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Rutgers & Big Ten Wrestling: Year 2 in the B1G ready to kick off

Year Two in the Big Ten. Where does Scott Goodale's squad go after a pretty successful opening trip through the grinder.

By rvc73
scarletknights.com

With the opening wrestleoffs scheduled for this Saturday, wrestling is underway...for real.  The first dual meets of the season are only ten days off.  So this is getting serious.

Rankings and Polls

Early rankings have three Knights in the top ten at their respective weight classes.

The Big Ten, as always, has wrestlers ranked across the board.  In Intermat's first rankings which came out Tuesday, there are 62 Big Ten wrestlers ranked among the 200 Top 20 spots.  It includes seven ranked at 125, 133, 165, 174, and heavyweight.

RU also had 133-pounder Anthony Giraldo ranked by another service.

On the team side, Intermat has nine Big Ten squads ranked preseason.

Intermat Preseason Rankings - Big Ten

RANK SCHOOL POINTS
1 Penn State 105.5
3 Iowa 75
4 Michigan 72
5 Ohio State 68.5
12 Nebraska 45
13 Wisconsin 38
14 Illinois 37
18 Northwestern 26.5
24 Minnesota 19


Big Ten Recap

RU finished the 2014-15 dual meet season at 14-7 overall, 2-7 in Big Ten competition.  That was good for 10th place in the best wrestling conference in the nation.

Big Ten 2014-15 Dual Meet Standings

Conference Pct. All Matches Pct.
1. Iowa*^ 9- 0 1.000 17- 1 0.944
2. Nebraska 8-1 0.889 13-4 0.933
Ohio State^# 8-1 0.899 13-4 0.933
4. Minnesota 7-2 0.778 12-3 0.8
Wisconsin 7-2 0.778 9-4 0.692
6. Penn State 6-3 0.667 11-4 0.733
Illinois 6-3 0.667 13-5 0.722
8. Michigan 4-5 0.444 8-6 0.571
9. Purdue 3-6 0.333 10-8 0.556
10. Rutgers 2-7 0.222 14-7 0.667
11. Northwestern 2-7 0.222 12-8 0.6
12. Michigan State 1-8 0.111 5-13 0.278
13. Indiana 0-9 0.000 4-10 0.286
14. Maryland 0-9 0.000 5-15 0.25

In the Big Ten tournament, the Knights finished 11th, with two wrestlers medaling:  Anthony Ashnault (5th, 141 lb) and Anthony Perrotti (7th, 157 lb).

Honors for Smith

A picture - or a tweet - is worth a thousand words.

Working with coaches, building the pipeline

The annual NJSIAA coaches clinic was held at RU with the wrestling program as a host.  One of the biggest needs for any program - and we see it in football - is keeping local talent at home.  New Jersey is regularly among the top 5-8 states in producing high quality wrestlers.  Getting high school coaches to think Rutgers Wrestling is critical.

If you build it (or promote it) they will come

Did you go to the blackout game at High Point Solutions Stadium?  Will you be at the blackout match at the RAC?

Last year, Rutgers was sixth in attendance nationally with an average of 2,697 per match (D1 opponents only).  It's looking to go over that mark, and its promotional schedule includes the blackout and wrestler trading cards.

Upcoming schedule

Date Opponent / Event Location Time / Result
10/24/15 Wrestle-Offs # College Ave. Gym 11:00 a.m. ET
Rutgers Duals
11/01/15 vs. Centenary College College Ave. Gym 10:00 a.m. ET
vs. Franklin & Marshall College Ave. Gym 12:00 p.m. ET
vs. Binghamton College Ave. Gym 2:00 p.m. ET