Another classic dual in the rivalry war of wrestling will unfold this weekend.

The No. 1 ranked, defending NCAA-Champion Iowa wrestling team will host second-ranked Iowa State in Iowa City on Saturday. Sixteen of the team’s combined 20 roster spots are filled with wrestlers ranked in the top-10, nationally.

Starting off the dual will be a match between fifth-ranked Cyclone Tyler Clark (8-0) and second-ranked Hawkeye All-American Charlie Falck (8-0).

Clark — a true sophomore — anticipates the hostility of Carver-Hawkeye to be “10 times” greater than he is used to. According to an Iowa press release, 11,832 tickets had been sold for the dual by 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Quieting the raucous crowd is Clark’s goal.

“It’s big to get off to a good, hard start,” he said. “Get things going off the bat and show ‘em that we’re there to wrestle. We’re not going to get pushed around just because it’s their house, you know… I’m hoping that I can get us out to a great start and send a shock to the Hawkeye World.”

ISU coach Cael Sanderson said he isn’t a “big believer in momentum,” since each wrestler needs to be solitarily focused on their match. The third-year head coach acknowledged that a team’s momentum can play a role, but Clark emphatically believes in the power of a good start.

Iowa has won four of five matches before intermission in the past two rivalry duals. Clark was a senior in high school in 2006, and sat in the stands during Sanderson’s first dual in Carver-Hawkeye Arena as a head coach.

The meet started off with a controversial, 6-4 overtime victory by Iowa’s Mark Perry over Trent Paulson. During the match, former Iowa assistant and ISU wrestler Dan Gable made an obscene gesture toward the ISU coaching staff.

After the match, the two first-year staffs shouted at each other on the middle of the mat. Clark saw it all while sitting among Iowa recruits, including current Hawkeye and former teammate, Jordan Johnson.

“One thing didn’t go our way, and then they built on it, and then it was just a steamroller,” said Clark of the 24-6 loss. “It just kept on going and going. A lot of those matches, we outmatched ‘em. We had the better wrestler, but they came to wrestle.”