Wrestling Mailbag: Big-picture thoughts on 141-149, Iowa women's wrestlers, lineup depth, more

We're about, roughly, one month into the 2022-23 college season, and already, a couple of weights have piqued interest nationally because of their volatility.

Specifically, I'm talking about 141 and 149 — two weights that are pretty important here in Iowa.

At 141, Iowa State's Casey Swiderski is up to No. 12 in InterMat's rankings; Northern Iowa's Cael Happel recently beat the No. 5-ranked wrestler in the country; Iowa's Real Woods, ranked No. 2 nationally, hasn't wrestled yet; and top-ranked Cole Matthews lost to Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez at the NWCA All-Star Classic.

At 149, six of the Top-10 wrestlers in InterMat's national poll already have a loss; Iowa's Max Murin has scored 75 match points in his first four matches; Northern Iowa's Colin Realbuto got off to a nice 4-0 start last weekend; and Iowa State's Paniro Johnson kicked off his first college season by soundly beating Wisconsin's Austin Gomez … who has since beaten Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis and Ohio State's Sammy Sasso.

Pretty fun!

It's only going to get wilder as the season unfolds.

A lot of these observations are made with the upcoming Iowa-Iowa State dual, set for Dec. 4 in Iowa City, in mind. We'll get Murin-Johnson and, hopefully, Woods-Swiderski that afternoon in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Those two weights will be crucial in how that dual is decided.

But here's who all of those guys could wrestle the rest of the way, with their current InterMat rankings:

• Real Woods: Purdue's Parker Filius, No. 23; Northwestern's Frankie Tal-Shahar, No. 5; Nebraska's Brock Hardy, No. 17; Wisconsin's Joey Zargo, No. 19; Penn State's Beau Bartlett, No. 10; Minnesota's Jake Bergeland, No. 3; Michigan's Cole Mattin, No. 11; and Oklahoma State's Carter Young, No. 23.

• Casey Swiderski: Cornell's Vince Cornella, No. 16; Arizona State's Jesse Vasquez, No. 18; Oklahoma's Mosha Schwartz, No. 27; Oklahoma State's Young; Pittsburgh's Cole Matthews, No. 1; Northern Iowa's Happel, No. 22; and Missouri's Allan Hart, No. 10.

• Max Murin: Northwestern's Yahya Thomas, No. 7; Wisconsin's Austin Gomez, No. 2; Penn State's Shayne Van Ness, No. 20; Minnesota's Michael Blockhus, No. 17; Michigan's Chance Lamer, No. 19; and Oklahoma State's Victor Voinovich, No. 18.

• Paniro Johnson: Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis, No. 1; Arizona State's Kyle Parco, No. 5; Oklahoma's Mitch Moore, No. 16; Oklahoma State's Voinovich; Northern Iowa's Realbuto, No. 14; and Missouri's Brock Mauller, No. 9.

Don't forget, Murin has Penn's Doug Zapf, ranked No. 10, this Saturday, too.

But we bring these weights up because there's a real chance both will be crucial in how Iowa and Iowa State finish come March.

For Iowa, the path to truly contending with Penn State for the team title includes Woods, a returning All-American, to finish high on the podium at 141 and for Murin, a three-time bloodround participant, to finally breakthrough and become an All-American.

For Iowa State, the path to finally cracking the Top-10 at the national tournament includes, among other things, Swiderski and Johnson scoring big points and perhaps becoming All-Americans come March. Both have looked the part early on, but it's a long season.

It's always fun when certain weights are filled with crazy results, especially early in the season. It's even more fun when the wrestlers we cover closely are involved, if only because each week is full of big matches and the results could have large implications as it pertains to the national tournament.

Just some fun food for thought on this Thanksgiving week.

MORE:Iowa State's David Carr renews old family wrestling rivalry with victory at NWCA All-Star Classic

OK, onto the Wrestling Mailbag. Excited to finally go full-throttle for the remainder of the wrestling season. Nothing against high school football. It was a fun, but wrestling just hits different, you know?

Please give me a follow on Twitter and I’ll keep you up to date on all things wrestling in Iowa. Don't forget to tune into the Register's wrestling podcast, In the Room, each week. You can find the latest episodes below.

Thanks for your help here, and for reading.

Depth on the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling roster

Not really.

Here's who Iowa will have next year at those weights:

• 125: sophomore Drake Ayala, plus true freshmen Nate Jesuroga

• 133: senior Brody Teske, junior Cullan Schriever, redshirt freshman Jace Rhodes, true freshman Kale Petersen

• 141: senior Real Woods, senior Drew Bennett

• 149: sophomore Caleb Rathjen, sophomore Bretli Reyna, redshirt freshman Joel Jesuroga, true freshman Cody Chittum

The one weight to monitor, when written out this way, is 141 pounds. The Hawkeyes have tapped into the transfer portal for their last two major point-scorers at 141 (Jaydin Eierman, now Woods). Bennett also came via the transfer portal, from Northern Iowa. Maybe they go that route again, or find a late addition to the 2023 recruiting class. Maybe one of the 133-pounders moves up, or maybe one of the 149-pounders moves down.

There are a few options and some time to figure that out, but overall, those weights are in good shape for next season and into the future.

RELATED:With Cody Chittum’s commitment, a deep look at future Iowa wrestling lineups

Comparing Iowa's Max Murin and Wisconsin's Austin Gomez

Here's what I do know:

Max Murin is very fundamental and in-your-face. He holds position really well and leads with his head and is pretty strong for the weight and he'll use that combination to not only wear on his opponents, but to also stay in matches where he might be out-manned in other areas (speed, technique, etc.).

Austin Gomez is as versatile offensively as they come. He can hit the big high-flyer moves but he can also pick you apart with speed and precision. He may gave up some points early but when he's mentally locked in and physically in shape, his gas tank is as good as any in the country.

There's also this: Murin is a combined 0-4 all-time against Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis and Ohio State's Sammy Sasso. Gomez just beat both of those dudes, convincingly and decisively, in the span of four days.

I'd lean Gomez right now, something like two takedowns in a 5-3 win. But it's a matchup Murin can win if he brings his stuff.

We'll find out January 22.

RELATED:How a speech impediment shaped Max Murin into the confident wrestler you see today

Assessing the Iowa women's wrestling team's debut performance

The short answer: yes.

It is my understanding that the Missouri Valley Open has only recently — within the last 10 years or so — grown into the ginormous, inter-divisional, mega-tournament for women's college wrestlers. Scan the results from previous years and you'll recognize a lot of names that have won: Amy Fearnside, Jacarra Winchester, Kayla Miracle, Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Becka Leathers, Forrest Molinari, Megan Black, Julia Salata, on and on.

Some years, they've also kept track of team scores, which makes it super easy to track things like this. In recent years, it's largely been King University out of Tennessee and McKendree from Illinois that have been at the top of the heap. Both schools had three individual champs and two other finalists last year.

In the quick research I could find — again, within the last 10 years or so — no single women's team has done what the Iowa women's team did last weekend.

A quick reminder: seven Hawkeye women's wrestlers competed, unattached, at the Missouri Valley Open. Five won titles and two took second to their teammates. Collectively, they went 36-2 overall. Take out the two matches where they wrestled each other, and they finished 34-0 and outscored their opponents 330-35.

That's still insane to read and type a week later.

It's important to note that women's wrestling has changed a lot in that same time period. Much like the men, women wrestlers across the country are much, much better at a younger age now than they were 10 years ago. We see it more at the Senior-level, with Kylie Welker making world teams and Amit Elor winning world titles.

In that context, it shouldn't be a surprise to see Clarissa Chun's team of super recruits not only win right away, but dominate right away. Performances like that are only going to make expectations bigger for when they finally start competing in 2023-24.

But it's also still insanely impressive because you just never know how a young athlete will transition from the high school level to the college level. We talk about that a lot on the men's side of things. As women's wrestling continues to grow, we will probably talk about it a lot more on the women's side of things in the years ahead.

MORE:Iowa women's wrestlers win 5 individual titles in debut competition at Missouri Valley Open

How Nate Schon fits into Iowa State wrestling's future lineups

He's been in the room. The plan is for him to redshirt this season, then have him contend for the starting heavyweight spot next season.

He hasn't wrestled yet this season. The only time we've seen him compete at all was during Iowa State's preliminary wrestle-offs, where he pinned Cayden Miller in 29 seconds. He was supposed to wrestle Francis Duggan next. Not sure if that match result was made public or even happened.

Because when the Cyclones announced their final wrestle-offs, it was Duggan who went on to wrestle Sam Schuyler (Schuyler won 12-3). Schuyler's been the dude this season, with a 5-0 record and now ranked 10th in the country by InterMat.

I imagine Schon, a member of Iowa State's 2021 recruiting class who gray-shirted last year and is now a true freshmen, will get some run this season, if only so Iowa State's coaches can see what he's got. I'm a little surprised he won't be at the Cyclone Open this weekend in Ames, but he's also got a small history of injuries, too, so the staff may be easing him back in.

MORE:Iowa State wrestlers blank Grand View, end college wrestling’s longest dual-meet win streak

This week, I'm grateful for Sudafed and the World Cup — Sudafed because I'm battling a small sinus issue; the World Cup because I've been camped out on my couch the last few days and watching high-level soccer in the morning has been a treat.

It's also got me excited for wrestling's World Cup, set for Dec. 10-11 in Coralville. Hope to see you there.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wrestling Mailbag: Analyzing 141-149, Iowa women, lineup depth, more