Iowa Men's Wrestling - Hawks best #20 Stanford in home opener
A rare Saturday afternoon dual marked the 2024-25 home opener for Iowa men’s wrestling.
Perhaps rarer still, a 32-9 win over a quality opponent – including five bonus point victories (three versus foes ranked 17th or better nationally) – after which the #2 Hawkeyes will likely be quite critical of their performance.
But that’s where things stand after taking 7/10 matches against #20 Stanford in front of 13,158 fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The victory pushed Iowa’s dual record to 2-0 for the season. It also marked the home debut for four different wrestlers in the Hawkeyes’ lineup.
As we did a week ago in our recap piece, we’ll break down Iowa/Stanford into three different categories:
‘The Good, the Best and the Rest’
So, let’s get to it.
The Good – Bookends earn big points, Arnold gets bonus again
Anytime you start a dual with a 6-0 lead it’s a pretty good thing.
The only trouble is, it’s not nearly as much fun when that lead comes courtesy of a forfeit.
Kale Petersen experienced just that on Saturday, getting his hand raised alone in the center of the mat after Stanford forfeited at 125 pounds. Hopefully the redshirt freshman – now 10 months post-ACL surgery – gets a real opportunity to lay his claim to the spot at 125 in the near future.
On the opposite end of the (weight class) spectrum, #11 Ben Kueter secured some big bonus points of his own.
A takedown in each of the first two periods had the redshirt freshman in front 8-2. But that would prove unsatisfactory, as he ran down an additional trio of them in the last two minutes to earn the tech. fall victory (19-4) – the third of which came with just three seconds left on the clock.
Kueter spoke at Media Day about wanting to use his pace as a weapon at heavyweight. He sure did so on Saturday, albeit against a modest opponent in Jackson Mankowski.
Greater tests await ‘Big Ben’ on the horizon – i.e. Iowa State in two weeks – but this was a nice step forward.
A third Hawkeye redshirt freshman also scored bonus points in this one, as #7 Gabe Arnold did so for the second time in as many matches this season at 184 pounds.
The Albany (GA) native’s final takedown came courtesy of this hellacious duck under in the third period:
Woah.
The Best – Transfer trio shows out in Carver debut
Of Iowa’s five bonus point victories against the Cardinal (excluding the forfeit at 125), three of them came via offseason transfer additions.
First up at 149 pounds, #4 Kyle Parco renewed an old Pac-12 rivalry in emphatic fashion.
Facing 12th-ranked Jaden Abas, three scoreless minutes would pass with relatively little action. That all changed in the second period, when Parco flipped the entire bout on its head by hitting three separate tilts from the top position – each garnering a full set of four near-fall points.
A quick takedown in the third period completed the 15-0 tech. fall victory, bringing the home crowd to its feet in applause:
Parco’s win also broke open a 6-6 deadlock in the team score and the Hawkeyes never looked back.
And if one Arizona State transfer is good, two proved to be even better.
Top-ranked Jacori Teemer made his debut in an Iowa singlet, blasting through Stanford 157-pounder Gregor Cholakyan on three different occasions. The 2024 NCAA runner up would clinch a 13-3 major decision with a nifty counter takedown in the third period.
Win? Check. Bonus points? Check.
At 197 pounds, #2 Stephen Buchanan would officially make it a trend, steamrolling his way to a 17-1 tech. fall over #17 Nick Stemmet.
In the process Buchanan earned both Carver win number one and career win number 100.
The Oklahoma transfer scored a takedown 1:45 into the first period, then extended his lead to seven with a roll-through tilt (a la Kyle Parco).
Three more takedowns gave the sixth-year senior the bonus point victory – and Iowa’s transfer class an all-around banner afternoon.
The Rest – Upsets at 133/174, Block tastes defeat via Hawkeye relative
The only blemishes on the ‘scorecard’ for Iowa on Saturday were at 133, 141 and 174 pounds.
#7 Drake Ayala found himself upset by #23 Tyler Knox by a score of 15-10 in a back-and-forth match that proved costly when Ayala traded points with Knox for one final time in the third period, leading 7-6.
The Stanford redshirt freshman earned a takedown and two near-fall points amidst a lengthy scramble, then immediately got to Ayala’s legs again (up 11-8) for another takedown to put the match to bed.
Look, Ayala certainly won’t be pleased with this result, nor how he wrestled during the match. However, I’d remind Hawkeye fans that Ayala also lost his 2023 home opener to a lower-ranked opponent. That 7-6 defeat to Oregon State’s #18 Brandon Kaylor hardly spelled doom for Ayala’s season – which ended in the NCAA final.
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133 was followed quickly by another Hawkeye loss. At 141 pounds, #31 Ryder Block lost his Carver debut to Stanford super frosh Aden Valencia, 11-6.
Valencia – a top 10 recruit a year ago – already has several high-level freestyle wins on his resume against Senior opponents. He also happens to be the younger brother of Iowa women’s wrestler Nyla Valencia.
Against Block, he controlled action for the better part of six-and-a-half minutes before the Hawkeye finally found his offense with 0:22 remaining.
Again, to any panicking Iowa fans – Valencia could very well be an All-American caliber opponent, and Block is just two matches back from his 2023 ACL injury.
Iowa’s final loss of the dual came at 174, where a pretty stale match was decided on a close first-period takedown. #17 Lorenzo Norman would hold on for the 4-1 win over #6 Nelson Brands.
The Bizarre – Caliendo’s comeback
OK, so we’re cheating just a tad by adding a fourth and final category to this dual recap.
I think such a decision is warranted, however, based on the wild match we saw at 165 pounds.
For about four minutes Iowa City native Hunter Garvin could not have looked more impressive in his ‘homecoming’ bout.
Ranked #7 in America, the 2024 All-American jumped out to a 9-2 lead against Michael Caliendo as the second-ranked Hawkeye appeared to be stuck in the mud throughout the first period.
Halfway through the second, Caliendo finally found his footing – and would press it squarely down on the proverbial ‘gas pedal.’
Two takedowns and a ride out closed the gap to 10-9 entering the third. Two more in the final period (plus two stall points) would complete the comeback with authority.
Just like that, 9-2 in favor of the West High School graduate Garvin became 17-12 in favor of Caliendo.
(See, this was totally worth shoehorning in an extra recap category.)
The victory at 165 also cap a 12-0 run in the team score for the Hawkeyes. In the blink of an eye (plus a 15-minute intermission) the dual had gone from tied at six-apiece to all but over.
That was some good stuff, Mikey C.
Short time
That’s a wrap on Iowa-Stanford this weekend.
Again, there was plenty of good and there’s plenty still to work on for the #2 Hawkeyes.
I really encourage folks to not overreact to the down results at 33, 41 and 74. The season is still so young, and for various reasons all three of those Iowa starters deserve a longer ‘leash’ than just two weeks.
(Criticism is fine, of course. Let’s just not lose our heads when it’s only November 9th.)
Iowa has a (relative) tune-up dual at Bellarmine (KY) next Friday before returning to Carver on the 23rd for the annual Cy-Hawk showdown.
That’s when you want/need to see the Hawkeyes firing on all cylinders.
Until next time, thanks as always for reading/following along with our Iowa men’s wrestling coverage. Hopefully – much like the Hawkeyes – I’ll be getting better and better myself throughout this season.
At present, I’m just hoping my latest performance was more ‘Good/Best’ than it was ‘The Rest.’
Heck, I’d even take ‘Bizarre’ at this point.
(Remember, it’s still only November, folks.)
