Hawkeyes dominate, irritate at Cliff Keen National Duals

AMES -So, Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands, your team just won Sunday's NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals regional at Hilton Coliseum.

How do you feel?

“I'm irritated right now because we get good momentum going and we get ambushed, beat up, and we don't finish matches very strong,” said Brands, whose top-seeded Hawkeyes swept matches against VIrginia Tech (31-3) and Oregon State (22-14) before a crowd of 2,028. “That's what's on your mind right now.”

Brands' criticism of the Hawkeyes' finishing skills didn't apply to 174-pounder Ethen Lofthouse.

The sophomore ranked ninth in his weight class by Intermat was the only Iowa wrestler to score bonus points in both of his bouts.

He won his first-round match over Virginia Tech's Chris Moon by major decision (13-3), then used a last-second takedown in round two to score a technical fall (21-6) over Oregon State's John Tuck.

“I knew time was short,” said Lofthouse, who scored seven points in the final 50 seconds. “You've got to have some urgency there.”

Brands called the extra bonus point attained in the final second important.

“He really did a good job of building,” Brands said. “We like that. That was a big takedown at the end - even though it's one takedown and he took him down a bunch of times before that. Get it, get it. Because it means something.”

Iowa continued to shine in the three lightest weight classes, with No. 1 125-pounder Matt McDonough, fourth-ranked 133-pounder Tony Ramos and No. 6 141-pounder Montell Marion sweeping a pair of matches apiece.

Ramos handed Virginia Tech's No. 1 Devin Carter his second loss of the day, 3-2.

Carter previously fell by major decision, 13-3, to Northern Iowa's 11th-ranked Joe Colon.

“You know he's going to come even harder after a loss,” Ramos said. “He wants a second chance to make himself look better.”

Marion used an aggressive attack to outlast No. 4 Mike Mangrum of Oregon State, 6-4.

“It's important for me to be able to make adjustments,” said the two-time all-American. “That means I need to go harder, faster, smarter. Never getting out of control - head up, things of that nature, watching for the roll.”

Iowa (13-3) is looking to get on one, with the four-team National Duals championships looming next Sunday and the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments to follow.

“We haven't won anything yet,” Marion said.

IOWA STATE AND UNI: Host Iowa State fell one win short of the finals.

The Cyclones dominated Wisconsin in round one (36-3), but gave up bonus points in four of six losses to Oregon State and fell 27-12 to the Jim Zalesky-coached Beavers in the semifinals.

“We've got some young guys that have to understand bonus points are huge in a dual meet and we give up two falls and a tech. fall,” ISU coach Kevin Jackson said. “It just can't happen.”

ISU's Andrew Sorenson, ranked No. 4 at 165, avenged his only loss of the season by beating Wisconsin's Ben Jordan, 3-2.

“It is nice to get that one loss back, to get a little revenge, but it was a disappointing day,” said Sorenson, who felt he could have attacked more.

Northern Iowa lost to the Hokies, 20-17, in round one but rebounded to top the Badgers 30-15 in the fifth-place match.

Colon, Cruse Aarhus (125), Ryan Jauch (149), David Bonin (157), and Ryan Loder (184) all won two matches each.

“We wrestled hard,” Panther coach Doug Schwab said.

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