The brackets for National Duals were announced last night with the top four seeds being (1) Iowa, (2) Nebraska, (3) Ohio State, and (4) Oklahoma State. The Tigers drew the top seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round with the winners facing the winners between Illinois and Little Rock. There are full consolations as well, so each team will get at least two duals.
Matchups (Iowa vs Missouri):
125lbs: #10 Dean Peterson vs #33 Mack Mauger
133lbs: #2 Drake Ayala vs #24 Kade Moore
141lbs: #11 Nasir Bailey vs UR Seth Mendoza
149lbs: #27 Victor Voinovich vs #9 Josh Edmond
157lbs: #12 Jordan Williams vs #25 J Conway
165lbs: #2 Michael Caliendo vs #15 Maxx Mayfield
174lbs: #2 Patrick Kennedy vs #7 Cam Steed
184lbs: #3 Angelo Ferrari vs #9 Aeoden Sinclair
197lbs: #19 Massoma Endene vs #13 Evan Bates
285lbs: #5 Ben Keuter vs #23 Jarrett Stoner
The Hawkeyes are one of the top teams every season and are coming off a team trophy 4th place NCAA finish. They return four All-Americans and brought in four transfers this offseason. In preseason rankings they have five ranked in the top five of their weights. The lineups could change for both teams before then but either way the Hawkeyes will be heavy favorites. This is a dual that could have a rough team score but give the Tigers an early season opportunity to get some upsets and get a feel for a high level Big 10 team they rarely get to face off against.
I’ll do a more in depth dive later, but right now I have them dropping to consolations against the loser of Little Rock/Illinois. Both of those teams have salty lineups, but I give Illinois an edge to advance. That would give Mizzou a rematch from one of their more unexpected dual losses last season. Again there will be competition before that so lineups are subject to change but I like the Tigers in that one.
From there the potential opponents open up. I believe the next opponent would come from the quad of Nebraska vs Lehigh and Arizona State vs Michigan. Assuming lineups, I’m expecting Michigan to be Mizzou’s opponent. I think that would be ideal as getting premium Big 10 teams earlier in the season could be difficult but give great experience for the team. If they make it here, this is the bloodround for a team placement.
All teams earn $20k for competing, but I believe an 8th place finish adds another $20k. The Tigers get the unfortunate luck of drawing the top seed, but I don’t hate their path to placing. I’m ecstatic that National Duals are back and the cash prize is a cherry on top. The Tigers start their season off quickly with Missouri Duals and the Tiger Style Invite before this. It will be a challenging start to the year but again a great opportunity to get these premier matches to experience and grow from to start the year.
