Hawkeyes roll to big win at Minnesota in Big Ten clash
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by USA Wrestling
By Jason Bryant For TheMat.com
MINNEAPOLIS – It only took four-and-a-half minutes for Iowa’s Nick Moore to turn a hostile environment into a docile one. It took Mike Evans extra time to turn a docile atmosphere into an enraged one.
The night ended with a few more shenanigans leaving the Gopher faithful annoyed.
Moore and Evans helped Iowa jump out to a 9-0 in the first two weight classes on Friday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis as the top-ranked Hawkeyes (11-0) stopped second-ranked Minnesota (10-1) 23-12 in front of 13,603 fans.
“I was happy with the crowd, but I wasn’t happy for the crowd. We didn’t give them a good show. Giving the respect to Iowa, they come out to wrestle and they come out to wrestle hard and that’s what people want to see. If you do that in every match, usually the results are different, and we didn’t do it,” said Minnesota coach J Robinson.”
“Nick Moore can do more and I know he knows that,” said Iowa coach Tom Brands.” Nick Moore can get first scores. He let a lot of time tick down. You see what happens when things speed up a little bit.”
Moore fell behind early after a first-period takedown against Brandon Kingsley, who got the nod instead of Nick Wanzek at 165 pounds. After a pair of escapes, Moore pounced, taking Kingsley over and settling in with a reverse half to earn the fall at 4:27.
Instead of a competitive result in either direction, Minnesota found itself quickly down 6-0 as two of the Big Ten’s best, Evans and Minnesota’s Logan Storley stepped to the mat at 174. Evans and Storley wrestled a pedestrian regulation, trading escapes and heading into sudden victory knotted at 1-1. In the extra period, Evans drove through Storley and took him to the mat, but Storley took Evans’ momentum with him and the Hawkeye ended up on his back, sending the 13,000-plus fans to their feet.
Then came the partisan boo birds clad in maroon as official Jeff Cook blew the whistle and awarded two points for the Evans takedown. After a review, the call stood and Evans would take the 3-1 victory.
“I think if you look at the tape, it’s a continual movement,” explained J Robinson. “If you would have taken him down and planted him and you would have stopped, there wasn’t a stop, it was just a continual all the way through. I don’t think it was two.”
Not surprisingly, Evans and Brands disagreed.
“I heard the whistle, so I’m like alright and then we’re still wrestling and it was like, okay, whatever,” said Evans.
Brands had a slightly different reaction, more tactical.
“When you’re taking guy down there, you don’t relax, even on a whistle. You wrestle that situation just like it’s regulation. Get your hips down,” said Brands.
Iowa continued to suck the life out of Williams Arena as Sam Brooks gave the Hawkeyes a 12-0 lead after a 12-7 victory over Brett Pfarr.
Minnesota got on the board in the bout’s fourth weight as senior Scott Schiller converted a blast double for two points in the final three seconds of his 197-pound bout with Nathan Burak.
Iowa senior heavyweight Bobby Telford topped a game Michael Kroells 6-4 at 285 pounds to give the Hawkeyes an 15-3 heading into the break.
Remembering what happened to him in last year’s dual, Iowa’s Thomas Gilman put on a relentless takedown clinic against Minnesota true freshman Ethan Lizak in a matchup between a pair of past USA Wrestling Junior World Team members. Gilman struck early and often and picked up a crucial set of nearfall points en route to a 23-7 technical fall over Lizak, who was making just his second career start in the Gopher lineup.
“You have to like Gilman,” said Brands. “You have to like that. The way he’s wrestling, those bonus points are going to come. It’s not keeping it close. He’s really offensive and getting to his best stuff. It doesn’t matter if you scout him, because he’s fast. I call it wrestling fast.”
“It’s 6-4 and we had a lot of bonus points, a fall, a five-point tech fall. That’s a big difference. We have to keep it going,” said Brands.
Chris and Nick Dardanes closed out their final home dual with solid wins at 133 and 141 pounds. Chris broke open a one-point match in third period with a takedown that was not initially called. In one of a handful of reviews on the night, this one actually went Minnesota’s way as Dardanes was given the takedown to build a 5-2 lead and an eventual 5-3 victory. Nick scored three takedowns to defeat Iowa’s Josh Dziewa 7-3 at 141 in a matchup between ranked opponents.
Iowa freshman Brandon Sorensen locked up the dual with a 4-0 win over Jake Short at 149 pounds. Sorensen scored a riding time point and an escape and added a takedown in short time to come away with the victory.
With the dual already decided, Minnesota sent out Dylan Ness at 157 pounds to face much-improved Mike Kelly.
Despite missing the Gophers’ last dual due to illness, Ness came out and got into a long scramble with Kelly which resulted in no points, but zapped Ness’ energy. Kelly would seize the opportunity and build a 6-2 lead midway through the second period. Ness closed the gap to 6-5 after an escape and a takedown, but Kelly would go back up three points at 8-5 early in the third after a late-second period escape and one to start the third.
Ness bodylocked Kelly to his back for five points to take a 9-8 lead. He apparently earned two nearfall points and a riding time point as the clock hit zeros, until a challenge from the Iowa bench resulted in a review, a locked hands call on Ness, and putting 25 seconds back on the clock with a 9-9 score, wiping out Ness’ second set of nearfall points.
With the score reset, Ness would get a penalty point and a riding time point to make the final 11-9 to wrap up the dual.
“When you say talk about the win, you think about the last thing that happened,” said Brands. “We had a good wrestler on the ropes there and we need to finish those situations and Mike Kelly needs to do that. It’s going to define his career. He’s a senior and we have to slam that door there. We had the guy stopped and extended and we let him around the waist and the guy is pretty good around the waist. You gave up two nearfall and there was a chance there at the end because of locked hands.”
Robinson on Ness’ sluggishness: “I think today was a great example to show the heart of a champion. You can tell right away, he fires in there right away for one shot and you can tell he’s got no power. In the first minute, minute and a half, I’m thinking, ‘Boy, what’s going to happen, there’s five and a half minutes to go’.”
Minnesota and Iowa could meet one more time this season at the NWCA National Duals championship rounds in Iowa City on Feb. 21-22, should the two teams reach the finals as they’re expected to be the top two seeds in the event.
#1 IOWA 23, #2 MINNESOTA 12
WILLIAMS ARENA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
125: Thomas Gilman (Iowa) TF Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) 23-7.
133: Chris Dardanes (Minnesota) DEC Cory Clark (Iowa) 5-3.
141: Nick Dardanes (Minnesota) DEC Josh Dziewa (Iowa) 7-3.
149: Brandon Sorensen (Iowa) DEC Jake Short (Minnesota) 4-0.
157: Dylan Ness (Minnesota) DEC Mike Kelly (Minnesota) 11-9.
*165: Nick Moore (Iowa) FALL Brandon Kingsley (Minnesota) 4:27.
174: Mike Evans (Iowa) DEC Logan Storley (Minnesota) 3-1, SV
184: Sam Brooks (Iowa) DEC Brett Pfarr (Minnesota) 12-7.
197: Scott Schiller (Minnesota) DEC Nathan Burak (Iowa) 3-1.
285: Bobby Telford (Iowa) DEC Michael Kroells (Minnesota) 6-4.
Attendance: 13,603
*-match started at 165 pounds
MINNEAPOLIS – It only took four-and-a-half minutes for Iowa’s Nick Moore to turn a hostile environment into a docile one. It took Mike Evans extra time to turn a docile atmosphere into an enraged one.
The night ended with a few more shenanigans leaving the Gopher faithful annoyed.
Moore and Evans helped Iowa jump out to a 9-0 in the first two weight classes on Friday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis as the top-ranked Hawkeyes (11-0) stopped second-ranked Minnesota (10-1) 23-12 in front of 13,603 fans.
“I was happy with the crowd, but I wasn’t happy for the crowd. We didn’t give them a good show. Giving the respect to Iowa, they come out to wrestle and they come out to wrestle hard and that’s what people want to see. If you do that in every match, usually the results are different, and we didn’t do it,” said Minnesota coach J Robinson.”
“Nick Moore can do more and I know he knows that,” said Iowa coach Tom Brands.” Nick Moore can get first scores. He let a lot of time tick down. You see what happens when things speed up a little bit.”
Moore fell behind early after a first-period takedown against Brandon Kingsley, who got the nod instead of Nick Wanzek at 165 pounds. After a pair of escapes, Moore pounced, taking Kingsley over and settling in with a reverse half to earn the fall at 4:27.
Instead of a competitive result in either direction, Minnesota found itself quickly down 6-0 as two of the Big Ten’s best, Evans and Minnesota’s Logan Storley stepped to the mat at 174. Evans and Storley wrestled a pedestrian regulation, trading escapes and heading into sudden victory knotted at 1-1. In the extra period, Evans drove through Storley and took him to the mat, but Storley took Evans’ momentum with him and the Hawkeye ended up on his back, sending the 13,000-plus fans to their feet.
Then came the partisan boo birds clad in maroon as official Jeff Cook blew the whistle and awarded two points for the Evans takedown. After a review, the call stood and Evans would take the 3-1 victory.
“I think if you look at the tape, it’s a continual movement,” explained J Robinson. “If you would have taken him down and planted him and you would have stopped, there wasn’t a stop, it was just a continual all the way through. I don’t think it was two.”
Not surprisingly, Evans and Brands disagreed.
“I heard the whistle, so I’m like alright and then we’re still wrestling and it was like, okay, whatever,” said Evans.
Brands had a slightly different reaction, more tactical.
“When you’re taking guy down there, you don’t relax, even on a whistle. You wrestle that situation just like it’s regulation. Get your hips down,” said Brands.
Iowa continued to suck the life out of Williams Arena as Sam Brooks gave the Hawkeyes a 12-0 lead after a 12-7 victory over Brett Pfarr.
Minnesota got on the board in the bout’s fourth weight as senior Scott Schiller converted a blast double for two points in the final three seconds of his 197-pound bout with Nathan Burak.
Iowa senior heavyweight Bobby Telford topped a game Michael Kroells 6-4 at 285 pounds to give the Hawkeyes an 15-3 heading into the break.
Remembering what happened to him in last year’s dual, Iowa’s Thomas Gilman put on a relentless takedown clinic against Minnesota true freshman Ethan Lizak in a matchup between a pair of past USA Wrestling Junior World Team members. Gilman struck early and often and picked up a crucial set of nearfall points en route to a 23-7 technical fall over Lizak, who was making just his second career start in the Gopher lineup.
“You have to like Gilman,” said Brands. “You have to like that. The way he’s wrestling, those bonus points are going to come. It’s not keeping it close. He’s really offensive and getting to his best stuff. It doesn’t matter if you scout him, because he’s fast. I call it wrestling fast.”
“It’s 6-4 and we had a lot of bonus points, a fall, a five-point tech fall. That’s a big difference. We have to keep it going,” said Brands.
Chris and Nick Dardanes closed out their final home dual with solid wins at 133 and 141 pounds. Chris broke open a one-point match in third period with a takedown that was not initially called. In one of a handful of reviews on the night, this one actually went Minnesota’s way as Dardanes was given the takedown to build a 5-2 lead and an eventual 5-3 victory. Nick scored three takedowns to defeat Iowa’s Josh Dziewa 7-3 at 141 in a matchup between ranked opponents.
Iowa freshman Brandon Sorensen locked up the dual with a 4-0 win over Jake Short at 149 pounds. Sorensen scored a riding time point and an escape and added a takedown in short time to come away with the victory.
With the dual already decided, Minnesota sent out Dylan Ness at 157 pounds to face much-improved Mike Kelly.
Despite missing the Gophers’ last dual due to illness, Ness came out and got into a long scramble with Kelly which resulted in no points, but zapped Ness’ energy. Kelly would seize the opportunity and build a 6-2 lead midway through the second period. Ness closed the gap to 6-5 after an escape and a takedown, but Kelly would go back up three points at 8-5 early in the third after a late-second period escape and one to start the third.
Ness bodylocked Kelly to his back for five points to take a 9-8 lead. He apparently earned two nearfall points and a riding time point as the clock hit zeros, until a challenge from the Iowa bench resulted in a review, a locked hands call on Ness, and putting 25 seconds back on the clock with a 9-9 score, wiping out Ness’ second set of nearfall points.
With the score reset, Ness would get a penalty point and a riding time point to make the final 11-9 to wrap up the dual.
“When you say talk about the win, you think about the last thing that happened,” said Brands. “We had a good wrestler on the ropes there and we need to finish those situations and Mike Kelly needs to do that. It’s going to define his career. He’s a senior and we have to slam that door there. We had the guy stopped and extended and we let him around the waist and the guy is pretty good around the waist. You gave up two nearfall and there was a chance there at the end because of locked hands.”
Robinson on Ness’ sluggishness: “I think today was a great example to show the heart of a champion. You can tell right away, he fires in there right away for one shot and you can tell he’s got no power. In the first minute, minute and a half, I’m thinking, ‘Boy, what’s going to happen, there’s five and a half minutes to go’.”
Minnesota and Iowa could meet one more time this season at the NWCA National Duals championship rounds in Iowa City on Feb. 21-22, should the two teams reach the finals as they’re expected to be the top two seeds in the event.
#1 IOWA 23, #2 MINNESOTA 12
WILLIAMS ARENA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
125: Thomas Gilman (Iowa) TF Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) 23-7.
133: Chris Dardanes (Minnesota) DEC Cory Clark (Iowa) 5-3.
141: Nick Dardanes (Minnesota) DEC Josh Dziewa (Iowa) 7-3.
149: Brandon Sorensen (Iowa) DEC Jake Short (Minnesota) 4-0.
157: Dylan Ness (Minnesota) DEC Mike Kelly (Minnesota) 11-9.
*165: Nick Moore (Iowa) FALL Brandon Kingsley (Minnesota) 4:27.
174: Mike Evans (Iowa) DEC Logan Storley (Minnesota) 3-1, SV
184: Sam Brooks (Iowa) DEC Brett Pfarr (Minnesota) 12-7.
197: Scott Schiller (Minnesota) DEC Nathan Burak (Iowa) 3-1.
285: Bobby Telford (Iowa) DEC Michael Kroells (Minnesota) 6-4.
Attendance: 13,603
*-match started at 165 pounds
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