Iowa's Aaron Janssen shoots in on Iowa State's Andrew Sorenson at 157 pounds. Photo by Tim Tushla.
AMES, Iowa - Brent Metcalf knew he and his top-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes were in for a battle as soon as they walked into Hilton Coliseum.
The Hawkeyes were greeted with a loud chorus of boos as they entered the arena to wrestle second-ranked Iowa State.
"Any time you win on the road, you want to do it in an atmosphere like this where it's hostile." Metcalf said. "It was hostile for sure, and it got more hostile as the meet went on."
The hostile atmosphere didn't faze Metcalf, who proved once again why he's been one of the best college wrestlers in the country.
Metcalf gave up the opening takedown, but came back to dominate and then pin Mitch Mueller at 149 pounds. That dramatic fall was the difference as the Hawkeyes edged the Cyclones 18-16 before a boisterous crowd of 11,137 fans Sunday night.
Each team won five matches, but the three bonus points Metcalf scored for his fall proved to be the difference in the dual.
2009 World Team freestyle member and NCAA champion Jake Varner of Iowa State won by major decision at 197 pounds. That gave the Cyclones their lone bonus point.
The Hawkeyes, who have won the last two NCAA tournament titles, have now won 46 straight dual meets. Iowa has won its last 32 road duals. The Hawkeyes now lead the series over ISU 57-16-2.
"We haven't downplayed the importance of this dual," Iowa coach Tom Brands said. "The downplaying came from their side. I don't know where that came from. They've been talking all year about this and then the week of the meet it's all radio silence. I may be throwing some gasoline on the fire. This isn't March, but this is Dec. 6 and it's important on our calendar. We circled it and highlighted it and put an asterisk by it. It was important to us.
"We didn't wrestle well. Those bonus points (from Metcalf) were the difference. We have a lot of work to do. We were sloppy out there. We need to get better, and we need to get healthy."
The Cyclones trailed 15-3 at intermission, but still had a chance to win entering the final bout.
ISU was down 18-6 with three matches left before No. 15 Jerome Ward upset No. 1 Phil Keddy of Iowa 5-3 at 184 pounds. Ward drove in on a leg attack for a third-period takedown en route to the win. Keddy has been slowed by an injury this season.
Varner followed by scoring a 12-4 major decision over Chad Beatty at 197. He piled up over three minutes of riding time in the win. That brought ISU within 18-13.
"My mindset was the same for that match," Varner said. "I went out there to pin the guy. I knew we needed bonus points and I was looking for the fall."
Cyclone heavyweight David Zabriskie then won 3-1 in overtime over Iowa's Blake Rasing to pull ISU within 18-16 in the final dual score.
The second-ranked Zabriskie needed a technical fall to tie the dual and a pin to win it, but he had trouble generating much scoring against a much bigger opponent in Rasing.
Metcalf gave up the first points on a Mueller leg shot, but he quickly regrouped. A 2008 NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy winner, Metcalf amassed an 11-2 lead before driving Mueller to his back and pinning him with 1 minute, 10 seconds left in the match.
"Obviously, getting pinned is unacceptable," Iowa State coach Kevin Jackson said. "I love Mitch Mueller to death, but Mitch is very capable of winning matches and competing with Metcalf. He had a mental lapse that cost him a match and cost us six points.
"You can't give up six points in a 10-match dual."
Mueller was on his knees and Metcalf overpowered him with an upper-body attack to record the pivotal fall.
"When you talk about strategy for a match against a tough opponent like that, you can't go out there thinking you need to get the pin right away," Metcalf said. "It's about scoring points and continuing to score points, and then those opportunities will present themselves. You do your job. That's how you break a guy by scoring points and putting pressure on a guy."
Riding time was the difference in one of the night's marquee matchups between two All-Americans at 165 pounds. No. 5 Jon Reader of ISU built a one-plus minute advantage of riding time to send him to a 4-3 win over No. 4 Ryan Morningstar of Iowa.
Top-ranked Jay Borschel of Iowa earned a 10-4 win over Iowa State's Duke Burk at 174 pounds. Borschel placed third nationally in 2008.
Iowa State's top-ranked Nick Gallick, battling a leg injury, blew a 5-2 deficit in regulation before somehow digging down to outlast Iowa's Dan LeClere 8-6 in a wild overtime match at 141 pounds.
Gallick shot in on a double-leg attack before LeClere sprawled back in overtime. LeClere nearly slipped behind Gallick for a takedown before Gallick jumped over LeClere to catch him on his back for the winning points.
Iowa's Daniel Dennis powered in on a leg attack and finished for a takedown with one second left to earn a thrilling 10-8 overtime win over Iowa State's Nick Fanthorpe in a battle of All-Americans at 133. Dennis is ranked fourth and Fanthorpe sixth.
Past USA Wrestling age-group champions Matt McDonough of Iowa and Andrew Long of Iowa State waged an entertaining battle to start the dual at 125 pounds.
The 11th-ranked McDonough pulled away late with a series of leg attacks and also collected over a minute of riding time in an impressive 13-7 victory over the No. 10 Long.
"I kept wrestling hard with the mentality that I am going to push the pace and break the guy," McDonough said. "You have to keep going. No matter how many points you score, you have to keep fighting until you get what you want. I just kept attacking the whole time."
Iowa junior Aaron Janssen won a scramble midway through the third period, scoring a takedown and then tacking on a riding-time point in earning an 8-6 win over Iowa State's Andrew Sorenson at 157 pounds.
That win by Janssen gave Iowa a commanding 15-3 lead at intermission after five matches.
"We need to find a way to win those close matches," Jackson said. "We'll get better and we'll get this thing done. We have work to do. We're disappointed we didn't wrestle the way I predicted we would wrestle. We had a couple of guys who didn't wrestle to their ability, and that's disappointing."
The dual meet attracted plenty of interest with USA National Coach Zeke Jones, USA Assistant National Coach Brandon Slay and 2009 World silver medalist Jake Herbert among those in attendance.
The dual meet was wrestled on an elevated and spotlighted platform in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd in Ames.
"This is my lifelong dream, going out there and wrestling for the Iowa Hawkeyes against Iowa State," McDonough said. "Being in that hostile environment, it just gets you even more fired up to wrestle."
IOWA 18, IOWA STATE 16
125 - Matt McDonough (Iowa) dec. Andrew Long, 13-7. 133 - Daniel Dennis (Iowa) dec. Nick Fanthorpe, 10-8 OT. 141 - Nick Gallick (ISU) dec. Dan LeClere, 8-6 OT. 149 - Brent Metcalf (Iowa) pinned Mitch Mueller, 5:50. 157 - Aaron Janssen (Iowa) dec. Andrew Sorenson, 8-6. 165 - Jon Reader (ISU) dec. Ryan Morningstar, 4-3. 174 - Jay Borschel (Iowa) dec. Duke Burk, 10-4. 184 - Jerome Ward (ISU) dec. Phil Keddy, 5-3. 197 - Jake Varner (ISU) dec. Chad Beatty, 12-4. Hwt. - David Zabriskie (ISU) dec. Blake Rasing, 3-1 OT.
AMES, Iowa - Brent Metcalf knew he and his top-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes were in for a battle as soon as they walked into Hilton Coliseum.
The Hawkeyes were greeted with a loud chorus of boos as they entered the arena to wrestle second-ranked Iowa State.
"Any time you win on the road, you want to do it in an atmosphere like this where it's hostile." Metcalf said. "It was hostile for sure, and it got more hostile as the meet went on."
The hostile atmosphere didn't faze Metcalf, who proved once again why he's been one of the best college wrestlers in the country.
Metcalf gave up the opening takedown, but came back to dominate and then pin Mitch Mueller at 149 pounds. That dramatic fall was the difference as the Hawkeyes edged the Cyclones 18-16 before a boisterous crowd of 11,137 fans Sunday night.
Each team won five matches, but the three bonus points Metcalf scored for his fall proved to be the difference in the dual.
2009 World Team freestyle member and NCAA champion Jake Varner of Iowa State won by major decision at 197 pounds. That gave the Cyclones their lone bonus point.
The Hawkeyes, who have won the last two NCAA tournament titles, have now won 46 straight dual meets. Iowa has won its last 32 road duals. The Hawkeyes now lead the series over ISU 57-16-2.
"We haven't downplayed the importance of this dual," Iowa coach Tom Brands said. "The downplaying came from their side. I don't know where that came from. They've been talking all year about this and then the week of the meet it's all radio silence. I may be throwing some gasoline on the fire. This isn't March, but this is Dec. 6 and it's important on our calendar. We circled it and highlighted it and put an asterisk by it. It was important to us.
"We didn't wrestle well. Those bonus points (from Metcalf) were the difference. We have a lot of work to do. We were sloppy out there. We need to get better, and we need to get healthy."
The Cyclones trailed 15-3 at intermission, but still had a chance to win entering the final bout.
ISU was down 18-6 with three matches left before No. 15 Jerome Ward upset No. 1 Phil Keddy of Iowa 5-3 at 184 pounds. Ward drove in on a leg attack for a third-period takedown en route to the win. Keddy has been slowed by an injury this season.
Varner followed by scoring a 12-4 major decision over Chad Beatty at 197. He piled up over three minutes of riding time in the win. That brought ISU within 18-13.
"My mindset was the same for that match," Varner said. "I went out there to pin the guy. I knew we needed bonus points and I was looking for the fall."
Cyclone heavyweight David Zabriskie then won 3-1 in overtime over Iowa's Blake Rasing to pull ISU within 18-16 in the final dual score.
The second-ranked Zabriskie needed a technical fall to tie the dual and a pin to win it, but he had trouble generating much scoring against a much bigger opponent in Rasing.
Metcalf gave up the first points on a Mueller leg shot, but he quickly regrouped. A 2008 NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy winner, Metcalf amassed an 11-2 lead before driving Mueller to his back and pinning him with 1 minute, 10 seconds left in the match.
"Obviously, getting pinned is unacceptable," Iowa State coach Kevin Jackson said. "I love Mitch Mueller to death, but Mitch is very capable of winning matches and competing with Metcalf. He had a mental lapse that cost him a match and cost us six points.
"You can't give up six points in a 10-match dual."
Mueller was on his knees and Metcalf overpowered him with an upper-body attack to record the pivotal fall.
"When you talk about strategy for a match against a tough opponent like that, you can't go out there thinking you need to get the pin right away," Metcalf said. "It's about scoring points and continuing to score points, and then those opportunities will present themselves. You do your job. That's how you break a guy by scoring points and putting pressure on a guy."
Riding time was the difference in one of the night's marquee matchups between two All-Americans at 165 pounds. No. 5 Jon Reader of ISU built a one-plus minute advantage of riding time to send him to a 4-3 win over No. 4 Ryan Morningstar of Iowa.
Top-ranked Jay Borschel of Iowa earned a 10-4 win over Iowa State's Duke Burk at 174 pounds. Borschel placed third nationally in 2008.
Iowa State's top-ranked Nick Gallick, battling a leg injury, blew a 5-2 deficit in regulation before somehow digging down to outlast Iowa's Dan LeClere 8-6 in a wild overtime match at 141 pounds.
Gallick shot in on a double-leg attack before LeClere sprawled back in overtime. LeClere nearly slipped behind Gallick for a takedown before Gallick jumped over LeClere to catch him on his back for the winning points.
Iowa's Daniel Dennis powered in on a leg attack and finished for a takedown with one second left to earn a thrilling 10-8 overtime win over Iowa State's Nick Fanthorpe in a battle of All-Americans at 133. Dennis is ranked fourth and Fanthorpe sixth.
Past USA Wrestling age-group champions Matt McDonough of Iowa and Andrew Long of Iowa State waged an entertaining battle to start the dual at 125 pounds.
The 11th-ranked McDonough pulled away late with a series of leg attacks and also collected over a minute of riding time in an impressive 13-7 victory over the No. 10 Long.
"I kept wrestling hard with the mentality that I am going to push the pace and break the guy," McDonough said. "You have to keep going. No matter how many points you score, you have to keep fighting until you get what you want. I just kept attacking the whole time."
Iowa junior Aaron Janssen won a scramble midway through the third period, scoring a takedown and then tacking on a riding-time point in earning an 8-6 win over Iowa State's Andrew Sorenson at 157 pounds.
That win by Janssen gave Iowa a commanding 15-3 lead at intermission after five matches.
"We need to find a way to win those close matches," Jackson said. "We'll get better and we'll get this thing done. We have work to do. We're disappointed we didn't wrestle the way I predicted we would wrestle. We had a couple of guys who didn't wrestle to their ability, and that's disappointing."
The dual meet attracted plenty of interest with USA National Coach Zeke Jones, USA Assistant National Coach Brandon Slay and 2009 World silver medalist Jake Herbert among those in attendance.
The dual meet was wrestled on an elevated and spotlighted platform in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd in Ames.
"This is my lifelong dream, going out there and wrestling for the Iowa Hawkeyes against Iowa State," McDonough said. "Being in that hostile environment, it just gets you even more fired up to wrestle."
IOWA 18, IOWA STATE 16
125 - Matt McDonough (Iowa) dec. Andrew Long, 13-7. 133 - Daniel Dennis (Iowa) dec. Nick Fanthorpe, 10-8 OT. 141 - Nick Gallick (ISU) dec. Dan LeClere, 8-6 OT. 149 - Brent Metcalf (Iowa) pinned Mitch Mueller, 5:50. 157 - Aaron Janssen (Iowa) dec. Andrew Sorenson, 8-6. 165 - Jon Reader (ISU) dec. Ryan Morningstar, 4-3. 174 - Jay Borschel (Iowa) dec. Duke Burk, 10-4. 184 - Jerome Ward (ISU) dec. Phil Keddy, 5-3. 197 - Jake Varner (ISU) dec. Chad Beatty, 12-4. Hwt. - David Zabriskie (ISU) dec. Blake Rasing, 3-1 OT.
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