Morningstar's toughness lead Hawkeyes to early lead

OMAHA, Neb. - The University of Iowa senior suffered a knee injury in his final match of the Big Ten tournament less than two weeks ago, leaving him on crutches and placing his final competition in jeopardy. Morningstar toughed it out and was set on competing.

He took the mat and proved just how tough he is with two important wins, advancing to the 165-pound quarterfinals and helping the Hawkeyes post an 18-2 record after the opening day of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Thursday at the Qwest Center. Top-ranked Iowa took the lead of the team race with 34½ points, leading second-place Oklahoma State by 8½ points. Iowa State is third with 24.

Morningstar opened with a 4-2 overtime win over West Virginia's Donald Jones, scoring a takedown in the last half of the sudden death period. He advanced to today's quarterfinals with a 3-1 win over Oklahoma State's Alex Meade last night.

”He's doing what he does best,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. “He's winning close matches, and he's showing he's a pretty tough customer.”

Morningstar said he didn't know his limitations, but he looked sturdy enough in battle. He said he doesn't feel pain because adrenaline blocks it out.

“I wasn't quite sure of the limitations to my knee, so I didn't want to tweak it early on in the match,” Morningstar said. “I've been limited on the mat the last two weeks so I didn't really know what I could do with it without it hurting so much because I didn't want to test it coming in.”

Morningstar scored off his own shot to capture both decisive takedowns. The first one was a confidence boost.

“It's big, because I had to go get a takedown and it was good to get a takedown off my shot, too,” said Morningstar, who is wearing a large black brace on his right knee. “It was good to go out and get a takedown, because now I know I can do it and get future takedowns. The job is far from finished for the Hawkeye senior, and his teammates.“It's still a little bit premature, but two is better than one,” said Brands, referring to the number of Morningstar wins Thursday. “So now we have two in a row, and just keep a good thing going.”

Brands said something similar about the entire team, which has eight quarterfinalists and all 10 wrestlers remaining.

“We have to keep a good thing going,” Brands said. “Eight in the quarters is good. I think 8-for-9 that round. That's good, but we have to keep a good thing going.”

The Hawks burst to a 9-1 record in both sessions. Red-shirt freshman Matt McDonough (125), seniors Daniel Dennis (133), Brent Metcalf (149), Jay Borschel (174), Phil Keddy (184), heavyweight Dan Erekson and sophomore Montell Marion all went 2-0.McDonough opened with a technical fall in his very first match. Keddy posted a major decision then the Hawkeyes' No. 9 seed topped No. 8 Louis Caputo of Harvard, 6-2, to reach the quarters. Metcalf has a pair of major decisions and Erekson marched to the quarters with a first-period pin of Navy's Scott Steele. The Hawkeyes kept moving on when some other teams were seeing key wrestlers fall to the consolation brackets.

“We have to be consistent,” Dennis said. “The first priority is getting your hand raised and finding a way to win. Obviously, we're getting that done.”

Iowa State has nine of its wrestlers alive, rebounding from a rough opening round that saw them go 5-5, including an upset of their No. 4-seed Jon Reader at 165. They went 5-0 mark in the second round, and finished the second session 9-1.

“We've got nine still alive and tomorrow is a big day, tomorrow is when the tournament is going to be decided,” First-year Cyclones Coach Kevin Jackson said. “We have some work to do and we've got to wrestle a little better. Reader's loss hurt us a lot. We'd feel a lot better if he was on that front side. We've got nine alive. That is the bottom line and we will come back determined.”

Top-seeds Jake Varner and David Zabriskie won their first two matches at 197 and heavyweight, Varner posted a pair of major decisions and red-shirt freshman Andrew Long reached the quarters at 125. Mitch Mueller joined them and 133-pounder Nick Fanthorpe in the quarterfinals, earning a major decision in his opening bout and beating Central Michigan's Anthony D'Alie, 8-4.This is the furthest Mueller has advanced in his fourth trip to the NCAA's.

“I'm just trying to get better each time out there,” Mueller said. “Feeling good physically and mentally, getting my mind right for each match and really just trying to get better as the tournament goes on.”

It sets up a match with Metcalf in the quarterfinals.“I know what he has. He knows what I have,” Mueller said. “I have to wrestle my best match. I have to be ready to go for that. Just leave it all out there.”

The University of Northern Iowa advanced one to the quarterfinals. Jarion Beets, a former two-time state medalist for Cedar Rapids Kennedy, posted a 3-0 record at 174 in the first day of competition. His biggest win was a 14-7 decision over No. 5-seed Scott Glasser of Minnesota in the first round. Trent Washington (149), Tyson Reiner (157) and heavyweight Christian Brantley remain alive after going 1-1 for the Panthers.