NCAA Wrestling preseason power rankings: Iowa or Penn State at the top?

2021 Stats

Rank: 1
Dual Meet Record: 5-0

NCAA Champions: 1
125 – Spencer Lee

All-Americans: 7
125 – Spencer Lee (1st)
133 – Austin DeSanto (3rd)
141 – Jaydin Eierman (2nd)
157 – Kaleb Young (7th)
174 – Michael Kemerer (2nd)
197 – Jacob Warner (4th)
285 – Tony Cassioppi (3rd)

2021 Recruiting
Rank: 3
Recruits: 6
Top 100 Recruits: 3
No. 5 Drake Ayala (proj – 125/133)
No. 14 Wyatt Henson (proj – 141)
No. 37 Caleb Rathjen (proj – 149)

I know what you’re already thinking. I am a gigantic homer and that’s the only reason I’m picking Iowa to finish 2nd in the upcoming 2021-2022.

Well, you’re partly right.

But here’s the thing.

Will Iowa go undefeated in their regular season dual meets next season? Yes.

Will Iowa win the B1G Championship again and crown several individual champions again? Yes.

And under the bright lights of the NCAA Championship, will several Iowa grapplers not named Spencer Lee stumble yet again and fail to live up to their hype? Unfortunately for Hawkeye fans, yes.

Iowa is bringing in a top-heavy class of talent from their most recent recruiting class, but none of them will factor in with the mostly senior and super senior starting roster. For better or worse, the Hawkeye roster is pretty much set in stone for next year.

And hey, at least they won the team natty last season. But their run is going to be short lived…