University of Minnesota Athletics

MINNEAPOLIS – After a 22-day break from competition, Minnesota is back in action this weekend at the Soldier Salute. The two-day event takes place Sunday and Monday at the Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa. Session 1 begins on Sunday at 10:00 a.m., while Session 2 begins at 3:30 p.m. Session 3 on Monday begins at 11:00 a.m., while finals begin at 5:00 p.m. on Monday evening. B1G+ will have streaming coverage and SmoothComp.com will have live results.

The Golden Gophers, ranked fourth in the current Intermat Tournament team rankings and seventh in the Intermat dual rankings, are one, along with No. 2/2 Iowa and No. 5/3 Nebraska of 11 college programs in action at the talented Soldier Salute, No. 8/9 Northern Iowa, No. 16/18 Missouri, No. 24/14 Iowa State, No. 28/22 North Carolina, No. 27/16 South Dakota State, NR/26 Wyoming, Bellarmine and Navy.

The Gophers are expected to send 26 wrestlers to the Salute, including all 10 who appear in the latest Intermat rankings: No. 1 Gable Steveson (285 pounds), No. 4 Max McEnelly (184 pounds), No. 5 Isaiah Salazar (197), No. 6 Tommy Askey (157), No. 6 Vance VomBaur (141), No. 9 Cooper Flynn (125), No. 9 Andrew Sparks (165), No. 11 Tyler Wells (133), No. 21 Drew Roberts (149) and No. 23 Clayton Whiting (174).

Depending on who is sent from the other schools, up to 78 ranked wrestlers could compete this weekend, according to the Intermat rankings. As noted above, Minnesota plans to send all 10 of its ranked wrestlers, while Iowa, Nebraska and Northern Iowa could also send 10. Iowa State has nine ranked wrestlers, followed by eight from South Dakota State, seven from Missouri, North Carolina has six, Wyoming has five and Navy has three.

This weekend marks the fifth major tournament of the season for the Gophers. On the opening weekend, the team won a combined seven titles at the Mountaineer Invite and Bison Open, while the following week five undefeated wrestlers competed at the Daktronics Open. In its last appearance at the Cougar Clash on December 7, Minnesota won eight individual titles. Additionally, Minnesota sent a small contingent to the Jim Koch Open on November 23 and won another title there.

Minnesota enters the weekend with a 4-0 record in dual meets this season, defeating Bucknell 35-3 on Nov. 15 before shutting out both North Dakota State 39-0 and Campbell 44-0 and then winning Sout Dakota State, 30-3, on Dec. 1. It was the first time there had been two consecutive shutouts since shutting out four opponents in a row in December 1997, when the current head coach was Brandon Eggum was on the team in his second year. Previously, it had only happened once in program history, in the first three games of the 1936-37 season.

Minnesota has won 10 straight doubleheaders since last season. During the current series, Minnesota outscored its opponents 329-54 and never allowed more than 12 points in any matchup.

Ten Gopher wrestlers are represented in at least two of the major polls, with eight represented in all four polls: Intermat, Win, Flo and OpenMat. Steveson (285) is ranked No. 1 in all four polls, while McEnelly (184) is in the top five, VomBaur (141) and Askey (157) are each ranked sixth or better, and Flynn (125), Sparks (165). ) and Salazar (197) are each in the top 10 of the rankings.

McEnelly is 10-0 this season with eight wins before Tech falls. According to WrestleStat.com, those eight Tech fall wins rank second nationally behind Purdue’s Matt Ramos (10).

VomBaur has an 11-0 record this year, with five of the wins coming by major decision, ranking him fourth nationally in MD wins.

LAST YEAR AT THE SOLDIER SALUTE