After a 25-19 victory over Illinois on Friday night that was a bit harder than expected, #2 Iowa wrestling was in need of a more dominating performance today. Purdue (4-3 on the season) turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. Iowa stormed through the Boilermakers with eight wins in ten matches, including all five after intermission, for a 37-6 victory. Iowa picked up bonus points in six of those eight wins.
The most exciting three minutes of the entire dual meet came at 125 lbs, as #1 Spencer Lee and #9 Matt Ramos squeezed an entire dual meet's worth of action and thrills into three minutes. If Ramos was intimidated by Lee, it didn't show in his wrestling -- he was aggressive from the jump, scoring the match's first takedown to go up 2-1 -- and then throwing Lee to the mat moments later with a feet-to-back move that gave him an 8-1 lead and briefly put Lee on his back. While Lee was in unfamiliar territory (not just trailing in a match, but trailing by a substantial margin), he didn't panic but went to work himself. After an escape made it 8-2, Lee finally got to Ramos' legs and finished a takedown of his own to make the score 8-4. On the mat, Lee remains terrifying and he quickly showed Ramos why, locking up his arm and tilting him for four near fall points (8-8). He re-positioned Ramos for another tilt to go up 12-8 and finally re-positioned Ramos one final time to pin his shoulders to the mat with time running out in the first period. Whew. From down 8-1 to winning by fall, all in the span of a few minutes.
Spencer Lee is something else.
The rest of the dual meet proceeded more or less as expected. Brody Teske made his long-awaited return to the Iowa lineup at 133 and after a slightly slow start, he got things rolling with a series of takedowns and near fall points on his way to a very comfortable 16-4 major decision win. Cullan Schriever, Iowa's regular 133 lb wrestler while Teske was sidelined, moved up a weight to 141 lbs for this dual and while he seemed game against the 15th-ranked Filius, and dropped a 6-2 decision. Max Murin followed up a second period pin on Friday with a 22-7 technical fall victory here, chaining takedowns together to rack up points and overwhelm Trey Kruse. The final match before intermission was also Purdue's final win of the dual, a narrow 3-2 decision by #3 Kendall Coleman on Iowa backup Caleb Rathjen. Coleman got an early takedown on Rathjen, but Rathjen showed excellent defense the rest of the bout and even had a few solid-looking attacks against Coleman; despite the loss, Rathjen came away looking pretty good after this performance.
It was all Iowa after intermission, starting with Aiden Riggins (another backup) earning a comfortable 9-4 decision win over Stoney Buell at 165. Nelson Brands used a takedown and a small mountain of riding time to coast to a 4-0 win at 174. Abe Assad, who had an unimpressive 3-1 win on Friday, wrestled like someone lit a fire under him today, attacking Ben Vanadia early and often, before finishing him with a pin midway through the second period. Jacob Warner, who was on the wrong end of a 3-1 match on Friday, also wrestled with notably more intensity and attacking impetus, which paid off with a 16-4 major decision victory. Tony Cassioppi, alas, didn't get to wrestle (Purdue forfeited at heavyweight), but did continue his streak of scoring six team points for Iowa with a forfeit victory.
The competition Iowa faced in this dual wasn't great at many weights, so a win should have been expected. That said, there was a notable improvement from the Iowa roster, from top to bottom, in terms of attacking intensity and energy in this dual meet. It was most notable at 174, 184, and 197 -- three weights that sputtered to very low-scoring matches on Friday (two of which were lost by Iowa). Brands, Assad, and Warner brought more energy from the outset in their matches, which paid off in the form of three wins, including two bonus point victories.
NEXT UP: Iowa hosts #14 Northwestern (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) on Friday, January 13 (8 PM CT, ESNPU).
