The wrestling team heads to Iowa City, Iowa, today to face Iowa, which the Wrestling Mall ranked No. 6 in the country preseason, has six players ranked in the eight weight classes according to the same source and W.I.N. Magazine as of Nov. 27. State has dropped its last three matches to fall to 2-3 on the season. Despite the last three losses, coach Carter Jordan is confident his team will learn from its last few matches and will be able to compete with Iowa.

“The main thing is fighting position,” Jordan said. “We have to do a better job at fighting for specific positions on the mat. We got to learn how to sustain our intensity for a longer period of time.”

Futhermore, Jordan talked about the team’s bright spots while trying to keep its intensity high.

“I thought that there were some bright spots in those three dual meets but as a team, we’re learning how to do that and certainly we will have to do that against Iowa especially since we’re going out there kind of undermanned. We’re going to spot them 12 points. We’ll have to forfeit two weight classes so that is diffcult to deal with. That will be the main thing – making sure that our intensity level is as high as I like it to be, in a hostile enviornment. That’s what I’ll be looking for,” he said.

Redshirt senior Garrett Cummings said wrestling on the road is different than wrestling at home but it’s still a one-on-one sport.

“The convienience of it first of all it kind of takes you out of your element,” Cummings said. “Your training regiment and everything like that, especially cutting weight, is a big thing so you have to bring a scale along with you and kind of think about it. You’re not going to get the kind of workouts that you’re going to be able to get. So it kind of takes you out of your routine. That’s about it. Wrestling is a one-on-one sport.” he said

Two-sport redshirt sophomore Ryan Goodman, who has returned to the team after finishing the football season, will not be wrestling against Iowa, he said. He did, however, have some advice for the team.

“Just go there and wrestle hard. I think this is a first time in a while that we’ve wrestled a big-time program like Iowa. I think rankings don’t really mean anything. As long as we go out and wrestle a good match and keep it close, we’ll be fine.” Goodman said.