The #1-ranked Iowa wrestling team finished up its two meet road trip by going into West Lafayette and giving the citizens of the Hoosier state the most dominating performance of the day (suck on that, Colts) and routing #25 Purdue, 41-6. That's pretty much a textbook example of a good old-fashioned ass-whupping. So how'd it happen?
(rankings from InterMat)
125: #4 Matt McDonough FALL Cashe Quiroga (2:13) (Iowa 6-0)
133: #6 Dan Dennis maj. dec. Akif Eren, 16-5 (Iowa 10-0)
141: #7 Montell Marion FALL Juan Archuleta (3:53) (Iowa 16-0)
149: #1 Brent Metcalf WINS BY DQ Nick Bertucci (Iowa 22-0)
157: Colton Salazar dec. Jake Kerr, 6-4 (OT) (Iowa 22-3)
165: #5 Ryan Morningstar dec. Jason Martin, 10-4 (Iowa 25-3)
174: #2 Jay Borschel WINS BY FORFEIT (Iowa 31-3)
184: #8 Phil Keddy maj. dec. Nick Corpe, 11-1 (Iowa 35-3)
197: #11 Logan Brown dec. Luke Lofthouse, 3-1 (OT) (Iowa 35-6)
Hwt: Dan Erekson FALL Adam Walls (1:08) (Iowa 41-6)
You're probably thinking, "Colton Salazar is a fucking awesome name for a Bond villain Huh, that's a really weird result for Metcalf." YES INDEEDY.
A few thoughts...
- The main story is Metcalf, as usual. Except for once it's not all about him bitchmaking his opponent (although he was well on his way to doing that today, by all accounts)... it's about his opponent apparently LOSING HIS FUCKING MIND and kneeing Metcalf in the head (and cutting him open) while Metcalf had him in a pinning position. Bertucci was cited for a "flagrant misconduct" and immediately DQ'd, awarding Iowa six points. The Purdue coach was appropriately mortified and apologized profusely afterward and said he'd sit Bertucci for at least the next match. I'd hope it's more than just one match, frankly -- that shit is inexcusable unless Bertucci is getting ready for a career in pro wrestling or Japanese MMA. Hopefully the cut doesn't cause Metcalf to miss any time or impact any of his matches. (Edited to include grainy video footage of the incident. H/T to commenter LuebkeSwims! for that.)
- Tremendous return by Erekson. Granted, Walls is no major threat, but getting a pin barely over a minute into your first match back in months is outstanding. Johnson and Rasing did a pretty solid job of holding down the fort at heavyweight, but Erekson gives Iowa a serious national champion contender.
- And it's becoming a cliche, but yet another fantastic outing from McDonough. We keep raving about him -- and he keeps one-upping himself. A first-period pin is a nice way to get the job done -- but now we're going to expect that from all your future matches (OK not really).
- Speaking of falls, Montell Marion decided to get in on the act, too. He's certainly doing all you can ask to keep a firm hold on his spot at 141 lbs. If Slaton remains lost in academic limbo, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Marion will be the man at 141 the rest of the year. And even if Slaton does emerge from limbo, Montell is making it awful tough to bench him.
- Much better showing from Dennis, too. While it's prudent not to read too much into most of these results (Purdue ain't worldbeaters this year -- or, um, ever), it's good to see Dennis back to being more explosive and aggressive. Those are two elements that had been missing from his game since returning from his ankle injury, so hopefully we're getting closer and closer to seeing the Dennis of old out there.
- Likewise, Keddy seems to be well on the way to regaining his old form as well. The 11-1 scoreline is good to see (take notes, Morningstar: experienced and talented seniors should major lesser opponents) and from all reports he had more of his old explosiveness than we've seen in more recent matches.
- He didn't win this time, but Lofthouse put up another very solid showing against a ranked opponent. He's probably not a threat to be an All-American this year, but it's good to see that at least we don't have a gaping hole in our lineup at 197 with Beatty out. Lofthouse is going to win a few matches and he's not going to give up bonus points -- that'll do alright for now.
- I'm not sure why Janssen didn't get another crack at 157 after he picked up a nice win on Friday, but I guess things are still pretty open at 157. Oh well. Getting anything out of 157 is a bonus at this point.
- And it's a real shame we didn't get to see Borschel square off with #6 Luke Manuel at 174. Manuel apparently hurt his knee and couldn't go; Purdue had to forfeit because they don't have another 174-lb guy on their roster. No, really. Things like that make you appreciate the absurd depth Iowa has.
Next up: #13 Penn State on Friday (7pm CST) as Cael Sanderson makes his return to the state of Iowa for the first time since taking the Penn State lucre and running off to State College. I'm sure Iowa fans will be very accomodating.