No. 13 Iowa State will finish its East Coast road trip with duals against Rider and Bucknell Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The Cyclones will enter this dual after an important road Big 12 win against No. 22 West Virginia, where its lower-weight wrestlers dominated.
Iowa State’s dual lineup has been all over the place due to injuries this season. 149-pound redshirt sophomore Paniro Johnson, 165-pound redshirt sophomore Aiden Riggins and 174-pound sophomore MJ Gaitan all made their season debut at new weight classes.
Johnson was the only one of those three to secure a victory, as he gained bonus points against No. 22 West Virginia with a pinfall. This was the first pin against a Division I wrestler for Johnson.
Johnson will now face No. 16 ranked 149-pounder Sammy Alveraz from Rider to open his weekend.
Iowa State head coach Kevin Dresser is making his second appearance in the Virginia Duals. Dresser has 30 years of experience coaching wrestling in Virginia.
Before he came to Iowa State, he was head coach of Virginia Tech where he was a four-time ACC coach of the year and won two conference titles.
No. 15 ranked 141-pound sophomore Jacob Frost will have his hands full for both of his matches as he faces No. 24 McKenzie Bell from Rider and No. 18 Dylan Chappell from Bucknell. Frost took down No. 29 Jordan Titus against West Virginia in his latest match.
No. 8 ranked 157-pound sophomore Cody Chittum has been on fire since returning to the lineup, boasting an 8-1 record and jumping into the top 10 in his weight class. He faces No. 24 Colton Washleski from Rider to see if he can keep up his strong start.
Iowa State struggled at and above the 165 weight class except for one wrestler. No. 12 ranked 184-pound Evan Bockman won by a major decision against West Virginia’s No. 16 Dennis Robin.
Bockman will wrestle against Rider’s No. 17 Isaac Dean and Bucknell’s Logan Deacetis.
Bonus points have been a big point of emphasis for the Cyclones this season. Almost half of their wins have come from bonus points Their ability to get bonus points against West Virginia led them to victory as they split the 10 bouts.
The dual against Rider will start at 11 a.m. and the dual against Bucknell will follow at 2 p.m. Both will be live-streamed on FloWrestling.
