This Week in Peacock Wrestling... No. 19 Upper Iowa is in northern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota this weekend for a pair of afternoon Northern Sun Conference Duals. The Peacocks will line up with the Dragons of Minnesota State University Moorhead on Saturday, Jan. 26 in Moorhead, Minn. and then take on the Vikings of Augustana University on Sunday, Jan. 27 in Sioux Falls, S.D. Both the Dragons and Vikings are receiving votes in the latest NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches Association Top 25. Both duals will begin at 2 p.m. and mark the final road weekend of the regular season for the Peacocks.
 
UIU in Duals this season… The Peacocks are 5-4 in duals and 2-1 against NSIC opponents this year coming off a split last weekend against No. 9 Minnesota State University, Mankato and Southwest Minnesota State University (RV). The Peacocks nearly defeated the Mavericks, but fell shy by one point 18-17 after MSU rallied in the final two bouts to claim the win. UIU bounced back winning eight of the ten matches against SMSU to post a 25-8 victory. Upper Iowa earned an eighth place finish at the NWCA National Duals in Louisville, Kentucky to begin 2019. 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. . UIU opened the season with wins over Truman State University (56-0) and Minot State University (33-11).
 
NCAA Leaders…  The NCAA has released an update to the 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. Evan Loughman of Lake Erie University leads NCAA Division II in falls with 9, while UIU's Justin Folley is tied for second with 8 falls and Jordan Gundrum is in a five-way tie for sixth with 6 falls. Folley's eight pins have come in a time of 26:02, while Gundrum has stopped his six wins by fall 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 a big weekend including a 13-5 major over No. 1 George Farmah; the junior is the current NSIC Wrestler of the Week and holds a 24-4 mark with 13 bonus-point wins on the year. Brock Benitz is ranked No. 8 in the nation at 165 pounds with a 9-4 record overall. Dalton Hahn (184) has enjoyed a great start to his sophomore campaign; he is 24-6 and ranked No. 10 in the country, while Nick Baumler (197) rounds out the nationally-ranked group with a 16-4 record and a No. 9 ranking.
 
Scouting the Dragons… The Dragons are coming off a 27-12 loss to Augustana on Jan. 17 that saw the Dragons win three matches, including sophomore Seth Hutchison winning via fall at 133-pounds, redshirt freshman Evan Foster winning a 9-8 decision at 184-pounds and sophomore Jordan Magnuson winning a 2-1 decision in overtime at 285-pounds. With the loss, the Dragons fell to 2-6 overall and 2-2 in NSIC competition. Foster leads the Dragons with a 21-12 record, the only Dragon thus far to win 20 or more matches. Sophomore Cole Jones, who is ranked No. 7 nationally at 125 pounds, is right behind him with a 19-7 record, along with redshirt freshman Mason Schulz(17-15) and freshman Braydon Ortloff (16-10). Senior Adam Blees is 12-8 at 174.
 
Scouting the Vikings… The Vikings enter their lone match of the week with a 3-1 overall record in duals, with a 2-1 mark in the Northern Sun after posting a 27-12 win at home over MSU Moorhead last Thursday, and a 28-9 win at Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday. The winning streak started with a dominating 54-0 win over Dakota State on Jan. 9. The Vikings won the last meeting with Upper Iowa in the Elmen Center, 19-16, on Feb. 5, 2017, when the Peacocks came in ranked No. 19, but Upper Iowa leads the all-time series 9-3 including last season's 22-15 win for the Peacocks in Fayette. The Vikings are led by No. 9 Clayton Wahlstrom (197, 21-11) and Colin Ayers (157, 21-8). Jebben Keyes (141) has recorded a team-high 6 falls, while Daniel Bishop (184) has posted a team-high 11 tech falls.

Probable Lineups...
 
 

No. 19 Peacocks		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	Maleek Williams	15	8	1	7	2	5
125	Jared Hensley	7	7	3	1	2	1
133	#7 Justin Folley	24	4	9	1	3	7
141	Ryan Schmalen	8	14	1	0	0	7
141	Wilson Metellus	0	1	0	0	0	0
149	Ryan Steffen	6	14	3	0	0	2
149	Ryan Roth	10	11	7	1	1	1
157	Tucker Black	13	7	3	2	4	2
157	Mac Spotts	12	11	4	1	3	3
165	#8 Brock Benitz	9	4	2	0	2	4
174	Jordan Gundrum	19	8	11	3	1	2
174	Connor Williams	18	6	7	0	1	8
184	#10 Dalton Hahn	24	6	9	0	3	10
184	Jamie Gehling	7	5	3	0	0	3
197	#9 Nick Baumler	16	4	4	1	2	8
HWT	Triston Westerlund	8	3	5	0	0	3
Dragons (RV)		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	#7 Cole Jones	19	7
133	Seth Hutchison	8	11
141	Mason Schulz	16	12
149	Dylan Connell	0	2
157	Braydon Ortloff	16	10
165	Justin Dravis	10	16
174	Adam Blees	12	8
184	Evan Foster	21	12
197	Mitch Kotschevar	6	11
285	Jordan Magnuson	1	2
Vikings (RV)		Wins	Losses	Falls	TF	MD	Dec.
125	Ethan Cota	12	13	2	1	1	5
133	Brayden Curry	5	13	3	0	1	0
141	Jebben Keyes	13	9	6	0	0	7
141	Keaten Schorr	2	4	1	0	0	1
149	Tyler Wagener	7	2	3	2	1	1
157	Colin Ayers	21	8	0	1	6	13
165	Jackson Sweeney	12	5	1	0	2	6
165	Bailey Neises	9	5	1	0	3	5
174	Lukas Poloncic	10	7	3	1	1	4
184	Daniel Bishop	17	10	1	11	2	2
197	#11 Clayton Wahlstrom	21	11	4	1	4	9
285	Matt Naig	6	9	2	0	0	3

 
 
 
 
 














































Looking Ahead… Upper Iowa will host the University of Mary on Friday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. The dual with the Marauders will be the first of three straight home duals to close out the regular season for the Peacocks. UIU will also welcome the No. 1 Huskies of St. Cloud State University on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. and the Wolves of Northern State University on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m.