Iowa State gets revenge on UNI

AMES - Days before No. 8 Iowa State and Northern Iowa would meet on the mat, ISU coaches put together a reel of film. The footage from last season's UNI win showed Panther wrestlers enthusiastically celebrating each victory against their ISU counterpart.

That was all the motivation Iowa State needed.

The Cyclones returned the favor by beating UNI, 24-12, on Sunday in Hilton Coliseum, winning 7 of 10 matches.

'I thought our guys winning handled themselves with class and you didn't see any back flips or summersaults or flexing on anybody so I was pretty happy with our guys,” ISU Coach Kevin Jackson said.

ISU 149-pounder Gabe Moreno felt like the win - which was aided by bonus points in three matches - was a message to the UNI squad.

'We're on top,” Moreno said. 'There's a ‘W' in our win/loss column and an ‘L' in their win/loss column. That's the only message that needs to be sent.”

Iowa State won the first three matches, capped off by a 17-5 major decision from Kyven Gadson against Basil Minto at 197 pounds that gave the Cyclones a 10-0 lead. Wins by UNI's Blaize Cabell at heavyweight followed by 125-pounder Dylan Peters' pin against Kyle Larson in 2:57 cut the ISU lead to 10-9 at intermission.

UNI Coach Doug Schwab said the pin by Peters, who is ranked No. 6 and 19-5 this season, was a nice piece of momentum heading into the break.

'He wanted to get a pin for the team,” Schwab said. 'He looks at it like, ‘Hey, I want to get six.' We needed it and he did a good job of doing that, but he's got a lot more than that and I'd like to see him open up more.”

Almost all of the UNI momentum fell by the wayside after intermission when the Cyclones won four matches, highlighted by major decisions from Dante Rodriguez at 141 pounds and Mike Moreno at 165. It was the 17-9 win by Rodriguez, however, where Jackson really fell the rest of the team became ignited.

'He's competing as good as anybody on our team just from a competitive standpoint,” Jackson said. 'He's not as skilled as all of our guys, but he competes almost at the highest level when you watch him.”

Schwab said as conference and national tournaments approach, the confidence in his team's ability will have to become more apparent and they will have to embrace the larger environments. As for the pre-dual chatter from Iowa State and the enthusiasm from the crowd in Hilton, Sunday's meet had a rivalry feel to it.

'They backed it up today,” Schwab said. 'Good for them.

'I'll at least give them credit. In some situations their guys did a good job and scored some points. They put us in danger, they put us on our backs. We just didn't do enough.”

l Comments: montzdylan@gmail.com