The most telling part of the Iowa City Duals on Nov. 24 came away from the mat, when former Iowa Sports Information Director Phil Haddy forgot his public-address microphone was still on.

Tony Ramos had just pinned Ben Rosen of Cornell College at 133-pounds, and Haddy was announcing the 141-pound matchup that followed. Thinking he was safe to speak to a nearby friend and wrestling fan, Haddy then uttered the sort of truth that shouldn’t have been said, even if it was on everybody’s mind in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“We’re going to be out of here in a hurry,” he said, which was broadcasted aloud to Iowa wrestling faithful, as well as the opposing fans.

A bit of dispirited laughter ensued, but he wasn’t kidding. The Iowa wrestlers quickly disposed of nearly every opponent they faced as they opened their home dual-meet schedule against a triplet of inferior foes in Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Cornell College, and Iowa Central.

Iowa outscored its opponents by a combined 143-9 en route to an easy day. Black and Gold wrestlers went 28-2 in total, collecting 15 pins and four technical-falls among them. Iowa’s final dual was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., but because of the speed in which the Hawkeyes performed, they were finished wrestling by 12:45.

Iowa improved to 16-0 all-time at the Iowa City Duals; the squad is now 5-0 on the season.

“It felt good to be back home wrestling at Carver,” Ramos said. “It’s nice to get back into it. Now, we have a few more matches under our belt.”

The morning saw pin after pin, but a close match between Iowa redshirt freshman Brody Grothus and Cornell’s Trevor Engle woke the crowd up.

Grothus, who suffered a knee injury against No. 10 Derek Valenti of Virginia on Nov. 16, entered the match with tape covering the majority of his left leg. The Davenport native scored a pair of first period takedowns and added an escape in the second to build a 5-3 lead. Grothus clung to that lead for a 5-4 victory.

Nick Moore was one of two Hawkeyes to record three pins on Saturday, with Ramos being the other. Moore said afterwards his stellar performance wasn’t necessarily a statement for the 165-pound spot but more of a showing of how well he can wrestle.

“I want to go out there every time and just wrestle like I can wrestle,” Moore said. “I’m getting closer and closer every time I step out there, but sometimes, I come out slow and hold things back a little bit. If I can hold this spot, I can make strides.”

Moore’s longest match of the day ended up being his final one, when he took a little more than three minutes to pin Dillon Geoghegan of Iowa Central. His first two matches took 2:33 combined.

But the bizarre thing about that final match was that it didn’t count. None of the matches against Iowa Central counted toward the official record books, because the dual itself was classified as an exhibition.

Iowa Central, located in Fort Dodge, didn’t show up to Carver-Hawkeye Arena until around 11:15 a.m., meaning its wrestlers missed weigh-ins before the first dual at 9 a.m. It was announced to the crowd early that Iowa Central hadn’t arrived due to travel complications.

“At weigh-ins, some of us didn’t even notice Iowa Central wasn’t there,” Ramos said. “And then they told us later on, so it was confusing for what times we were going to wrestle the next dual.”

Head coach Tom Brands didn’t know what held up the Tritons.

“For whatever reason, they weren’t here on time,” he said. “I went back and read emails that were a month old. It’s funny sometimes, with all this technology, you still don’t get the word out.”