Top-ranked Hawkeyes capture Big Ten title

IOWA CITY - On a night that had plenty of elements for celebration, the University of Iowa didn't seem to be in a festive mood.

The win wrapped up the conference's dual crown, moved head coach Tom Brands into a second-place in program history tie with Dave McCuskey and preceded a ceremony to honor seven seniors. A more serious tone followed the dual.

Top-ranked Iowa defeated No. 16 Michigan, 22-9, in the regular-season finale last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, clinching the Big Ten dual title outright with a 9-0 record and improving to 14-0 overall.

The Hawkeyes won seven of 10 bouts, but the performance was far from perfect,

'We have work to do,” said Brands, who earned his 160th career win in nine seasons at Iowa. 'It was not an inspiring performance, for whatever reason.”

Brands admitted he doesn't normally buy into statistics, but he was not impressed by the ones he did notice. Iowa scored just five first-period takedowns and none after Cory Clark tallied four of them in his 14-3 major decision at 133.

'The stats that I looked at, and I don't look at stats much, but it wasn't pretty,” Brands said. 'Split the ranked matches, a lot of 0-0, behind in some matches, going into the second period.”

Michigan (6-6, 4-5) may have slowed things down, but Iowa didn't impose their will either.

'I think there was a lot of hard wrestling out there,” Brands said. 'I don't think we wrestled to score points. I think we wrestled to hand fight. I think we wrestled to stay in there. I think we wrestled to survive.”

Nathan Burak provided a jolt to the crowd, winning the 197-pound bout against 13th-ranked Max Huntley in dramatic fashion. Burak and Huntley scored a takedown and two nearfall in sudden-victory overtime for a 5-1 win.

'It's not how I want to wrestle,” Burak said. 'I know I'm a lot better than that.”

Burak said he needs to get to his opponent's legs more often and earlier. He took advantage of his opportunity, hitting the shot that put Huntley on his back.

'I mixed it up,” Burak said. 'The whole match I was too focused on getting my high crotch, instead of really flowing, moving and getting different setups and fakes. I just went for the double, it was there and I got it.”

The circumstances around the dual provided some extra motivation, according to Burak. It was a chance to win for the seniors and claim the seventh dual title under Brands.

'Senior night is another incentive,” Burak said. 'You're always out there to win, but I respect these guys a lot. I want to go out there and compete well for them.

'overall for the Big ten, it's not what our ultimate goal is, but like coach says it's another feather in our hat,” Burak said. 'So that is what was ahead of us right now. We got that. We didn't want to share it and we accomplished it.”

Iowa's second-ranked Brandon Sorensen had one of the tightest bouts of the night. He used a second-period escape and a riding-time points to edge No. 8 Alec Pantaleo, 2-1, at 149, winning his 11th straight match.

'I didn't like the way I performed at all,” Sorensen said. 'I was flat-footed. It was single holds. I wasn't hitting multiple holds at a time.”

'I could have been a lot better. I could have got to my attacks.”

The Hawkeyes opened with four straight wins, building a 13-0 lead. Thomas Gilman (125) opened the dual with a decision and senior Josh Dziewa's win gave Iowa a 10-0 lead before Sorensen's match.

Dziewa posted a 6-0 shutout over George Fisher. He crammed five points in the second, getting an escape, takedown and two nearfall just before the period expired.

Mike Evans rebounded from his first loss of the season, recording an 8-3 win over Jake Salazar at 174. He broke open the match late, scoring a takedown at the end of the second and five points in the third, including another last-second takedown.

'Mike Evans, good for him,” Brands said. 'He gets a takedown at the buzzer to win 8-3. He's building his lead. You like that. He felt good about it.”

Senior Nick Moore, a four-tome state champ at Iowa City West, provided a cheer for the home crowd. he topped Garrett Sutton, 6-1, at 165.

In the marquee match of the night, Michigan's sixth-ranked Adam Coon used a reversal in the first tiebreaker overtime to upset No. 4 Bobby Telford, 3-2.

The Hawkeyes begin competition in the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Duals with a regional at home Sunday against No. 13 Virginia (10-5), beginning at 1 p.m.

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