Hawkeye wrestling has rocked its Big Ten competition this season, holding a record of 6-0 going into Friday’s dual meet. The Hawkeyes’ previous largest win margin against Big Ten competition was 25 points, beating Northwestern 32-7.

Iowa crushed that mark on Friday, beating Maryland, 48-0, in Carver-Hawkeye.

The Hawkeyes went into intermission with a 24-0 lead. Iowa went tech-decision-pin-pin-major, starting at 149 with Pat Lugo.

Tallying 10 takedowns throughout the match, Lugo snagged his second technical fall of the season and improved his record to 12-6, winning 23-8.

Mitch Bowman stepped on the mat at 174 for the Hawkeyes for the first time since Jan. 18, and he did more than get the job done. Bowman went up 8-3 before pinning Josh Ugalde with 1:01 left in the first.

“I feel like I wrestled really well,” Bowman said. “I wish that I had turned it up a little bit sooner instead of riding for so long to start off. I really think that I could’ve opened up more in the first minute. That’s the biggest thing I need to improve in – getting the first score fast and then keep scoring.”

After wrestling five top-15 ranked opponents in a row, 157-pounder Kaleb Young finally got a break, and defeated his opponent by decision.

At 165 pounds, Alex Marinelli recorded his seventh pin of the season, continuing his perfect record, and is now 17-0. Cash Wilcke scored more points in his match than he has in the past two years, winning on a tech fall, 23-9, over an opponent he only beat 2-0 at Midlands.

The second half wrestlers comprised of No. 5 Jacob Warner, No. 7 Sam Stoll, No. 2 Spencer Lee, Paul Glynn, and No. 15 Max Murin, would identically repeat the first five on paper, also going tech-decision-pin-pin-major.

Stoll wrestled No. 9 Youssif Hemida, his second ranked opponent in a row. The first two periods were scoreless, but Stoll would choose bottom to start the third, despite not finding success in the position last weekend.

“[Getting out from the bottom] is something that I work on every week,” Stoll said. “I knew Hemida wasn’t going to ride me that hard. Even if he did, I would get out on him. I’m confident I could get out – even get out on that Jensen kid if I wrestle him again.”

Following a 30-second pin by Lee, 133-pounder Glynn got his chance on the mat, and he didn’t take his opportunity lightly. Glynn recorded 2 takedowns before pinning Orion Anderson in the first period.

“When I get my opportunity, I’m fighting for Coach Brands,” Glynn said. “And then on the sideline, I’ve got Austin DeSanto, who had to sit out a meet, right next to me getting me ready to go. And that’s another guy you want to fight for. We’re a team here. We’re a family.”

All in all, the Hawkeyes scored bonus points in eight of 10 matches, tallying 4 pins, 2 techs, 2 majors, and 2 decisions for the 48-0 win.

“I really think that Lugo led us off strong getting a ton of takedowns right there at the beginning,” Bowman said. “The whole team saw what he was doing, they wanted to follow him up, wanted to get in on the action. Once a good thing starts rolling, it’s hard to stop.”