Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City has a seating capacity of 15,500. Those seats — and even more — will be filled on Friday night when fans flood the doors of the building where wrestling icon Dan Gable built a program ingrained in history. 

Hours before the lights dim on the announcement of starting lineups, the doors to the wrestling room on the second floor will open to another storied program, one that enters the building with a dominant goal on its mind. 

Penn State owns eight of the last nine NCAA team championships and is currently on a four-title run. After losing to Arizona State earlier this season, and with Iowa’s dominance against anyone and everyone this season, the Hawkeyes’ No. 1 ranking above the No. 2 powerhouse hasn’t wavered. It’s a season-defining moment for both teams.

Join Ben Askren & Christian Pyles on the call for Iowa-Penn State (audio only)

Last Friday, #4 Ohio State was in the same position, looking to knock off the team everyone is looking up to. Instead, Iowa took seven of 10 matches and let it be known that Carver-Hawkeye Arena is its to protect. 

In front of a crowd of "only" 13,405. 

“I heard last week from some Ohio State fans that it was very brutal,” Alex Marinelli said. “They felt it. The guys that have never been here before, they felt it. It’s something rare that you can’t explain until you watch something like that, and for it to be more than what it was last weekend, it’s going to be awesome.”

Iowa gets ready to go every day there’s an opponent on the calendar, but especially when it’s at home. 

Now, the Hawkeyes have a chance to prove what they’re all about. As a team, Iowa’s goal has been for each weight class to get what they want come NCAA championship time. That means 125-285, with no steps in between. With #1 vs #2 matchups on the docket this weekend, Iowa can prove on the individual side that each wrestler has what it takes to step up in big moments. 

“Our fans are looking at two matches, where you have [Mark] Hall and [Michael] Kemerer and you have Marinelli and [Vincenzo] Joseph,” Tom Brands said. “That would be doing a disservice to every other weight class. We’ve got to be ready to go, we always say that, but it’s true and we love it when our guys are ready to go because when they’re ready to go good things happen.”

It won’t be easy, and maybe that’s what makes it exciting. So far, Iowa has steamrolled teams — its closest match being the one against Ohio State. The Nittany Lions will undoubtedly be looking to change that and prove they haven’t fallen off the top of the podium quite yet. 

“We’ve got something to do,” Marinelli said. “We’ve got a task at hand this weekend. I think we have a great team to do it and a great coaching staff that’s pushing us. Tom, Terry, Morningstar, Telford, they’re leading us to a national title. I always say that every week. Super excited about this one.”

Iowa is known for its wrestling and the culture that the Brands brothers have helped hold for more than a decade. That’s why almost half of Iowa’s starting lineup that steps onto the mat Friday night decided that their home state of Pennsylvania wasn’t where they would wrestle.

There’s something different about the state they now call home, and it’s the reason why the team drives to be successful and why an estimated 16,000 will over-pack an arena in Iowa City for the greatest matchup in all of college wrestling this season.

“A lot of it’s the history,” Michael Kemerer said. “Historically, people from all over the country – all over the world – one of the first things, when you think about the state of Iowa, is you associate with wrestling and Gable. I just think it’s something in Iowans’ blood, they’re naturally drawn to good wrestling.”

Anna attended the University of Iowa, where she covered multiple sports from volleyball to football to wrestling. She went to Pittsburgh in March 2019 for the NCAA DI Wrestling Championships and did live coverage of the entire event and Spencer Lee’s second-straight NCAA title. Follow her on Twitter.