Iowa Wrestling rolls over Maryland, 48-0

We all knew we were going to win and let’s face it, if I can predict anything to truth then it must have been an easy guess to begin with.

The most difficult questions to answer were: how many matches would we win and how many would we bonus? Well, even I didn’t see this type of domination coming from our Iowa Hawkeyes on Friday night.

“We came, we saw, we kicked their ass!”

-Tom Brands doing his best Peter Venkman

And now a real quote from the man.

“It’s never as easy as it looks. Our guys made a lot of those matches look easy.”

The coaching staff must have had quite the week of practice and build-up to this dual because they had their guys wrestling like the underdogs they weren’t. We came out hungry and angry and didn’t let up from the opening whistle to the final one. For perhaps the first time this season, nearly everyone was cutting and releasing and shooting. The offense was nonstop. We ripped through the Terrapins and won all ten matches, including eight by bonus points: two majors, two tech falls, and four falls.

This our second shutout on the season. The first came graciously at the hands of Kent State,

45-0. In fact, this is the first time we’ve kept multiple teams off the scoreboard since the 2016-17 season when we blanked Iowa Central, Cornell College, and Michigan State. Can we make it a hat trick this year too? We have a chance coming up this Friday, February 15, against Indiana.

Our Hawkeyes improve to 12-0 (7-0 B1G) on the season and Maryland falls to 0-10 (0-7 B1G).

Iowa 48, Maryland 0

149: #16 Pat Lugo tech. fall Pete Tedesco, 23-8 Iowa 5, MD 0

157: #7 Kaleb Young dec. Ryan Diehl,10-4 Iowa 8, MD 0

165: #2 Alex Marinelli pinned Philip Spadafora, 3:50 Iowa 14, MD 0

174: Mitch Bowman pinned Josh Ugalde, 2:44 Iowa 20, MD 0

184: #14 Cash Wilcke maj. dec. Kyle Jasenski, 23-9 Iowa 24, MD 0

197: #5 Jacob Warner tech. fall Niko Cappello, 24-9 Iowa 29, MD 0

285: #10 Sam Stoll dec. #8 Youssif Hemida, 1-0 Iowa 32, MD 0

125: #2 Spencer Lee pinned Brandon, :30 Iowa 38, MD 0

133: Paul Glynn pinned Orion Anderson, 2:46 Iowa 44, MD 0

141: #18 Max Murin maj. dec. Danny Bertoni, 12-3 Iowa 48, MD 0

Notable Notables

149: Lugo led off the night and literally blew the doors open in CHA. He was a takedown machine and amassed 4 TD’s in the first period alone. He ended up with 10 TD’s. Add in the 2NF from the first period, an escape, and you get a 23-8 whoopin’. I’m not sure if Lugo has completely rounded the corner after a slow start to the season, but he’s clearly making the turn. This was the offensive output he needed to give himself confidence. When he turns on the burners like this, he can score on anyone. Now he just needs to remember that every single match, regardless of who he’s facing.

157: KY came out on fire and recorded a TD against Ryan Diehl within the first 4 seconds. He added in another to close out the first frame, He recorded 2NF to push his lead to 6-1 then things slowed down a bit. This seems to be the struggle with KY so far in his young career. He often times bottles up, can’t find his offense or when he does, can’t keep it going. He was within major territory when he got sloppy and gave up a late TD to Diehl. KY got those two back then cut Diehl to make it 9-4 with RT and was looking for a late TD to secure the major. Alas, he didn’t get it. He won 10-4 and was thoroughly in control the entire match, but I can’t help but feel that it should’ve been more. Much more. Kaleb is right there on the cusp, but he needs to keep firing for all seven minutes if he wants to close the gap with the elite and truly be in that All-American convo.

165: The Bull has been bullying guys all year. He just recorded his SEVENTH pin on the season to push his record to 17-0. This is all I need to show you.

174: This is the first time we’ve seen Mitch Bowman take the mat since January 18 against Rutgers and this is the first time we’ve seen him win since the Midlands in late December. And he looked good, well his wrestling did, for the most part. He came out rocking his trademark leg sleeve, but also had a shoulder brace on, which perhaps explains his lack of mat time over the past month. Precautionary or injury or both? Either way, Bowman wrestled pretty well, but he still seems to have some mental lapses, but luckily Josh Ugalde isn’t quite good enough to capitalize on them. Bowman almost got caught during a standing gramby then later on proceeded to lace in the legs when Ugalde was coming to his feet. Against someone better, this could be awful. But it was nice seeing Bowman use his length, quickness, and his energy looked energized. He was sharp on his TDs and used those long arms to wrap up a cradle to end the match. That cradle could be there for the rest of the season if he keeps looking for it… I can’t embed his interview, but please check it out here.

184: After what many considered a boring first period that resulted in a 1-0 lead thanks to some stall calls, Cash Wilcke turned it on for the final 4 minutes. He proceeded to crank up the Takedown Machine to max levels and embarrassed Jasenski in the 2^nd and 3^rd periods. He ended up winning 23-9, 22 of those points coming after that forgettable first. It should go without saying that he was one-point shy of a tech. fall. A little more urgency early on and Cash gets the job done. I guarantee this is something they’ll be working on for the rest of the season. Wilcke is starting to prove to us that he has the moves, now he just needs to get himself in the right mental zone to make it happen. If and when he does, he’s going to be a very dangerous wrestler.

197: Technical difficulties hosed us out of two minutes in the first period, but when it came back live, Warner had an 8-4 lead. He’d get one more TD and a ride out to go up 10-4 to take them into the 2^nd period. From here he didn’t look back and decided to borrow the Takedown Machine from Lugo and Wilcke. In fact, I believe Warner ended up with a team high, 12 TDs. This is a particularly nice omen, considering the difficulties that Warner has also had getting to his offense in the past. Furthermore, it’s nicer yet that he had the energy to keep it up late into the 3^rd. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Warner was still struggling to finish matches late. Has he too, turned the corner?

285: A 1-0 win is still a win. And that’s exactly what #10 Stoll did against #8 Youssif Hemida. I won’t go as far to say that it instills a tremendous amount of confidence moving forward, but it was a nice rebound following Stoll’s epic let down against Nebraska’s David Jensen. Stoll repeatedly got pushed around and Hemida even once tossed him to his back, but luckily the big men rolled out of bounds. Stoll didn’t take a noteworthy shot the entire match and to be frank, I’m surprised he didn’t get dinged for stalling, because he probably should have. At least the only point in the match was thanks to a 2^nd period escape by Stoll. Something he didn’t do for over four minutes against Jensen. Now for the bad news: #1 Gable Stevenson just wrecked both Jensen and Hemida this weekend, so if Stoll wants to close the gap he needs to turn it up a notch or five. He’s running out of time to get himself back and shape and I’m afraid this might be him at this 2019 best. I’d love to visit the universe where we get to see Stoll without injuries.

125: When you have the fastest pin of your career it’s hard to judge if you’re back or not and that’s what Lee decided to do against Brandon Cray in 30 seconds. Cray went crazy and decided to scramble with the Lee. Bad decision. Lee now has four pins in his last seven matches, which may indicate that he too is rounding into form. What do you guys think? Judge for yourselves (in the comments). Also I love Lee’s creativity and his ability to pin in any position.

133: With Austin DeSanto suspended, Tom Brands once again called on Paul Glynn to get the job done. And he done’d it good, pinning Orion Anderson in 2:49. I continually speak of turning the corner and improving and Mr. Glynn is a guy that is doing both. Not only is he pinch-hitting when asked, he’s becoming a team leader even when he’s not on the mat. He’s becoming one of the most important teammates and that’s incredibly valuable. Tom Brands went on to say in a Hawkeyesports article, “The most important thing is that he is ready to go. He is a heartbeat away from the presidency and he is ready to go. He has been ready to go.” Glynn racked up two TD’s before launching into a great spiral ride that led to a cradle and the pin. Congrats to Glynn on the win and being there when we need him most!

141: Murin came in wearing an elbow sleeve, so I’m a bit curious to know what’s up with that. Murin sat out last week against Chad Red (Nebraska), so perhaps he’s a bit dinged up too? He looked solid in his return to the mat as he majored Danny Bertoni, 12-3. He never recorded any NF points, which is a bit underwhelming, but he did manage five TD’s to compensate for it. Though he didn’t put up the TD numbers a few of his teammates did, it was nice seeing him cut, release, and attack and keep the pace him and in his favor. Murin’s motor rivals that of DeSanto’s and Marinelli’s, now he needs his offense to catch up with it. Similar to Wilcke, if and when it does, he’s going to be incredibly dangerous. He too is on the cusp of knocking off higher ranked guys, now he just needs to do it.

---

BTW- The Hawkeye Wrestling club raised $151,868 in their 2019 Arctic Plunge fundraiser! These guys are absolutely crazy and that’s why I love Hawkeye wrestling. Here are some fun pictures.

---

Next up we face Indiana on Friday, February 15, inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. This is senior night and our last home dual. BE THERE.

Immediately following that on Sunday, February 17, we travel to Madison to take on #14 Wisconsin in our last conference dual of the year. We have three duals left, let’s get it done.