Match Notes: Ohio State

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ON THE MAT
The University of Iowa wrestling team hosts No. 4 Ohio State on Friday at  8:03 p.m. (CT) at Carver-Hawkeyes Arena.  Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for youth 18-years old and younger. Children five-years old and under and UI Students are admitted free to all matches.

THE SERIES — OHIO STATE
Iowa leads the all-time series against Ohio State, 39-4. The schools split the first four meetings, 2-2, before Iowa rattled off 34 consecutive victories from 1967-2011. Ohio State ended the streak with a 21-9 win in 2012 at Columbus.
Iowa is 15-1 all-time against the Buckeyes in Iowa City. Ohio State’s only win was a 17-13 victory in 1929, the first ever meeting in the series. Iowa has since won 15 in a row at home against the Buckeyes.

LUGO CHASES WIN NO. 100
Senior Pat Lugo’s next win will be No. 100 in his career. He has a career record of 99-37, including a 63-18 mark at Edinboro from 2015-17, and a 36-9 mark at Iowa from 2018-20.
Lugo is 13-0 this season, and has spent the last three weeks as the top-ranked 149-pounder in the country. Lugo climbed to the top spot of the 149-pound rankings Jan. 7 following the Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30.
Lugo won the 149-pound title, going 6-0 and using one pin, one technical fall, and two major decisions to reach the semifinals. He defeated No. 7 Max Thomsen, 3-2, in the semis, and defeated top-ranked Austin O’Conner, 8-4, in the finals.
Lugo is 13-0 this season with six wins over ranked opponents, including three in the top seven. He is 18-9 all-time against ranked opponents.
The No. 1 billing is the first of Lugo’s career. He has spent all season in the top 5 after finishing the 2019 season with an eighth-place All-America finish. Prior to the 2019 national tournament, Lugo had not been ranked higher than 10th.

FORCEFUL-LEE
Junior Spencer Lee enters Friday’s dual ranked No. 1 at 125 with a 9-0 record. Lee has scored bonus points in each match, winning once by major decision, twice by fall, and six times by technical fall.
Only four times this season has Lee wrestled into the second period. His two pins are both in under a minute, 0:54 and 0:52. He has three first-period technical falls, and the other three were in 3:13, 3:32, and 3:16.

ASSAD SHOWS UP IN CARVER DEBUT
Freshman Abe Assad won his Carver-Hawkeye Arena debut on Jan. 18, topping Nebraska’s No. 5 Taylor Venz, 6-4. It was his second top 10 win of the season, and improved his record to 3-0 since entering the varsity lineup on Jan. 10.
Assad is ranked sixth in the nation in the Jan. 21 Track Wrestling rankings. He is the third Hawkeye this season to crack the top 10 at 184 pounds.
Senior Cash Wilcke opened the season ranked ninth, and was ranked 10th in the Jan. 7 poll. Redshirt freshman Nelson Brands was ranked ninth in the Dec. 3 poll, and 10th in the Dec. 17 poll.
The Hawkeyes 184-pounders have a combined record of 33-8. Assad is 18-3 overall, recording a runner-up finish at the 2019 Midlands Championships. He made his Hawkeye debut with a 6-2 win at Indiana on Jan. 10.
Wilcke is 11-2 overall and placed third at Midlands. Brands is 4-3 overall with one win over a top 10 opponent, No. 7 Sam Colbray of Iowa State (4-2 SV1).

BIG TEN & 0
Junior Spencer Lee (17-0), junior Austin DeSanto (11-0), junior Alex Marinelli (21-0), freshman Abe Assad (3-0), and redshirt freshman Tony Cassioppi (4-0) are all undefeated in their careers in Big Ten duals.
Among Lee’s 17 Big Ten dual wins are seven falls (five in the first period), six technical falls, and one major decision.
Junior Michael Kemerer has a career mark of 20-1 in Big Ten duals, and senior Pat Lugo is 11-1 in his career in Big Ten duals.

HOME SWEET HOME
Spencer Lee, Alex Marinelli, Abe Assad, and Tony Cassioppi are undefeated in their careers at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Marinelli is 15-0 all-time at Carver. Lee owns a record of 14-0. Cassioppi is undefeated in four matches, and Assad won his Carver debut, 6-4, over No. 5 Taylor Venz of Nebraska on Jan. 18.
In Lee’s 14 home wins, he has four pins, six technical falls, and two major decisions. Four of the wins are against top 10 opponents.
Among Marinelli’s 15 wins, he has five pins, three technical falls, and one major decision.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
Friday’s dual is the second of a stretch of three duals in 14 days against three of the top seven teams in the country. Iowa defeated No. 7 Nebraska, 26-6, on Jan. 18. No. 4 Ohio State visits Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Jan. 24, and No. 2 Penn State is in Iowa City on Jan. 31. Those three teams have a combined record of 15-3. All three duals are televised on BTN.
The Hawkeyes close the regular season hosting No. 11 Minnesota on Feb. 15, and No. 9 Oklahoma State on Feb. 23. Those duals are also televised on BTN.

HAWKEYES AND CARVER-HAWKEYE ARENA
The Hawkeyes are 258-25 all-time at Carver-Hawkeye Arena since moving from the UI Field House in 1983. Iowa was 7-0 at home in 2018-19 completing its 21st undefeated season in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes have recorded 21 undefeated seasons in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Carver-Hawkeye Arena has hosted two United States Olympic Team Trials, four Big Ten Championships (1983, 1994, 2005, 2016), and four NCAA Championships (1986, 1991, 1995, 2001). The Hawkeyes have won five tournament titles on their home mat, including the 1983 and 1994 Big Ten Championships, and the 1986, 1991 and 1995 NCAA Championships.
In 2018, the University of Iowa hosted the UWW World Cup, an international dual tournament featuring eight of the top countries in the world.