Iowa Wrestling trashes Iowa State, 29-6: Recap

“We were in a pickle there. We were in a couple of pickles. Kaleb Young was in a pickle. We won some pickles. We like that dominant, 100 to zero probability.”

-Tom Brands, Iowa Head Coach

“We got manhandled by a very good wrestling team, I don’t think there’s any way to spin it any other way than that,”

-Kevin Dresser, Iowa State Head Coach

Iowa is clearly going in the direction we want them to go. Iowa State? Well, they’re still trying to figure out what the hell just happened in Ames.

After watching this clip, you will understand what they just went through...

It’s taken me a few days to get to this, but the important thing is: The Hawkeyes won 29-6!!!

With #1 Penn State losing 19-18 to Arizona State a few days ago and Iowa’s win here, we will jump up to #1 in the rankings. If my calculations are correct, this will be the first time we’ve been on top since 2015.

11,000+ fans crammed into Hilton Coliseum to see two of the most storied programs in wrestling history duke it out. It was reported that it was the largest crowd in Ames for a wrestling dual since 1999. Who was that against, you ask? Iowa and we won it 24-12. Two decades of dominance over ISU never gets old.

This was a weird and ferocious dual. You could hear the rowdy crowd and see the passionate fans chanting, booing, and cheering. Plus there was hatred damn near everywhere. You could taste the animosity through the stuttering stream, which added to the hostilities... at least on my end as I watched the events unfold from Charolette.

On top of some great heads up battles, there was some down right odd ones too. Mix in a heavy dosage of questionable calls and a couple upsets, we will be remembering this dual for a very long time.

IOWA 29, IOWA STATE 0

125lbs: #1 Spencer Lee tech fall over #10 Alex Mackall, 17-2. Iowa 5-0

133lbs: #2 Austin DeSanto major dec. over Todd Small, 16-5. Iowa 9-0

141lbs: #22 Ian Parker dec. overCarter Happel, 6-4 SV1. Iowa 9-3

149lbs: #5 Pat Lugo dec. over #8 Jarret Degen, 4-2. Iowa 12-3

157lbs: #17 David Carr dec. over #3 Kaleb Young, 6-1. Iowa 12-6

165lbs: #3 Alex Marinelli (1-0) dec. over #20 Chase Straw, 13-7. Iowa 15-6

174lbs: #3 Michael Kemerer major dec. over #28 Marcus Coleman, 19-6. Iowa 19-6

184lbs: #18 Nelson Brands dec. over #13 Sam Colbray, 4-3 TB1, Iowa 22-6

197lbs: #5 Jacob Warner major dec. over #32 Joel Shapiro, 11-2. Iowa 26-6

285lbs: #12 Tony Cassioppi dec. over #31 Gannon Gremmel, 6-0. Iowa 29-6

With this win we take a 7-6 lead in the Cy-Hawk series and now have an abundance of bragging rights over our little brothers. Tom Brands is still undefeated against ISU at 15-0 and Iowa pushed it’s overall win streak to 16. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

We won eight of 10 matches including four by bonus points: one tech fall and three major decisions. That’s five extra team points for the good guys, which is something that’s nice to see, especially early in the season.

Match Notes

125lbs: Because I was driving back from my nieces birthday party I missed the opening two minutes...which means I missed the entire match. I had to wait several hours for the re-watch and all I can say is, “wow!”

Lee looked good, really good. Mackall tried putting him into some odd scramble situations to force the issue, but Lee always looked comfortable and scored a boatload of danger zone points as a result. This is good to see, especially this early in the year. It’s reminiscent of Lee sticking Nathan Tomasello a couple years back.

As evidence in the video below, Lee isn’t afraid to wrestle in any position at any time and he’s gong to find a way to collect that near fall.

133lbs: DeSanto made his season debut at 133 and took it to the former 2x Juco National Champ, Todd Small. Though we do need to give Small credit, he wrestled hard and pushed the match to the full seven minutes and didn’t back down. Regardless, DeSanto’s pace and aggression is unrivaled by most guys in the country. He’s nonstop, never takes a second off, and is always looking for ways to score. Also, it’s encouraging to see him get a variety of TD’s as well. Austin was constantly looking for the fireman’s carry, but Small was staying in good position and hand fighting throughout. ADS was able to lock up an early cradle to extend his lead in the 1st. From there he never looked back.

141lbs: Carter Happel got the nod to go and he wrestled very well against Parker. We’ve all been anxiously awaiting the return of Max Murin, but with no time table set for that return, Happel could be our guy for awhile. He isn’t going to set the world on fire, but he’s improved greatly over his few seasons in that room.

It took a few minutes for these two to get up to speed, but once they got out of neutral, the action was forced and the fur started to fly. Happel showed he has some good mat wrestling and was able to keep Parker down for awhile, and even flashed some offense with a smooth high crotch for a TD of his own. Unfortunately, Parker got the best of him this time around, but there isn’t much that separates these two, which truly shows the depth of our room

149lbs: A lot of people out there are down on Lugo for another seemingly lackluster performance, but the guy went out there and got it done. Going into this he was 0-2 against Degen, including a loss in the 7th place medal match last year. It was a wild, crazy, and odd match, but Lugo never gave up and never quit. He continued to attack (which is new) although it damn near cost him, but it didn’t.

During a nutty scramble it appeared Lugo was close to a reversal when Degen locked his hands and forced Lugo into the danger zone, racking up a 4pt near fall. The officials let them go until the action subsided, then halted for a review. It was determined that Degen locked his hands too early, which voided the NF points. Because of the locked hands violation it was a 5pt swing (giving Lugo 1pt) and gave Lugo the lead for good.

From the internet warriors out there, it seems Lugo can’t do anything right. If he doesn’t attack and stay aggressive he’s boring and wrestles timid, if he goes out and forces the issue then he shouldn’t do that either. Well, the guy just avenged a loss, cut him some slack. He’s improving and never gives up.

157lbs: This was the match the entire country was waiting for and for the most part it didn’t disappoint, until it did late. KY and Carr were flashing elite defense with elite scrambling. Watching these two guys go at it for the first 5min was truly something else. KY’s mat awareness is spectacular, but...but it appears as if he’s reverting back to his early 2018 form. All defense, all counters, no attack.

He was in deep on a few shots, but was never able to capitalize. Unfortunately, Carr was able to when he locked up a cradle in the 3rd and pushed his lead to 6-1, where it would remain.

KY was is still a finalist contender, but he has a lot of work to do and he’ll more than likely have to go through either Carr or #1 Hayden Hidlay to make the finals. He can do it, but only if he gets back on his horse and gets to his offense. He’s damn good when all three phases are going. Perhaps this is the early season wakeup call he needs.

165lbs: The Bull went out and bulldozed his way to another solid performance. Though, Straw got an early TD on him, which ultimately kept this match from bonus point territory. As I said, Bull has been solid so far, but he hasn’t been great and we need him to be great as the season goes on.

He was able to connect on his patent-pending blast doubles into body locks for TD’s. Each time he connected, Straw wasted no time turning out to avoid being dropped to his back. Obviously, had any of those gone differently we have a major decision in hand, but they didn’t. Marinelli needs to wrestle with a bit more urgency earlier in the match to secure max points.

174lbs: Holy shiot, it is nice to have Kemdog back in this lineup! He recorded six TD’s and blew the doors off this match. It’s still early in the season and Kemerer is already firing on all cylinders. I don’t imagine anyone in wrestling is peaking yet, including Kemerer, so I’m excited to see him at his best. He’s going to make noise this year.

Over his first two matches he’s outscored his opponents 35-5.

184lbs: Two duals into the season and we still don’t have an answer on who our full time starter will be, but Nelson Brands is making a STRONG case over Cash Wilcke. He’s now knocked off ranked opponents in back-to-back weeks to start off his varsity career. He’s out there wrestling with 100% heart, grit, smarts, and raw intensity all the while being severely undersized. So math tells me that’s 400% awesome and that’s exactly what we need in this lineup at this weight.

It took TB1 for Nelson to pull off the upset, 4-3, but it was the highlight of the dual and firmly trusts Brands into the national spotlight. Damn this kid is a lot of fun to watch.

Plus, it was sweet as hell watching a Brands seal the dual win for the Hawks!

197lbs: Warner looked much better this week against ISU’s Joel Shapiro. He was good in all phases and had his offense clicking early and often, totaling five TD’s. More importantly, he still looked fresh in the 3rd period. He kept pushing the pace late and was light on his feet, setting up shots and not dragging. This is a positive sign and hopefully he can avoid the lulls and energy droughts he fought through last year.

285lbs: Cassioppi is here to stay. The Big man took it to Gremmell, 6-0. Big Cass is a welcome counter to our usual big, lumbering, slow heavyweights. While he’s still large, he’s very quick on his feet and can scramble when he’s on the mat. I was able to watch a few of his opens last year, so I had high expectations coming in, but they are quickly rising even further with each passing match.

The season is still early, but he’s wrestling hard and smart, but with patience. Cass is going to keep improving and if these two run into each other again at the NCAA’s Cass will win that by major or worse.

Final Thoughts:

For the most part, the entire team came out with a sense of urgency against ISU that we were missing in week 1 against UT-Chattanooga. We all knew the Cyclones would be amped up and ready to go and we matched their intensity. No one went out and laid an egg, which could have easily happened.

Tom and Terry Brands and the rest of the coaching staff know they have something special brewing in Iowa City this year. They’re seeing red and they can taste blood in the water.

Lee coming out and throttling his way to an early tech against someone like Mackall is a statement match for the entire team and can set the tone for the rest of his season. As Lee said, there’s some behind the scenes things going on, which we can only guess at. Personally, I think it’s getting these guys focused, zeroed in, and ready to roll when they need to. The whole team is incredibly talented and they know it, but for the first time in years the target is shifting to our backs. Everyone is now trying to run us down and that’s the way we want it. That’s the way all Hawkeye fans want it.

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Up next we welcome the #4 ranked Wisconsin Badgers to Carver-Hawkeye on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 7PM GT.