(ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Ray / SourceMedia Group)

Credit to commenter BVB_Fan(atic) or inspiring the headline.

There isn't a lot to say about this win, frankly. Domination is always fun to see but, honestly, Wisconsin was the worst dual meet opponent Iowa has faced since the Iowa City Duals way back in November (back when we were full of optimism for the season...). They're 5-10 on the season, 0-8 against B1G competition and few of those duals have been remotely close. They started a line-up with four freshmen and three sophomores and while youth alone isn't an excuse -- Iowa and Penn State have had quite a bit of success in recent years with youngsters -- not all freshmen and sophomores are world-beaters out of the gate. Only one -- one! -- of the nine Wisco wrestlers who stepped on the mat today has a winning record this season (Ben Jordan, who Mike Evans dismantled in no time). This Wisconsin team is straight-up horribawful. Iowa probably would have gotten better competition from an intra-squad scrimmage. And the stats of the meet bear that out: Iowa got bonus points in five of nine wins, earned riding time bonuses in eight of nine wins, and had a 36-2 advantage in takedowns (the Badgers' only two takedowns came in the 197 match).

#5 Iowa (11-3, 6-2) 39, Wisconsin (5-10, 0-8) 3
125: #1 Matt McDonough TECH FALL (20-2, 5:00) Austin Hietpas (Iowa 5-0)
133: #4 Tony Ramos TECH FALL (25-7, 7:00) Shane McQuade (Iowa 10-0)
141: #7 Montell Marion MAJ DEC (21-7) Thomas Glenn (Iowa 14-0)
149: Michael Kelly wins by FORFEIT (Iowa 20-0)
157: Derek St. John DEC (6-1) Shawn Perry (Iowa 23-0)
165: #8 Mike Evans FALL (3:23) #12 Ben Jordan (Iowa 29-0)
174: #9 Ethen Lofthouse MAJ DEC (16-5) Frank Cousins (Iowa 33-0)
184: Vinnie Wagner DEC (6-1) Timmy McCall (Iowa 36-0)
197: Jackson Hein DEC (9-7) Tomas Lira (Iowa 36-3)
HWT: Bobby Telford DEC (4-0) Cole Tobin (Iowa 39-3)

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As you might have noticed, there was no We Must Break You this weekend. Part of that was due to Signing Day madness, the KOK surprise, and general life busyness. But it was also due to the fact that there isn't much of a need to preview this meet. Wisconsin is bad. Like bottom of the Big Ten bad. They have been getting steamrolled by, oh, pretty much everyone. Michigan beat them 21-12, just Northwestern beat them 33-9, Penn State beat them 43-0, Purdue beat them 41-3, Minnesota beat them 37-3, Nebraska beat them 36-0, and Illinois beat them 38-3.

Iowa has three dual meet losses this season, but all three losses were to top-ten caliber opponents. Wisconsin is far, far, far from that level. They have exactly one ranked wrestler in their lineup: Ben Jordan (12th at 165). Iowa should be favored in almost every match -- if not all of them. This could -- and absolutely should -- be a rout. It's also Senior Day, which means it's the final CHA appearance for a handful of guys. 2-3 of the starters will be seniors -- Montell Marion at 141, Vinnie Wagner at 184, and possibly Blake Rasing at HWT -- but there are a few other seniors in the reserve ranks: Tyler Clark at 133, Stew Gillmor at 157, Tyler Halverson at 141, and JJ Krutsinger at 133. Thanks to all of them for their hard work over the past 4-5 years; they haven't gotten any of the glory that their more celebrated peers have, but their hard work in the training room is essential for the success of those same starters.

The meet is on AM-800 KXIC as well as Hawkeye All Access (audio and video; $$$) at 1pm CT.

The usual rules of open threading apply: no links to illegal online streams, no porn, no religion, no politics, no slurs, no douchebaggery.

(Original Photo Credit: Brian Ray / SourceMedia Group)

All's well that ends well, right? The final result of yesterday's dual meet with Minnesota (a 19-17 Iowa win, Iowa's 7th straight over the Gophers) was good, even if the way Iowa got there (losing the final four matches of the meet) wasn't so hot. Iowa and Minnesota each won five matches, but Iowa got a major decision from Nick Moore and a pin from Mike Evans (and his 'stache), which trumped the pair of major decisions that Minnesota got from Dylan Ness and Kevin Steinhaus. Iowa got off to a hot start with a fairly dominating 7-1 decision win from Matt McDonough over top-ranked Zach Sanders (though McD should regain his top spot in the rankings this week), kept the momentum rolling through nervy wins from Ramos and Marion over the Dardanes brothers, watched Mike Kelly stumble in an action-packed match at 149, jumped out to a big lead with the aforementioned bonus point wins from Moore and Evans at 157 and 165, and then just tried to hold on through the final four matches. Even if it wasn't always pretty, though, any win was nice to see after Iowa's miserable 0-2 weekend the week prior.

There's a decent chance Iowa could have another dual meet with Minnesota before the year is out (in the National Duals semifinals or finals), so we'd do well to try to improve on a few of these results if we want to again beat the Gophers. If Marion gives up a late takedown, we lose this dual. On the other hand, if Lofthouse doesn't quit wrestling in the third period and Gambrall is just a little bit better, we could have won in a rout.

#5 Iowa (10-3, 5-2) 19, #3 Minnesota (9-3, 6-1) 17
125: #2 Matt McDonough DEC (7-1) #1 Zach Sanders (Iowa 3-0)
133: #4 Tony Ramos DEC (5-2) #7 Chris Dardanes (Iowa 6-0)
141: #7 Montell Marion DEC (3-2) #12 Nick Dardanes (Iowa 9-0)
149: #11 Dylan Ness MAJ DEC (15-7) Mike Kelly (Iowa 9-4)
157: Nick Moore MAJ DEC (11-2) Alec Ortiz (Iowa 13-4)
165: #8 Mike Evans FALL (6:02) #14 Cody Yohn (Iowa 19-4)
174: #7 Logan Storley DEC (5-3) #9 Ethen Lofthouse (Iowa 19-7)
184: #8 Kevin Steinhaus MAJ DEC (12-4) Vinnie Wagner (Iowa 19-11)
197: #6 Sonny Yohn DEC (5-3) Grant Gambrall (Iowa 19-14)
HWT: #4 Tony Nelson DEC (7-2) Blake Rasing (Iowa 19-17)

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(Bumped, in case you missed it from earlier. -- Ross)

No, not the Nestea Plunge. And not the Polar Plunge, either, you litigious sorts. They took the Arctic Plunge as part of a benefit for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. See?

via media.kcrg.com

There are many, many more photos at the gallery here. Luke Lofthouse and Mark Ironside have rather, ah, interesting outfits.

Courtesy of the fine people at flowrestling, there's also video of the event:

Watch more videos on Flowrestling

via thegazette.com

Please beat the goddamn Gophers. Losing has gotten really old lately for Iowa sports.

The meet is on BTN at 3pm CT.

The standard rules of open threads apply: no links to illegal online streams, no porn, no religion, no politics, no slurs, no douchebaggery.

via thegazette.com

Ending the skid. Tom Brands had a press conference on Tuesday and, shockingly, was not all sunshine and puppy dogs after the first two-meet losing streak of his Iowa head coaching tenure:

"I know one thing, your heads not right when you are losing seven bouts in a match," Brands said. "You’re head isn’t right when your teammates are going down like flies in front of you and you don’t do ANYTHING to stop it.

"It’s going down, boom, boom, boom, now it’s my turn on the mat, what am I going to do? You have to turn that emotion."

It does seem like more of a mental issue than a physical one for several Iowa wrestlers that are struggling right now; hopefully they can get their heads right in a hurry because Minnesota will be a very difficult opponent on Sunday. Meanwhile, the other interesting news item from the presser concerned Grant Gambrall:

Junior Grant Gambrall did offer that he was trying to cut from 197 to 184. When asked if that was an option, Gambrall said "definitely."

"I think that if I’m wrestling to the best of my ability, the weight doesn’t make that big of difference," Gambrall said. "That being said, ‘84 is probably more of my natural weight class."

Weight cut rules mean that Gambrall won't be able to wrestle at 184 for a while yet -- possibly at the National Duals in February or the Big Ten Tournament in March. Whether he actually will wrestle at 184... who knows. I've given up trying to guess what will happen at 184 and 197 this year.

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via media.centredaily.com

After a few years of setting positive records when it came to dual meet competition, lately the shoe is on the other foot for Iowa wrestling. Two consecutive dual meet losses? Check -- for the first time since 2006. (Despite what WHO TV says, it is not three consecutive losses; their opponents in their last dual meet win might have been just Northwestern on January 15, but it was still a dual meet and Iowa's win over them still counts.) Their first loss to a team featuring Cael Sanderson as a wrestler or head coach? Check. So much for extending Cael's personal streak of futility against Iowa to 0-10. The streaks are dead. Time to bury them and get started on making new winning streaks.

The truth is that Iowa wrestling has spoiled us. The sheer level of dominance that Gable brought to the program in the 80s and 90s and that Brands re-established in the threepeat years of 2008-2010 has left us satisfied by only the highest level of success. That's not to suggest that a three-loss season (as this one currently is) can (or should) somehow be viewed as a success -- it's just a reminder that it's not the end of the world, either. We expected this would be a year in which we could reclaim the national championship, but that now looks unlikely -- which is disappointing. But it's a reminder of how fragile championship seasons are and how much has to go right in order for them to happen. Youth is not an excuse -- Penn State won last year on the backs of freshmen and sophomores -- but there's no denying that youth makes winning more difficult. Not every freshman bursts onto the scene as ready to dominate as David Taylor or Ed Ruth (and, frankly, it's not as though Iowa has been utterly incapable of having freshmen be high achievers in recent years -- two years ago, Matt McDonough was a national champion and a year ago Derek St. John finished in 4th place at the NCAA Tournament; expecting every freshman to wrestle as well as them is not exactly fair).

#1 Penn State (8-1, 4-1) 22, #4 Iowa (9-3, 4-2) 12
125: #2 Matt McDonough DEC (3-1 SV) #8 Nico Megaludis (Iowa 3-0)
133: #2 Tony Ramos FALL (4:20) Frank Martellotti (Iowa 9-0)
141: #3 Montell Marion DEC (7-3) Bryan Pearsall (Iowa 12-0)
149: #1 Frank Molinaro DEC (11-5) Mike Kelly (Iowa 12-3)
157: #8 Dylan Alton DEC (5-3) Nick Moore (Iowa 12-6)
165: #1 David Taylor DEC (9-4) #6 Mike Evans (Iowa 12-9)
174: #2 Ed Ruth MAJ DEC (10-1) #9 Ethen Lofthouse (Penn State 13-12)
184: #2 Quentin Wright DEC (8-2) Vinnie Wagner (Penn State 16-12)
197: #12 Morgan McIntosh DEC (5-3 SV) Grant Gambrall (Penn State 19-12)
HWT: #6 Cameron Wade DEC (4-0) Blake Rasing (Penn State 22-12)

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via www.uiowa.edu

Friday sucked and this day does not look promising, given the strength of Penn State's team. But let's just see how it all unfolds.

The meet is on BTN at 9pm CT. That's tape delayed, obviously. It's actually at 1pm CT, with audio coverage on Hawkeye All Access and AM 800 KXIC. No live video coverage, sadly. Andy Hamilton has a liveblog here, too.

The standard open thread rules apply: no links to illegal online streams, no porn, no religion, no politics, no slurs, no douchebaggery. Yadda yadda yadda.