[bears9]

There's a notion circulating on the outside of the Iowa wrestling room that Mark Perry Jr. isn't going to be at his best when he returns to the mat Saturday at the Big Ten Championships.

The assumption is built around the fact that the top-ranked 165-pounder in the country is coming off knee surgery, hasn't been in a live competitive setting since Jan. 13 and certainly can't be the same guy who beat the three top challengers at his weight in succession at the National Duals.

Or can he?

"I plan on going in, wrestling the best I've wrestled in my career and getting the job done fairly easily," said Perry, who is seeded No. 1 entering this weekend's tournament in Minneapolis. "I know I'm going to have to fight hard and wrestle hard, but I just feel I'm prepared and people will see a different Mark Perry out there -- more confident, more focused and pretty much injury free for the first time in a while."

hawk central | Hawkeye Wrestling