No program is as historically dominant at the Big Ten tournament as the Iowa Hawkeyes. They've brought 35 team titles back to Iowa City, including 25 in a row from 1974 to 1998. That's every year Dan Gable coached the team, as well as the three years prior and one after.

In fact, there is a whole page in the Big Ten championships record book that only shows Iowa team titles.

And yet, it has been four years since they shared the title with Ohio State and nine years since they won the title outright. This is the nature of college wrestling, dynasties cycle in and out, with Penn State taking over from Iowa, who in turn took over from Oklahoma State.

This year's Iowa team looks a little different than the one that we were supposed to see when the season started in October. Michael Kemerer didn't wrestle a match, Sam Stoll went from #1 in the country in the preseason to the eight seed at the conference tournament, and returning national champ Spencer Lee has looked vulnerable in two losses.

Watch the 2019 Big Ten Championships Live on Flo

March 9-10 | 10:00 AM Central

However, Austin DeSanto has emerged as a national title contender, Jacob Warner is a legitimate Top-5 talent, and Kaleb Young looks poised to be an All-American after dropping down two weight classes. But all of that just sets the stage for the most important time of the year, the postseason.

Let's take a look at all 10 Hawkeye wrestlers heading into the Big Ten tournament, and what they can do to help or hurt themselves for the NCAA championships in two weeks in Pittsburgh. The number next to their name is the B1G pre-seed.

125lbs #2 Spencer Lee: 16-2

The three-time age level world champ is not only the most written about and discussed wrestler of this season, he's probably the most highly scrutinized college wrestler of all-time. Lee has been a superstar in the wrestling community since before he could drive, and was considered so invincible that the mere fact his now teammate Austin DeSanto beat him (controversially and with a torn ACL!) helped catapult DeSanto to his own stardom.

A combination of increased media, being a blue chip recruit, wrestling for a huge fanbase, and the own intense pressure the elite of the elite put on themselves in our sport can make it near impossible to live up to expectations. At the beginning of the season, it was not unreasonable to have discussions wondering whether Spencer could bonus his way through this season. Even so, 12 of his 16 wins were techs or pins.

The top four placers at last year's NCAA tournament were in the Big Ten, but Nick Suriano moved up in weight, Nathan Tomasello graduated, and Ethan Lizak also bumped up to 133. That only left Sebastian Rivera in conference, who Spencer smashed 12-0 at this very tournament. And then Rivera took Lee down three times in the Midlands finals and won 7-3.

Unlock this video, live events, and more with a subscription!

Sign Up

Already a subscriber? Log In

All of those stories written, all of the podcast hours spent talking about him, all of the message board threads, and he's still looking at the three seed. But given how much of an overwhelming favorite Nick Piccininni is in the Big 12, the only thing that can really change is who Lee will face in the semis: Rivera again if he wins in the finals, and Picc again if he loses. And honestly, he'll likely have to beat both anyway to win his second national title. So this tournament is less about improving his path and more about showing the world that he's still the wrecking ball who had the best NCAA tournament of any 125 pounder we've ever seen since the weight class was introduced.

133lbs #2 Austin DeSanto: 16-2

The fact that DeSanto is in position for a Top-4 seed at NCAAs in 2019 wouldn't be all that surprising if you looked at our rankings from February 5th last year, his fourth consecutive week at that spot, the highest ranking he attained last season. Then he got third at EIWAs and didn't place in Cleveland, compounded by him having to leave the Drexel program.

Enter Iowa, where they roll out title contenders at 133 year after year after year. And after some early struggles, he's caught on: dominating his way through Midlands, beating Ethan Lizak and Nick Suriano, and losing to Daton Fix but holding him without a takedown in the process.

There's a lot of people questioning if he can beat Suriano again, on a neutral mat. If he loses that semi, he'll likely fall to the five seed or worse at NCAAs. Win that one, he's four and above, win the finals, and he's the two, at worst, possibly the one if Phillippi or Fix falters at their conference tournament.

Big Ten Lightweight Preview

141lbs #7 Max Murin: 12-6

As recently as FRL 354 we were wondering if the coaching staff would go with Vince Turk in the postseason. With eight allocations at this weight, the redshirt freshman should qualify, but he did get pinned bu Kyle Luigs in his last conference dual.

Murin isn't nationally ranked and has no wins over nationally ranked guys, so he's firmly in a middle tier when it comes to NCAA seeding, not to mention his win percentage is 66.67 right now. Even one big time upset could pump up Murin's seed and provide a boost to the Hawkeyes in the conference team race. That may seem like a small consolation, but for a program with the history of Iowa's, it's all steps on the road to catching and surpassing Penn State, their ultimate goal.

149lbs #3 Pat Lugo: 15-6

Since ending Midlands on a loss to true freshman Sammy Sasso, Lugo's found his groove. He went 8-1 and his only loss was to Anthony Ashnault in what was likely Ashnault's toughest match of the season so far. Included in that was a 14-0 shellacking of 4 seed Tommy Thorn and a 7-4 win over Scuffle champ Kaden Gfeller.

With a coaches rank of 11 and an RPI of 7, it's not out of the question that Lugo draws a favorable seed from which to place at NCAAs. He'll have a massive match with Brady Berge in the quarterfinals, one that will probably be won off a single shot or in tiebreakers. This is Lugo's opportunity to be the guy who beat Brandon Sorensen two years ago, which is what fired up Iowa fans when he transferred to Iowa City in the first place.

157lbs #5 Kaleb Young: 16-3

As I mentioned in the introduction, Young has made huge jumps in the national rankings and has real potential to be an All-American. Whether that is due to the composition of the weight, the jumps made by Young under a new body type, or a combination of both is unimportant. What matters to Hawkeye fans is that Young performs on the mat and still has two years of eligibility left.

He didn't get a chance to wrestle Alec Pantaleo this year, and Pantaleo in fact did not earn an automatic qualification spot for the Big Ten. That will be his quarterfinal match, and undoubtably a huge one for both teams. Their only common opponent with a conflicting result is Young's 3-1 sudden victory loss to Eric Barone of Illinois, who Pantaleo beat 10-3.

165lbs #2 Alex Marinelli: 20-0

Despite his two wins over Evan Wick, the Big Ten coaches voted Marinelli as the two seed, meaning he'll have to beat Wick for a third time this season. But it also means he avoids Logan Massa, who beat him twice at this same tournament a year ago. Either way, Marinelli has to win three matches to be crowned Big Ten champion.

For the second straight year, the Bull had an undefeated regular season. Now, last year he finished the season 6-6 over his last dozen matches, but still placed as a freshman. He seems to have improved upon his already stellar finishing and taking on a leadership role in the Iowa program. If he gets by Wick once again, he'll likely face Vincenzo Joseph, putting him in position to be the Hawkeyes' 200th individual Big Ten champion.

174lbs #10 Mitch Bowman: 8-5

Losing a two-time All-American will be a let down no matter what program it is, but for one with expectations like Iowa, it can be catastrophic. It was Myles Wilson to start the year, and Keegan Shaw got his chance as well, but ultimately the spot fell to the boy from North Scott, Iowa who wrestled 184 and 197 for the Black & Gold, even spot starting at heavyweight one time his redshirt sophomore year.

An NCAA qualifier last year at 184, Bowman is on the outside looking in at qualifying right now. He's the 10 seed in a weight that auto qualifies eight, and won't be able to get RPI or a winning percentage over .700 this weekend. So Bowman will have to do it the old fashioned way: by grinding down some opponents he's not supposed to beat and give his team a chance to score any, even a half point, at the national tournament.

Big Ten Middleweight Preview

184lbs #5 Cash Wilcke: 17-4

An underrated theme of this season has been Iowa guys dropping in weight, from Young to Bowman and now on to Wilcke. Cash qualified twice at 197, which is probably why it wasn't unreasonable to think he could do some damage down at his actual weight.

Given that there was a rock/paper/scissors below Myles Martin in the conference, someone was bound to "get screwed" come seeding time, but Shakur Rasheed getting the two compounded that situation. Wilcke beat the three seed Venz, but now has a quarterfinal against Emery Parker, his lone Big Ten loss. The difference between third and fifth place in a weight as volatile as 184 could mean the difference in 5-6 slots in Pittsburgh.

197lbs #3 Jacob Warner: 14-3

Aside from getting inexplicably teched by Tanner Sloan, Warner's other two losses are fine and he has three ranked wins, one over Willie Miklus. His bonus rate is under 30% but that's not particularly unusual for this weight class, so ultimately it's been a pretty successful year for the redshirt freshman.

Look, it's 197 so things can go haywire, but a third place finish and a 5 or 6 seed at NCAAs is likely what's in the cards. It would be just like 197 to have a relatively tame conference weekend to properly set us up for the fire and brimstone that will be the national tournament.

285lbs #8 Sam Stoll: 8-3

We made much ado about nothing. Although Stoll earned the conference an auto qualifier spot, unlike David Jensen (who beat Stoll this year) and Youssif Hemida (who beat Stoll last year), the wild card numbers make it look like any of those will get an at large bid unless they go 0-2 in Minneapolis. The tournament is in Stoll's home state, so perhaps he will get a little boost, but the quarterfinal against Gable Steveson will probably leave him fighting on the backside like most of the country this weekend.