By Jordan Hansen
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LINCOLN, Nebraska — Tom Brands and Company weren’t exactly happy at the end of the Iowa wrestling’s team 21-11 win over Nebraska.
Iowa won seven of 10 bouts but wrestled seven matches decided by 2 or fewer points, winning five of them. For a team that prides itself on pushing the pace, winning by more than 7 points in only one match isn’t ideal.
Nebraska also had the only bonus point win of the dual, a fall in 1:40 by 184-pounder T.J. Dudley over Iowa’s Sammy Brooks.
“We want to win every match, and we want to win it lopsided,” Iowa head coach Tom Brands said. “When guys fight you, you have to be ready to not only meet them but exceed — and I don’t know if we did a real good job of that.”
Speaking of fights, things between the two teams were heated early and often. Words were exchanged more than once, and tempers reached a boiling point during the 157-pound match, when a team point was deducted from Nebraska.
Iowa’s Edwin Cooper Jr. won the match 7-6, but afterwards, both wrestlers had to be held back and a school record crowd of 3,952 at the Devaney Sports Center was testy about the situation.
For the most part, however, things went the Hawkeyes’ way during the dual. Thomas Gilman (125) got an impressive 11-4 win over Tim Lambert, who was ranked No. 9 in the latest Intermat rankings.
Cory Clark (133) and Alex Meyer (174) both shut out ranked opponents, but they struggled to get the offense going and only scored 4 points combined.
“There’s some things I can work on, and we’ll have to adjust those when we get back into the room,” Meyer said. “Coming off the mat, it’s just remembering to be tough and wrestle hard.”
Iowa also got a win in the only top-five matchup of the day as No. 2 Brandon Sorensen won against No. 5 ranked 149-pounder Jake Sueflohn. Sorensen got a takedown in the middle of the third period to go ahead 6-4, but he had to fight off several shots after Sueflohn managed to escape with less than a minute left.
“You can’t relax in a match, and you can see in that match that I relaxed a bit,” Sorensen said. “I just have to open things up … It’s time to get things done.”
Sorensen’s 6-5 win pushes him to 19-0 on the year. Gilman (17-0) and 197-pounder Nathan Burak (17-0) also have yet to lose a match this season.
Burak and heavyweight Sam Stoll finished the meet well for the Hawkeyes, winning their matches against their top-20 competitors, 4-2 and 6-2, respectively.
Outside of Brook’s pin at the hands of Dudley, Iowa also dropped the 141 and 165 matches. Topher Carton got the start at 141, but gave up a takedown and two near-fall points to Anthony Abidin in the first period. Those four points proved to be too much of a hole to climb out of and Carton lost the match, 7-6.
Patrick Rhoads went at 165 for the Hawkeyes and lost a 2-0 decision to No. 14 Austin Wilson.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Brands said. “It ain’t easy.”