Iowa picks up road win at Oklahoma State
On Sunday afternoon in front of the third-largest crowd in Oklahoma State history (13,721) it was the #4 Iowa Hawkeyes, not the #2 Cowboys, who strolled out of Gallagher-Iba Arena as though they owned the place.
And you know what? For a few hours in late-February they very much had – taking 7/10 matches for a commanding 22-9 dual victory, all the while narrowing the all-time series record to 29-26-2 in favor of OSU.
This was a day on which Iowa answered questions many of its own fans had posed regarding the standing of these 2023-24 Hawkeyes near the top of the sport. That’s the sort of action required when you uncharacteristically lose back-to-back duals earlier in the same month, and by a stunning 53-17 combined margin no less.
Of course, it’s also the sort of action required when your very same restless fanbase seemingly forgets that twice already this season you’d won top-five matchups in hostile road environments.
Either way, Sunday represented a massive opportunity for the Hawkeyes. Not only was it a chance to close out the dual schedule on a high note and do so against a hated rival, but the 10 weights contested were also littered with opportunities for Iowa wrestlers to notch high quality non-conference wins that could very well benefit their seeding come the NCAA Tournament.
And boy did the Hawkeyes take advantage of them.
There’s no need to overcomplicate what happened in Stillwater. The more aggressive team with the more aggressive wrestlers won this dual.
Iowa wrestlers won the takedown battle 11-5. Iowa wrestlers scored the only near-fall points. Iowa wrestlers finished more periods in the top position.
In every match won by a Hawkeye, it was indisputable that each athlete had operated on the ‘front foot’ more so than his opponent. That doesn’t mean they were wildly firing off shot attempts either, but the aggressive mentality was both apparent and reflected by the execution on the mat.
As we go through the action bout-by-bout, I think the chronological order of events actually does the best job of encapsulating the overall flow of the dual. And so, ever fancying myself the wordsmith, I’ve elected to break up this recap into three distinct, aptly named sections.
Starting with…
The beginning
A quick start in any hostile environment is a boon for road teams across all sports. Having some early success gives athletes the feeling that even amidst adversity that may crop up later, at least they’ve broken through once already and are therefore capable of doing so again.
On Sunday that ‘proof of concept’ if you will, was provided in dramatic fashion at 125 pounds by #4 Drake Ayala.
In what was a cagey-turned-chippy affair throughout regulation, the Iowa sophomore finally found an opening in sudden victory.
Getting to the leg of #12 Troy Spratley, it would be persistence rather than precision that ultimately paid off for Ayala – who twice nearly secured takedowns during the same sequence before finally locking up a cradle on the edge of the mat that he was able to run over for the winning score.
We’ve seen similar positions slip away from Ayala in earlier losses (think of Purdue and Michigan), but on this occasion he would not be denied.
That key leadoff bout was followed by a trio of others that, although two of which went in favor of the Cowboys, I thought continued to represent the mentality with which the Hawkeyes had approached the dual.
At 133 pounds it was senior Brody Teske who got the nod for Iowa, not only preventing Oklahoma State catalyst #3 Daton Fix from scoring bonus points in a 7-3 decision loss but doing so by staying on his own offense throughout the third period.
Next up was #2 Real Woods versus #8 Tagen Jamison at 141.
Woods shot in immediately off the opening whistle, and though a prolonged sequence would eventually result in no score the tone for the match had been set. After a second period escape by the Iowa senior, Woods found a leg again soon thereafter, this time adjusting his finish to secure the takedown, which, combined with a subsequent ride out would leave him up 4-0 entering the third.
Jamison got out quickly enough to avoid giving up riding time, but with the onus entirely on him to pursue a takedown of his own he was never able to threaten Woods in any meaningful way as the match ended 4-1.
Meanwhile, 149 started in very much the same fashion as 141 with former Cowboy Victor Voinovich III immediately getting in deep on a shot of his own – the difference being this prolonged sequence would turn into points for his opponent, #18 Jordan Williams.
Similar sequences – sans the counter takedown – would play out at least twice more before a late reattack by Williams sealed the outcome with a little over 30 seconds left in the match.
At that point the dual was tied at six-apiece, but the Hawkeyes were continuing to largely reinforce their preferred intentions on a bout-to-bout basis.
All of it helped to set the stage for what turned out to be the pivotal stretch of the dual.
The middle
Another truism of all sports with which it is involved – winning the stretch of play immediately prior to and following an ‘intermission’ can be huge in terms of flipping or reinforcing momentum.
With top-10 matchups on either side of the dual’s halfway point Iowa was in prime position – if it could take advantage – to grab the momentum by the scruff of its neck. That’s exactly what would happen, as the ‘Bison Boys’ (a horrible nickname that I just came up with on the spot and vow to never use again) both came through in a major way for their newly adopted team.
At 157, what I’m sure many watching had chalked up to yet another ‘typical’ Jared Franek match after a 0-0 opening period suddenly turned into anything but.
The fifth-ranked former All-American flipped the proverbial ‘switch’ after earning a hard-fought escape in the second period, scoring on a pair of low-level shots in the last 55 seconds (plus a scrappy ride out) to take a 7-1 lead into the third.
He’d strike again on a clean re-attack with less than a minute to go to put himself in position for a major decision win if he could finish the match on top. Unfortunately, a locked hands call in the dying seconds would wipe that possibility off the board and Franek would have to ‘settle’ for a 10-4 decision over #10 Teague Travis instead.
Roughly 15 minutes later it was #7 Michael Caliendo’s turn, racing out to a 6-1 lead over #3 Izzak Olejnik that he too would fall just short of extending to a major decision in the waning moments.
Caliendo struck for two first-period takedowns, the second of which came on a slick-as-can-be boot scoot that caught Olejnik totally out of sorts.
Now with its first lead of the dual by more than three points (12-6), Iowa could really put OSU’s feet to the fire with a third-consecutive win.
Enter seventh-ranked Patrick Kennedy.
The redshirt sophomore would leave nothing up to chance against touted Cowboy freshman #21 Brayden Thompson. A two-takedown first and a 6-1 lead followed Caliendo’s script to a tee, but Kennedy was able to keep building upon his advantage courtesy of a third period score (his third successful ankle pick of the match), a point for stalling on OSU in the second, and another for the three-plus minutes of riding time he’d amassed amidst it all.
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Suddenly, what had been a tied dual just three matches earlier was now 16-6 in favor of the Hawkeyes after PK’s 12-3 major decision at 174 pounds.
The end
All that was left was for any of the three remaining Hawkeyes to seal the deal.
Up first, Gabe Arnold got the nod at 184 in the fifth and final competition date he’s allowed to utilize without burning his redshirt. And for the first time in his Iowa career – specifically the first time while bumping up to 184 – he looked like an undersized freshman, albeit with the context that his opponent was second-ranked Dustin Plott (23-2).
According to the Hawkeye radio broadcast Arnold weighed in at 183 pounds for the dual with minimal effort, a far cry from the realm at which most of the top-ranked 184-pounders are descending from in order to make the weight.
Plott’s eventual 5-1 win would bring the score within seven (16-9), in all likelihood necessitating at least a pair of bonus points across the final two matches if Oklahoma State was to win the dual.
But per usual the ‘Ice Man’ (a nickname I will beat into the ground until the rest of the world accepts it), #11 Zach Glazier, would put the finishing touches on yet another Iowa victory.
Going up against a counter-heavy, scrambler of an opponent in #16 Luke Surber, Glazier did well to pick his spots wisely throughout the match. He nearly pulled ahead once on a second-period high crotch attempt, then again on what would’ve been a reversal in the third had Surber not smartly elected to bail on the position.
Finally, with time dwindling under a minute he got back in on another shot – this one an ankle pick – which led to a prolonged scramble during which Glazier nearly scored, was nearly scored upon, and ultimately came out on the winning end of for the match/dual clinching takedown with just 15 seconds remaining.
I can only assume from the raucous banging on the elevated stage by the Iowa corner that Tom Brands & Company were in fact quite pleased with the outcome.
With the dual now in hand all that was left was for some kid named Ben Kueter to take the mat against the 11th-ranked heavyweight in the country and see where he stood after just shy of 60 days practicing full-time in the Iowa room.
The answer?
I’d say he was standing pretty darn tall and feeling pretty darn good after this one – a 5-1 victory over OSU’s Konner Doucet.
A match without much action in the opening five minutes picked up quickly after Kueter chose bottom to begin the third period. In fact, the true freshman – who was giving up over 20 pounds to his opponent – didn’t appear to choose bottom so much as a means of earning an escape point, but rather to draw Doucet into a compromising position from which the former Under-20 world champion could capitalize.
That’s exactly what he did, getting hold of Doucet’s leg and steadily improving his position to the point that Kueter was able to not only turn in for the reversal, but plant the Cowboy on his back for two additional near-fall points in the process.
The subsequent ride out (and win) merely capped off a dual which had long since been assumed control of by the visitors from Iowa City.
Short time
So, there you have it.
How did an Iowa team that had taken quite a few licks not three weeks ago manage to convincingly vanquish a formerly undefeated #2 ranked foe on the road? Well, just like that.
There was no magical elixir that suddenly had the Hawkeyes wrestling beyond their otherwise mortal limits. What you saw was a collection of competitors who’ve had this type of performance within them all along – and to be fair, have shown it intermittently throughout the season.
On Sunday it just so happened to finally all come together at a moment in which the team needed it the most.
Ask any athlete or coach anywhere and they’ll tell you what a special feeling that is.
Go ahead and ask any Hawkeye fans who were tuned in for this dual and I bet they’ll echo a very similar sentiment.
That’ll do it for the 2023-24 regular season. The next time we’re dissecting a brand-new match involving a Hawkeye wrestler it’ll be one of the postseason variety.
Can you feel it? Can you feel the tension and the nervousness of tournament-style wrestling?
Well, stop it. Go ahead and enjoy this latest outcome for a minute first. There will be plenty of time in the coming weeks to fret over the endless possibilities that Big Ten’s and NCAA’s have to offer.
I’ll catch you all back here sometime between now and then with as much pre-postseason content as you can stomach.
‘Till then, as always thanks for reading.
