Top-ranked Iowa wrestling team continues its dominance with 35-6 victory over No. 7 Minnesota
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The top-ranked Iowa wrestling team did as expected late Saturday night by dismantling No. 7 Minnesota 35-6 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
It was business as usual for this Iowa team, and yet another sign that Tom Brands finally has enough firepower to at least temporarily derail the dynasty that Cael Sanderson has going at Penn State right now.
Iowa won eight of 10 matches in Saturday’s dual, which started at 8:36 p.m. due to the wonders of television.
The Hawkeyes finished 9-0 in the Big Ten with most of the matches against conference opponents not even very competitive from a scoring standpoint.
Iowa still has one more highly anticipated match in the regular season with traditional power Oklahoma State coming to Carver-Hawkeye Arena next Sunday. The Cowboys are down somewhat by their lofty standards, but still dangerous according to Tom Brands, who already had moved on from the Minnesota drubbing by the time he addressed the media on Saturday.
Brands was pleased with the the convincing win over the Gophers, but he still saw room for improvement in his never-ending quest for dominance.
"It's always onward," Brands said. "We've got to get better. We had some guys that didn't wrestler their best and did some work to bail themselveds out of some holes. So we've got to be ready for these Big Ten Championships and the national tournament coming right up around the corner.
"But we've got Oklahoma State coming to town. That's a big dual. That is a big dual meet. I don't know what they're ranked. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's a program that has a lot of pride in the sport of wrestling, in a state that has a lot of pride about the sport of wrestling."
Watching this Iowa team brings back fond memories of the 1980s and 1990s when Iowa routinely turned top-10 matches into mismatches.
Saturday’s mismatch started at 184 pounds, but it didn’t start well for Iowa as Cash Wilcke dropped a 3-2 decision to Owen Webster.
Jacob Warner then energized the fans with an impressive 12-4 major decision at 197 pounds, giving Iowa four points and a 4-3 lead heading into the much-anticipated match at 285 pounds between Minnesota’s top-ranked Gable Steveson and third-ranked Tony Cassioppi from Iowa.
Steveson, whose first name only added to the emotion, hung on for a 7-5 victory.
Unfortunately, fans didn’t get to see Spencer Lee continue his dominance at 125 pounds where the Pennsylvania native has won the last two national titles.
The Gophers forfeited at his weight, which only accelerated the inevitable, and spared some overmatched opponent a beat-down.
Austin DeSanto then mauled his way to five points for Iowa with a 24-8 technical fall at 133 pounds, and Max Murin made a triumphant return at 141 pounds with sudden death victory.
Murin’s victory gave Iowa an 18-6 lead, and it was clear at that point that the gap between No. 1 and No. 7 was significant.
Pat Lugo continued the dismantling with a 3-2 victory over freshman Brayton Lee at 149 pounds, expanding Iowa’s lead to 21-6 on Military Appreciation Night.
Kaleb Young then held on for a 5-4 victory at 157 pounds as the beat-down continued.
Iowa’s lead swelled to 29-6 after Alex Marinelli earned five points with a 21-6 technical fall at 165 pounds.
And that set the stage for Michael Kemerer to put an exclamation point on Iowa’s drubbing and the 174-pounder from Pennsylvania didn’t disappoint, recording a first-period fall to complete a 35-6 victory.
Hawkeye fans certainly have reason to be excited because Iowa finally compares favorably to Penn State on paper, and on the mat where the Hawkeyes prevailed 19-17 on Jan. 31st at Carver-Hawkeye Arena despite surrendering six points when Austin DeSanto was injured at 133 pounds and had to forfeit.
But March is when it really matters, first at the sBig Ten Championships and then with everything on the line at the NCAA Championships.
Of course, Iowa wants to win the Big Ten title, but this team will ultimately be defined by where it finishes at the NCAA Championships.
Anything less than winning an NCAA title would be considered a disappointment, fair or not.
That’s a lot of pressure, but that’s Iowa wrestling.
Pressure.
Pain.
Performance.
And results.
Iowa hasn’t won an NCAA title since 2010, which is an eternity by Iowa’s standards.
Iowa is loaded from top to bottom, while Penn State is vulnerable by its incredibly high standards, partly due to injuries.
Tom Brands is in the unique position of trying to conquer what he used to be part of, which is dynasty.
Brands was a key piece of the Iowa wrestling dynasty under Dan Gable, winning three national titles, so Brands knows what it takes to sustain dominance.
Because that’s what a dynasty is – sustained dominance.
Penn State has dominated most of the past decade, winning eight of the last nine national titles, and that qualifies as a dynasty.
But Iowa has served notice throughout the season that Penn State’s current run of dominance could be on shaky ground.