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Minnesota, Iowa Meet Friday In Battle Of Top Wrestling Squads

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – There are two different wrestling polls: One has the University of Minnesota ranked No. 1 in the country, the other as Iowa as the nation's best college team.

They will settle it Friday night, when the Hawkeyes visit and face the Gophers at Williams Arena. There is nothing like a big match. a big rival and a Big Ten title looming.

What this is, is a rivalry, in every sense. Two teams with a track record, a tradition rich in success and a swagger. That, and a little disdain for each other mixed with respect.

"Yeah it's great because it's what competitors, it's what people grow up for. It's like the Super Bowl," Gophers wrestling coach J. Robinson said. "It's like you're going to get to take all the toys away. That's what you train for and that's what you want to do, and that's who competitors are."

What the Gophers believe is probably what Iowa believes: They are the best, so bring it on. It is what it's supposed to be when you're at the top.

"They've got a really good team, but I think we're the best team in the country no doubt," Scott Schuller, a 197-pound wrestler, said. "So we just have to go out there and show everybody that we are the best team in the country, and no better team to do it against than Iowa."

Yes it's intense, and coach Robinson could borrow something from the book of Steve Jobs., that's the way life is supposed to be lived.

"Steve Jobs says you have to have a lot of passion with what you're doing because it's so hard that if you don't have that passion, a rational person would give up," Robinson said.

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