Iowa failed to crown an individual champion on March 19, and the team took fifth place.
By Jordan Hansen
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NEW YORK CITY — Thomas Gilman looked disgusted as he sprinted into the bowels of Madison Square Garden. Cory Clark was emotional in a back hallway. Brandon Sorensen simply looked angry as he walked toward the locker room.
Each wrestler took his second-place finish at the NCAA Championships a little differently, but the collective profound disappointment was clear.
“It’s tough to swallow … it’s a loss,” Gilman, Iowa’s 125-pounder, said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it it’s at the national tournament, or at a dual, or anywhere else. It’s a loss. Here, it hurts a little more because you’re so close.”
With the NCAA Championships starting at 125 pounds, Gilman was up first against Penn State’s Nico Megaludis. After giving up an early takedown, Gilman quickly escaped in the second period to tighten the score. Megaludis, however, added another takedown in the second and an escape in the third, he won, 6-3, with a riding-time point.
It was a rematch of the Big Ten final on March 6, and it had the same result. The Nittany Lion wrestler would simply not be denied.
“I felt like I had him, that I out-wrestled him. But the score didn’t show that,” Gilman said. “I didn’t put any points on the board offensively, so I can’t just out-wrestle my opponents, I have to out-score them, too.
“Not taking anything away from him, he was a tough competitor, and he deserved it.”
Just as in the majority of the meets this year, Clark immediately followed Gilman’s match. Nahshon Garrett, who won his semifinal match against Oklahoma’s Cody Brewer (Clark’s opponent in the national championship last season) awaited him.
Seven minutes later, Garrett had scored 3 takedowns despite giving up 3 stalling points to Clark and won the match, 7-6.
More disappointment.
“Didn’t get the job, not satisfied or happy with the results, but I have to take it like a man and get over it quickly,” Clark said. “I need to get my head straight. Last year … it happened again. I didn’t capitalize on the opportunity to redeem myself or however you want to put it.
“Last year, I went into a dark place, and I’d like to avoid that and get going quicker.”
The last heartbreak of the day came a little more than 20 minutes later when Sorensen fell for the second time this season to Penn State’s Zain Retherford by a 10-1 major decision.
Sorensen could not find his offense at any point in the match, and Retherford did not stop attacking. It was just Sorensen’s eighth loss of his career, but it was obviously his most painful.
“I had a hard time getting my hands on him, and it really showed in that match,” Sorensen said. “I have a little time off, and then we’re right back at it. We’re going to be training all year. For this. Seems like a long time, but it’s not, and we have a lot of work to do.”
The Hawkeyes finished fifth in the team race, failing to place in the top-four for the first time since 2007. It was disappointing for the team and was certainly not the expectation of Iowa head coach Tom Brands or any of his wrestlers coming into New York City.
“I’m not more miserable because we were 0-and-3 today,” Brands said. “I’m miserable for Clark, and Gilman, and Sorensen, and the nine other qualifiers who didn’t wrestle as well as they probably wanted to or we needed them to.”
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Final team results
1) Penn State (123.0)
2) Oklahoma State (97.5)
3) Ohio State (86.0)
4) Virginia Tech (82.0)
5) Iowa (81.0)
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