Weekend Spotlight Event
No. 21 Northern Iowa 
at No. 6 Iowa
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005 
at Iowa City

BY MATT PFIFFNER
Thirty-one years. That's how long it has been since the Northern Iowa Panthers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in a wrestling dual.

Northern Iowa's last win in the series was 17-15 in Cedar Falls in 1974. Iowa has won the last 29 meetings. Expect that number to reach an even 30 when the two teams meet Thursday night in Iowa City.

The Panthers (0-1) are coming off a 31-6 loss at home to Minnesota to open the dual meet season, while the Hawkeyes (2-0) defeated another in-state rival, Iowa State, Friday night in Ames.

The Hawkeyes will be favored to win all but two or three matches during the evening. It was a 23-13 victory for Iowa last season in Cedar Falls and this week's meet should have a similar outcome.

The dual is set for 7 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Here is a breakdown by weight of the dual. The Iowa wrestler is listed first.

125 - Lucas Magnani, Jr., 2-3 vs. Seth Wright, Jr., 1-3
The records are similar and these two have never met in college, but expect Magnani to get a win for Iowa here. He has the experience in the big meets from last season and picked up a big major decision win for the Hawks in the ISU meet. After being pinned in the meet against Iowa State last year, you can bet getting a victory this season will do nothing but boost Magnani's confidence.

It was the UNI meet last season where the Iowa coaches made the decision to pull true freshman Charlie Falck out of redshirt and put Magnani on the shelf. Magnani might recall that and have extra incentive to show the coaches why he should be the man at 125 all season for the Hawkeyes.

Predicament Pick: Magnani

133 - Daniel Dennis, Fr., 6-2 vs. Chris Helgeson, Sr., 13-6
A week ago, Helgeson would have gotten the nod in this match. But after watching the true freshman from Iowa take apart fifth-year senior and NCAA qualifier Jesse Sundell of Iowa State Friday night, that might have changed. This will be the first home meet of his career for Dennis and you can bet he will be jacked up and ready to go.

But Helgeson is no slouch. He has been to NCAA Tournaments and has been wrestling against the best competition in the nation for the past three years. UNI needs to win this match if they have any hopes of pulling the upset. But Dennis may prove to be too solid and strong for Helgeson, like he was against Sundell.

Predicament Pick: Dennis

141 - No. 10 Alex Tsirtsis, So., 5-2 vs. C.J. Ettelson, So., 11-4
This should be a very interesting match between a pair of very skilled wrestlers. They met twice last season, with Tsirtsis taking both bouts. The first time they met, Tsirtsis escaped with a 3-2 victory. A few weeks later in the dual meet, Tsirtsis scored an impressive 17-7 major decision. Both went on to have solid freshman seasons, as they both advanced to the NCAA Championships.

But that was last year. Now is the time to see who has improved the most. Tsirtsis will once again be favored to win, but Ettelson is a very crafty wrestler who is comfortable putting himself in danger in order to score big points himself. This should be one of the top matches of the night.

Predicament Pick: Tsirtsis

149 - No. 2 Ty Eustice, Sr., 7-0 vs. Colby Goetsch, So., 4-7 or Justin Swafford, So., 10-6
Goetsch, a former State champ from Ankeny, got the call for the Panthers in the Minnesota meet, but got handled by true freshman Dustin Schlatter, 16-1. It will be interesting to see if the Panthers stay with Goetsch, or give Swafford a chance in a big-time dual.

It shouldn't really matter who UNI puts out there, however, as Eustice should have his way with either one. Eustice still sometimes doesn't open up as much as Hawkeye fans would like, but expect the senior to come out strong on his home mat and give Iowa bonus points at this weight.

Eustice has never faced Goetsch, but did defeat Swafford 10-4 earlier this season at the UNO Open.

Predicament Pick: Eustice

157 - No. 3 Joe Johnston, Sr., 5-3 vs. No. 18 Chris Bitetto, Sr., 9-4
Johnston's 5-3 record coming off an NCAA runner-up finish may be disappointing to some Iowa fans, but two of those losses have come to top-ranked Trent Paulson of ISU, who Johnston has always struggled to defeat.

Bitetto has had a solid start to his senior season, but don't expect an upset here. Even though both wrestlers are ranked in the NWCA/InterMat poll, they have been miles apart in their first two career meetings. Johnston won 14-6 in 2002 and last year in the dual meet, the Hawkeye put on a clinic in a 23-6 technical fall.

Predicament Pick: Johnston

165 - Eric Luedke, Jr., 10-1 or Cole Pape, Sr., 6-4 vs. No. 9 Nick Baima, Jr., 9-2
This is the first weight class where the Panther have the favored wrestler in the meet. Baima has been the best UNI wrestler early in the season, as his victory over Minnesota's Matt Nagel in last Friday night's dual meet shows. All Nagel did earlier in the season was defeat returning NCAA Champion Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State in the All-Star Meet.

But don't expect Thursday night to be a breeze for the Panther, whoever Iowa throws out onto the mat.

Pape gave a very strong showing in the Iowa State dual before falling late against highly-ranked Travis Paulson. He certainly showed he can wrestle with the best in the nation. But based on Luedke's 4-3 loss to Baima at the UNO Open earlier this season, this may be the time where the Iowa coaches send the two-time NJCAA National Champion out onto the mat.

Predicament Pick: Baima

174 - No. 3 Mark Perry, So., 2-0 vs. Alex Dolly, So., 6-3
Mark Perry was not pleased with his performance at Iowa State last week. A major decision over a very solid Cyclone wrestler was not good enough for the 2005 NCAA runner-up at 165. That shows what kind of focus Perry has coming into this season. He won't settle for anything less than perfection and an NCAA crown.

The Iowa sophomore appears to have filled out very well at 174 and seems to be much stronger than he was last season. Dolly is a solid 174-pounder for the Panthers, but it is doubtful he will be able to stay in the match with Perry. If he turtles up on the bottom and doesn't let Perry slip in the legs, the Hawkeye can turn it into a takedown clinic. He has all the tools and will be tough to beat this season by anyone other that the top few wrestlers at 174. And a wrestler this talented and focused rarely overlooks an underdog.

Predicament Pick: Perry

184 - No. 2 Paul Bradley, Sr., 2-0 vs. Dan Dunning, So., 6-6
Bradley picked up a huge win Friday night in Ames over fifth-ranked Kurt Backes, while on the same night, Dunning was giving a very good performance in an 8-4 loss to 11th-ranked Roger Kish of Minnesota.

The Hawkeye has had trouble opening up his offense in the past, which has made many matches closer than they should be. He has said that will not be an issue this season. If he is right, it could be a long seven minutes for the Panther.

Predicament Pick: Bradley

197 - Adam Fellers, Sr., 0-5 vs. Andrew Anderson, Fr., 5-4
Here is just the second weight where the Panther appears to have a clear advantage coming into the meet. Fellers has struggled, to say the least, to start the year. He is still an undersized 197-pounder, but he has spent five years in the Iowa wrestling room. His loss by fall to true freshman Joe Curran of Iowa State last week was a disappointing end to a good night for the Hawkeyes.

Anderson was a two-time State champ at Sioux City East and was a big pickup for UNI Coach Brad Penrith two years ago. He lost a close decision last week against Minnesota in the first big dual meet of his collegiate career. He very well could pick up his first win in a big dual meet this Thursday in Iowa City.

Predicament Pick: Anderson

285 - Ryan Fuller, Jr., 5-4 vs. Tyler Rhodes, Jr., 9-5
These two met a few weeks ago at the UNO Open, with Fuller taking a 4-2 decision. Rhodes also pushed last year's starter at Iowa, Matt Fields, into overtime at another open tournament this season. For now, the plan is to redshirt Fields after he started last year as a true freshman and to use Fuller for the season.

Fuller is more than just a stop-gap, however. He has always battled Fields tough in wrestle-offs and he was an NCAA qualifier two years ago for the Hawkeyes. If he wants to make the Iowa coaches' decision easier, he just has to keep winning the matches he's favored in.

Predicament Pick: Fuller

This really shouldn't be that close of a meet. UNI won four out of six matches last season, but two of those wins came from multiple All-Americans against freshmen. Both of those All-Americans, Eric Hauan and Sean Stender, graduated. Another win came from Helgeson against Falck in the first dual meet of his career.

Four individual victories would be impressive this year for the Panthers, based on the match-ups. Two or three wins is probably more likely.

Final Score Prediction: Iowa 27, UNI 7

All-time series: Iowa leads, 37-8-2, and has won the last 29 meetings.
Series in Iowa City: Iowa leads, 18-3-1.

2004 Results
Iowa 23, Northern Iowa 13
141 - Alex Tsirtsis (I) maj. dec. C.J. Ettelson (NI), 17-7
149 - Ty Eustice (I) dec. Jeff Harrison (NI), 5-3
157 - Joe Johnston (I) tech. fall C. Bitetto (NI), 23-6 in 6:31
165 - Nick Baima (NI) dec. Oleg Polyatskiy (I), 3-0
174 - Eric Hauan (NI) dec. Luke Lofthouse (I), 6-5 
184 - Paul Bradley (I) maj. dec. Alex Dolly (NI), 16-6
197 - Sean Stender (NI) maj. dec. Dane Pape (I), 13-5  
Hwt. - Matt Fields (I) maj. dec. M. Shedek (NI), 10-1
125 - Chris Helgeson (NI) dec. Charlie Falck (I), 3-1
133 - Mario Galanakis (I) dec. P. Sharp (UNI), 10-4