Iowa shuts down Oklahoma State to finish season with perfect dual record

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Rarely is there a 28-point margin when Iowa and Oklahoma State wrestle. But Sunday night, in front of a bloodthirsty 12,568 inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, that was the case as the No. 1 Hawkeyes completed a perfect dual season with a 34-6 pummeling of the Cowboys.

National champion Spencer Lee (15-0) started the rout with a quick 6-0 lead and eventual 12-3 major decision of Nick Piccininni in the opener. Moments later, Austin DeSanto (14-2) brought the crowd to a frenzy with a pin at 2:39. Max Murin (12-1) outmatched Dusty Hone, 15-4, at 141 pounds, and the knockout blow may have come at a highly-anticipated 149-pound bout where senior Pat Lugo (18-1) sent Boo Lewallen to his back early and scored a fall at the 2:22 mark.

It was 20-0 and thoughts of Oklahoma State’s first-ever shutout loss murmured through the arena.

“We talk about shutouts all the time because we talk about everybody getting ready to wrestle your match,” said Iowa boss Tom Brands, whose program beat OSU at home for a fourth straight time and won for the sixth time in the last 10 meetings. “Ten weights, there’s 10 weight classes, get ready to wrestle your match.

“We’re pleased. You talk about consistency. We got two weights that didn’t win (tonight).”

“Very special. My first pin in Carver actually. It was cool,” said Lugo, who won 63 matches at Edinboro before transferring to Iowa City. “There were a lot of fans cheering. It was a good night, but the job is not finished. We’ve got Big Tens, nationals. I want to get my hand raised, do the same thing in Minnesota.”

The Cowboys (13-3) tried to get back into the dual after intermission when Wyatt Sheets (18-6) put together a strong third period in beating Caleb Young, 9-4, at 157 pounds. Young beat Sheets in the Cowboys’ win in Stillwater a year ago. The Hawkeyes quickly regained control, however, with a 3-2 decision by Alex Marinelli (17-1) over rookie Travis Wittlake at 165 pounds and a dominating 12-2 major decision by top-ranked and unbeaten Michael Kemerer over Joe Smith at 174 pounds. Kemerer had over five minutes of riding time and gave the hosts a 27-3 advantage. Marinelli’s victory came thanks to a late third-period takedown and gave the OSU redshirt-freshman just his second loss in 27 bouts.

“I hope to see us grow from this because that was the No. 1 team,” John Smith said. “We just felt the best team; we knew it was going to be tough coming in because we haven’t seen that level. That’s a tough environment, and I expect our guys to grow from this. You hope to see your guys respond. We’ve got a couple of weeks to get ready for the Big 12s and hopefully some of our guys learned some things tonight.”

Anthony Montalvo (20-5) continued his strong season at 184 pounds, beating Nelson Brands, 8-2. However, the night finished like it started with a pair of Iowa wins, an 8-3 decision by Jacob Warner (15-3) over Dakota Geer, and an 11-1 major decision by Tony Cassioppi (16-2) in the finale.

In the week leading up to the dual meet some prognosticators asked “what is the most lopsided win for Iowa in this series?” The historical record shows: 30-7 in 2015; 24-6 in 2014; 31-3 in 1995; 35-2 in 1991; 40-6 in 1985.

“We’ve got to tune these guys in, put a razor’s edge on them,” added Brands.

The series

The back-and-forth series has only seen a streak of five straight wins by one team three times – from 1958-63 OSU won five in a row; Iowa won six straight from 1977-82; the Cowboys claimed nine straight from 2000-08. OSU won last season’s meeting in Stillwater, 27-12, sparked by Piccininni’s pin of Lee. The last 11 duals show the Hawks with six wins. OSU leads the overall series 29-23-2.

By the numbers

● Of the 20 wrestlers who took that mat on Sunday only three hailed from either Oklahoma or Iowa. The Hawkeyes’ lineup included no homegrown Iowans with five from the state of Pennsylvania and three from Illinois. OSU’s Witcraft (Broken Arrow), Lewallen (Yukon), and Sheets (Stilwell) are natives to Oklahoma.

● No Iowa starter has more than five losses this season; as a group the Hawkeyes are 146-17. Only one starter, 149-pounder Pat Lugo, is a senior.

● Iowa no sports an impressive 262-25 all-time inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The program moved for the UI Fieldhouse to Carver in 1983.

● Tom Brands, in his 14^th year at Iowa, and John Smith, in his 29^th at OSU, are a combined 686-98-7 in dual meets, an 87 percent winning percentage.

● With Sunday’s announced attendance of 12,568 Iowa’s home duals drew over 87,000 this season. The season average marks the 14^th consecutive year Iowa has lead the nation in Division I wrestling attendance.

“We had a great schedule and our fans showed up from the get-go,” Brands said. “We had 10,000-plus for Chattanooga and we have to continue that next year. We have to get ready to give our fans something to be excited about going into this postseason and put some exclamation marks on these next two tournaments”

● The two programs have combined for 225 NCAA individual championships, 802 All-American medals and 57 NCAA team titles, meaning, since 1928, OSU or Iowa has won 63-percent of the wrestling championships.

No. 1 Iowa 34, No. 9 Oklahoma State 6
125 – Spencer Lee (I) maj dec Nick Piccininni, 12-3
133 – Austin DeSanto (I) pin Reece Witcraft, 2:39
141 – Max Murin (I) maj dec Dusty Hone, 15-4
149 – Pat Lugo (I) pin Boo Lewallen, 2:22
157 – Wyatt Sheets (OS) dec Kaleb Young, 9-4
165 – Alex Marinelli (I) dec Travis Wittlake, 3-2
174 – Michael Kemerer (I) maj dec Joe Smith, 12-2
184 – Anthony Montalvo (OS) dec Nelson Brands, 8-2
197 – Jacob Warner (I) dec Dakota Geer 8-3
285 – Tony Cassioppi (I) maj dec Austin Harris, 11-1