Iowa starts strong, guts out several late wins during 18-16 win over Oklahoma State
By Jordan Hansen
Despite the absolutely gorgeous day on Nov. 14, things were looking rather dreary for the Hawkeye wrestling team after Alex Meyer went down 6-1 early to Oklahoma State’s Kyle Crutchmer in the first period of Iowa’s 174-pound match.
Iowa, hosting the long-awaited Grapple on the Gridiron — the first ever outdoor college-wrestling meet held in a football stadium — was tied 10-10 with the Cowboys in front of a record-breaking crowd 42,287 fans.
After winning three of the first four matches, Iowa proceeded to drop the next two — at 157 and 165 — and was well on its way to losing a second match in a row by bonus points. Meyer, however, found a bit of offense and managed to tie the bout at 8-8 in the second period. He eventually lost, 11-10, on a late takedown, but it got the crowd back into the meet, and Sammy Brooks notched a technical fall over Jordan Rogers in the next match, effectively winning the meet.
“We were in trouble for a while — we weren’t really in trouble of getting pinned — but we were on our back for a while,” head coach Tom Brands said about Meyer’s match. “We didn’t wrestle well … Meyer gave up 4 back points and coming close, just not really realizing how the opponent is feeling and capitalizing on it.
“So, what — you start slow a little bit, and you get yourself back into it and then you kind of let it get away from you a little bit.”
Brooks’ match was one of the best highlights of the meet for Iowa; he scored 8 near-fall points in the first period and got a technical fall midway through the second.
The 184-pounder said the result of Meyer’s match didn’t influence him much, but the crowd was definitely juiced from the end of the previous bout. Brooks ferociously attacked Rogers early, and the Cowboy wrestler had almost no chance of slowing the onslaught.
Brooks flexed after the victory to the roaring applause of the largest crowd in NCAA wrestling history.
“There’s no way to describe it,” Brooks said. “I tried to soak it in and tried to stay relaxed and focused on things I needed to do, but it’s hard — when there’s 42,000 people screaming for your teammates, you want to get up there and go nuts.”
Iowa also got great contributions in the early going; Flowrestling No. 3 125-pounder Thomas Gilman won by major decision over No. 7 Eddie Klimara. Cory Clark then beat Oklahoma State’s Gary Wayne Harding 8-2 in the 133-pound bout.
The Hawkeyes also got a strong 6-1 win from Brandon Sorensen and a 5-3 win from Nathan Burak to round out Iowa’s victories. A 18-16 win over what some outlets consider the No. 1 team in the nation is big for the Hawkeyes, but it’s obvious there is still plenty of work for them to do.
“I look back at the match, and I think I could have opened it up. Kind of like the dual, I think we could have opened that up, too,” Sorensen said. “It was our first dual of the year, and kind of got some cobwebs out, and now we move forward.”
Match results (Iowa in bold)
125 — No. 3 Thomas Gilman maj. dec. No. 7 Eddie Klimara, 9-1 (4-0 Iowa)
133 — No. 2 Cory Clark dec. Gary Wayne Harding, 8-2 (7-0 Iowa)
141 — No. 5 Dean Heil dec. Logan Ryan, 7-1 (7-3 Iowa)
149 — No. 3 Brandon Sorensen dec. Anthony Collica, 6-1 (10-3 Iowa)
157 — Chance Marsteller dec. Edwin Cooper Jr., 14-11 (10-6 Iowa)
165 — No. 1 Alex Dieringer maj. dec. Patrick Rhoads, 17-5 (10-10 tie)
174 — No. 3 Kyle Crutchmer dec. No. 6 Alex Meyer, 11-10 (13-10 Oklahoma St.)
184 — No. 11 Sammy Brooks tech. fall No. 17 Jordan Rogers, 17-2 in 4:09 (15-13 Iowa)
197 — No. 4 Nathan Burak dec. Nolan Boyd, 5-3 (18-13 Iowa)
HWT — No. 4 Austin Marsden dec. Sam Stoll, 6-1 (18-16 Iowa)
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