After spending last weekend on the East Coast, No. 22 Minnesota returns home on Saturday to host the Air Force Academy at 6:30 p.m. in the Sports Pavilion. The dual will be the Gophers first at the Pav this season after hosting their season-opening quad next door at Williams Arena. Saturday will also be the first competition day for Minnesota this season during which it will wrestle just one dual after back-to-back three-dual days to begin the season (Gopher Duals on Nov. 7, Northeast Duals on Nov. 15).
If it seems like there is a lot of Gopher Wrestling packed into November this season, that’s by design. This weekend’s dual with Air Force will be Minnesota’s seventh dual this month, which matches a program record for November duals. This year’s squad will set a new mark next week when it travels to Oklahoma State to wrap up an eight-dual November.
While Minnesota returns to the Pavilion with six duals already under its belt, its last three against opponents ranked in the top 13 nationally, Air Force has had just one head-to-head contest so far in 2015-16. That match, a 22-16 loss to Wyoming, was AFA’s first Big 12 conference dual since the program became one of six to join the league heading into this season. The Falcons split their 10 matches with the Cowboys, but a fall at 141 put Air Force in an early hole. After working back to a 16-16 tie through nine matches, helped by a major decision at 165, a pin at 285 in the night’s final match sealed the Falcons’ fate.
This weekend’s match will be the seventh all-time meeting between Minnesota and Air Force. The Gophers opened last season with a matinee against the Falcons in Colorado Springs, a 28-15 Minnesota victory. This year will be just the second time in the series’ history that the team teams have met in consecutive seasons, the previous instance coming in the ‘80-81 and ‘81-82 seasons. All-time, the Gophers hold a perfect 6-0 record over the Academy.
Minnesota won seven matches in last year’s dual, including wins from returning starters Nick Wanzek, No. 6 Brett Pfarr and No. 9 Michael Kroells, though only Kroells will wrestle at the same weight on Saturday as he did in last year’s contest. The Falcons also return just three starters from last year’s dual, with No. 13 Josh Martinez now up from 125 to 133, and Jerry McGinty (149) and Marcus Malecek (285) returning as well.
As will often be the case for this season’s Minnesota team, there will be a lot of young talent on the mat for Saturday’s dual. The Gophers will likely wrestle five true or redshirt freshmen, while Air Force will surely wrestle at least one (true freshman Alex Lopouchanski at 165) and potentially as many as three.
With all that youth in the lineup and the two teams returning a combined six starters from last year’s bout, there are few matchups on the card between wrestlers who have previously locked up at the college level. The most-wrestled series comes at heavyweight, where Kroells will take on Malecek for the third time in the past two years. In last season’s dual, Kroells defeated Malecek in a 9-3 decision, then added a 9-0 major decision in the opening round of the Cliff Keen Invitational three weeks later. Sam Brancale is the only other Gopher who will see a familiar opponent when he takes on Martinez. Like Martinez, Brancale bumped up to 133 this season. He will be looking to avenge a tech fall loss to Martinez in last year’s dual.
For fans that can’t be at the Pav in person, there are several ways to follow the action throughout the dual. The event will be streamed live on BTN Plus ($) or follow along as Gopher Wrestling provides live, matside updates from every match on Twitter. Live stats will be available on TrackWrestling.com.
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