UNI wrestling beats Iowa State 20-12 for first win in Ames since 2003

AMES — Northern Iowa coach Doug Schwab made it known early in the week how his guys could walk out of the Iowa State dual with a win.

The Panthers had dropped two-straight duals to the Cyclones and had a six-dual losing streak in Hilton Coliseum. None of that, nor the fact Iowa State had only one dual win all season, mattered when they took the mat.

'I don't care if Iowa State is 1-100. It's an in-state rival,' Schwab said. 'I don't care what they say, I don't feel like they look at us as equals.

'But our guys don't feel that way and they certainly don't compete that way.'

Northern Iowa (6-2) handed Iowa State (1-7) a 20-12 loss by winning four of the last five matches — including two in sudden victory. It was the first UNI win at Iowa State since 2003.

'Doug said it early in the week (we had a long losing streak here),' said 285-pounder JJ Everard, who beat ISU heavyweight Quean Smith 3-1 in sudden victory. 'He told us not to focus on it, but we knew if we wrestled right we would win.'

The Panthers got bonus-point wins from No. 8 Max Thomsen at 149 pounds and No. 10 Bryce Steiert at 165 to help build a lead.

Iowa State's 157-pounder Colston DiBlasi scored 10 points in the third period to hold on for a win at 157 while No. 9 Lelund Weatherspoon — who edged No. 11 Taylor Lujan, 10-8 in sudden victory — and No. 8 Pat Downey scored wins at 174 and 184, respectively. The Cyclones took a 9-8 lead into the break.

'I felt pretty good (after five matches),' said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. 'You've got Marcus Harrington wrestling a freshman (at 197 pounds) and really believing Marcus is a lot better than the kid.'

That 197-pound match is when things turned on a dime. UNI's Jacob Holschlag, a former prep at Union, notched an escape late in the third period and held off an attack from Harrington to snag a 5-4 decision.

Northern Iowa went on to get wins at heavyweight, Jay Schwarm at 125 and No. 10 Josh Alber over No. 12 Earl Hall at 133 in sudden victory.

'I feel like any one of these guys on this team can be that spark,' Holschlag said. 'We were close in every one of those matches that we lost. We could have honestly blanked these guys. They're a really good team. We wrestled really well.'

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