College Wrestling: Cyclones facing Hawkeyes and an arena

AMES - Beating the guy across from you at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is hard enough.

The surroundings Friday night when Iowa State and Iowa wrestle for the 77th time will present another challenge for the visitors, Coach Kevin Jackson said. Only one of the Cyclones' 10 wrestlers - senior Jon Reader - has competed there.

The crowd that could pack the place for one of wrestling's premier dual meets can create an intimidating effect.

“Any time you go into Iowa City to wrestle they are going to challenge you in all areas, first and foremost mentally,” Jackson said. “It feels like you are wrestling the coaching staff, you're wrestling the crowd, the official ... It is a different environment and a different scene.”

Reader, who lost his only match at CHA to Ryan Morningstar, vowed not to be distracted.

Fans are being asked to wear black to create a “Black Out” effect.

“I don't look at it like that,” said Reader, who is 12-0 and ranked third at 174 pounds. “It's me versus another guy. That's it. I don't really care about the surroundings. There's definitely a big crowd. You just have to focus for seven minutes. We've been doing this our whole lives.”

The No. 14-ranked Cyclones are 4-0 with victories over Virginia Tech, Kent State, Old Dominion and Boston University.

Sixth-ranked Iowa (4-0) has won 60 straight dual meets and hasn't lost in this series since a 19-16 defeat in 2004 at Iowa City.

“It is a fun scene and it's a highly competitive scene,” Jackson said. “It's a place that every competitor should have an opportunity to wrestle in and fortunately for us we do.”

It'll be a big test for a Cyclone team that has just three senior starters and three returning All-Americans.

No match will feature the same two wrestlers from Iowa's victory at Hilton Coliseum last season. Both teams are young and transitioning after losing stars.

“On paper and probably off paper they are better than us in a couple of weight classes,” Jackson said. “It's going to tell us a lot about where we are at and the direction we are going and how far we have to go in order to reach our goals in March.”

After this match, it'll be almost a month before the Cyclones compete again. They'll make their annual trek to Evanston, Ill., for the Midlands tournament Dec. 29-30. Jackson set up the schedule to give his young team a lot of early season work.

So far, the coach and his most veteran wrestler like what they see.

“There's a lot of excitement in the room with the progress we are making,” Reader said. “A lot of the guys are young but they are like sharks. They are ready to go.”