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Iowa hoping season dominance carries over to Big Ten meet

Sports

March 4th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The top-ranked Iowa wrestling team heads into the Big Ten Tournament looking for its first conference championship since 2015. The tournament is Saturday and Sunday at Rutgers. The Hawkeyes made it through the regular season undefeated, with 10 of their 13 dual-meet wins against nationally ranked teams.

FILE – In this Jan. 31, 2020, file photo, Iowa’s Michael Kemerer celebrates after defeating Penn State’s Mark Hall at 174 pounds during a Big Ten college wrestling meet in Iowa City, Iowa. Ten of the Hawkeyes’ 13 dual-meet wins came against nationally ranked teams, including a 13-day stretch in January in which they defeated Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State, teams that finished in the top five in the final national rankings. They go into this weekend’s Big Ten championships in Piscataway, N.J., with every wrestler seeded in the top three in their individual classes. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen via AP, File)

All 10 of their wrestlers enter the conference tournament seeded in the top three in their classes: 125-pounder Spencer Lee and 174-pounder Michael Kemerer are seeded No. 1. Iowa finished third behind Penn State and Ohio State in last season’s conference meet.