Watch Iowa at South Dakota State LIVE!

The Iowa Hawkeyes are traveling to Brookings, South Dakota, on Friday, December 2, and they're bringing some drama with them. Top-ranked 133-pounder Cory Clark of Iowa will be taking on South Dakota's No. 6-ranked Seth Gross, but the rankings and the wrestling are far from the only compelling part to this matchup.

Gross' college wrestling career began in Iowa City. But after his redshirt freshman season, Gross and two of his teammates were dismissed from the Iowa wrestling team by head coach Tom Brands after being arrested on a litany of charges in Marion, Iowa in March 2015. The charges against Gross were eventually knocked down to misdemeanors and deferred; however, the expulsion from the wrestling team was permanent. Gross soon found a new academic and athletic home at South Dakota State University, where Jackrabbits coach Bono took a chance that has seemed to work out.

Gross spent the year up in weight at 141lbs, and he took second in a revised version of the Big 12 Conference and qualified for the NCAA tournament. Once Gross was settled in Brookings, he went back down to what is probably a more competitive weight and won the Junior World Team Trials at 60kg.


Iowa's Clark has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in a black and gold singlet, but the one thing that has eluded him is an NCAA title. After coming in second place the last two years, Clark is looking to get over the hump in his final season with the Hawkeyes. Gross will be the first real hurdle on Clark's way to the top of the podium in March.

The on-mat drama of this prospective match is pretty intense too. Clark displays Iowa's typical pressuring style of wrestling, while Gross is one of the best counter wrestlers in the country. You can see a great example of how difficult Gross is to score on in his match in the Junior World Team Trial finals against Minnesota's Mitch McKee.

After a long 18 months, Gross will get the chance to find some redemption against his former program at the weight that he was intended to wrestle. Clark and Gross are on collision course that is set to come to a head at 7:30 PM CST LIVE on FloWrestling. Don't miss it!

Watch Iowa at South Dakota State LIVE!

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