundrum is fourth on the list with 6 falls against NCAA Division II foes in a time of 13:37.
 
Peacocks in the Rankings… Upper Iowa is ranked No. 19 in the country in the latest national poll and boasts four individuals in the rankings as well. Justin Folley (133) is ranked No. 7 in the country after going 5-0 at the National Duals with three falls and a major; the junior is currently 22-4 with 12 bonus-point wins on the year. Brock Benitz has returned the national rankings, but now at 165 pounds. Benitz is ranked No. 8 in the nation with an 8-3 record overall; he was 4-1 at the National Duals. Dalton Hahn (184) has enjoyed a great start to his sophomore campaign; he is 22-6 and ranked No. 10 in the country, while Nick Baumler (197) rounds out the nationally-ranked group with an 14-4 record and a No. 9 ranking.
 
Scouting the Mavericks…  Minnesota State comes into the dual with a 3-1 record and the No. 9 ranked team in the nation. A quartet of Maverick individuals are rated in the top twelve of their respective individual classes. A returning All-American who places second at nationals last year, senior George Farmah, is rated #1 at 133 with a 3-0 record. Junior Zach Johnston (174) is ranked fourth and stands 7-1 for the year. Senior Seth Elwood (165) is rated 12th and owns a 9-5 mark this season. Sophomore Kyle Rathman (149) is rated seventh and has fashioned a 7-1 mark this year. The Mavericks opened their dual schedule with a loss to Colorado State University-Pueblo (31-11), but defeated Simon Fraser University (41-6), Colorado Mesa University (25-13) and Minot State (28-9).
 
Scouting the Mustangs… Southwest Minnesota State enters the weekend with two duals on their schedule; the Mustangs will host the Peacocks and the Vikings of Augustana University. SMSU is 0-3 on the season and 0-2 in the Northern Sun with losses to St. Cloud State (35-6), Northern State University (22-16) and Augsburg University (32-6). The Mustangs are led by a trio of grapplers including Cortez Arredondo (17-5), who is ranked No. 8 in the country at 157 pounds. Kegen Fingalsen (13-8) at 165 pounds and Andrew Petersen (17-6) at heavyweight have also had strong starts to their season.
 
Probable Lineups…

No. 19 Peacocks		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	Maleek Williams	14	7	1	6	2	5
125	Jared Hensley	7	7	3	1	2	1
133	#7 Justin Folley	22	4	9	1	2	6
141	Ryan Schmalen	7	13	1	0	0	6
141	Wilson Metellus	0	1	0	0	0	0
149	Ryan Steffen	6	14	3	0	0	2
149	Chase Seaney	7	8	0	1	0	4
157	Tucker Black	12	7	3	2	4	2
157	Mac Spotts	12	10	4	1	3	3
165	#8 Brock Benitz	8	3	2	0	2	4
174	Jordan Gundrum	18	7	11	3	1	1
174	Connor Williams	18	6	7	0	1	8
184	#10 Dalton Hahn	22	6	9	0	3	10
184	Jamie Gehling	7	5	3	0	0	3
197	#9 Nick Baumler	14	4	4	1	1	7
HWT	Triston Westerlund	6	3	5	0	0	1
No. 9 Mavericks		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	Andrew McFall	4	1	0	0	1	3
133	#1 George Farmah	3	0	0	2	1	0
141	Kolbe O'Brien	17	4	10	1	1	4
141	Louie Sanders	7	2	1	0	0	6
149	#7 Kyle Rathman	7	1	0	2	3	2
157	Daniel Close	10	6	3	0	0	7
165	Logan Saltou	9	5	2	1	2	4
174	#4 Zach Johnston	7	1	0	0	6	1
184	Trevor Turriff	7	2	0	2	2	3
197	Dylan Butts	8	7	1	0	1	6
285	Max Villnow	13	6	7	0	0	6
Mustangs (RV)		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	Ben Emrich	10	7	6	1	2	2
133	Brock Buysse	5	10	1	0	1	2
141	Jordan Biehn	5	5	2	2	0	0
149	Justin Haneke	5	7	1	0	2	2
157	#8 Cortez Arredondo	17	5	1	4	6	4
165	Kegen Fingalsen	13	8	1	0	2	11
174	Dru Kuchenbaker	8	5	3	1	0	2
184	Griffin Osing	9	4	6	0	2	4
197	Cole Hennen	10	7	1	3	0	6
285	Andrew Petersen	17	6	3	0	3	5

 
On the Horizon… The Peacocks will be on the road again in two weeks for two more NSIC duals. UIU will travel to Minnesota State University Moorhead on Saturday, Jan. 26 and Augustana University on Sunday, Jan. 27. UIU will return home for three duals in February to close out the regular season.