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Iowa State University Athletics
Cyclones Prepare for Road Test Against No. 4 Gophers
12.08.2011 | Men's Wrestling
AMES, Iowa - Iowa State head coach Kevin Jackson shuffled his starting lineup this week in preparation for the Cyclones' meet against Minnesota Friday. The No. 19 Iowa State wrestling team (0-6) travels to Minneapolis, Minn., to face the No. 4 Gophers (2-2) for its fourth consecutive dual against a ranked opponent.
Jackson penciled in redshirt freshman RJ Hallman at 133 pounds and lists Mikey England as an option at 184 pounds. The Cyclones will begin their seventh dual meet of the season against the Gophers at 7:30 p.m. (CST) in Williams Arena.
Hallman returns to his home state for his second dual start of the season. The Chaska, Minn., native competed at 141 pounds in the Cyclones' meet at Old Dominion Nov. 20. Since facing the Monarchs, Hallman has wrestled at 133 pounds, including his most recent competition in UNI Open Dec. 3. Hallman will face No. 6 David Thorn who has a record of 4-1 in dual competition this season.
If healthy, Iowa State's usual 184-pounder Boaz Beard will wrestle Friday. The Wichita, Kan., native has wrestled in every Cyclone dual this season and sports a record of 5-1.
"Boaz continues to get better," Jackson said. "I think sometimes we get ahead of ourselves realizing he came off a year of not wrestling right into the season at the beginning of September and now he's wrestling. So my focus for him is to keep him healthy. If he feels good we'll wrestle him, but that is a concern of our just getting him a little bit of a higher base level of conditioning."
Either England or Beard will face No. 9 Kevin Steinhaus with an overall record of 6-3.
Eight Gopher wrestlers are ranked in the top 20 of their weight division by Intermat. Leading Minnesota this season is No. 1 Zach Sanders, who recently claimed the top spot at 125 pounds after Iowa wrestler Matt McDonough lost the first match of his career.
"Minnesota is a very strong, very good, very capable team," Jackson said. "They have tough kids that are really solid technically and as a team could easily be anywhere from number one to number four nationally."
Cyclone captain Andrew Sorenson looks to extend his undefeated record against No. 8 Cody Yohn, who has just one loss this season. The fifth-ranked Sorenson was victorious in his match against Iowa, but wasn't satisfied with his performance and has hopes of improving against the Gophers.
"Andrew is looking to wrestle a more complete match and looking to score a few more points get a few more attacks out," Jackson said. "Yohn is ranked for a reason but we expect Andrew to go out there and perform better than he did against Iowa. Obviously he recognized he didn't wrestle his best match. To not wrestle your best match, but still win is the sign of a champion."
Who: Iowa State (0-6 dual competition, 0-2 Big 12) vs. Minnesota (2-2 dual competition, 1-0 Big Ten)
Where: Minneapolis, Minn. - Williams Arena
When: Friday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m. (CST)
Live Stats: Live stats will be available at www.trackwrestling.com
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