The No. 2 Iowa men’s wrestling program put up its most dominant performance of the season thus far, clobbering Bellarmine, 49-0, in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday night.

After hard-fought dual wins over ranked Oregon State and Stanford over the last two weeks — and after some questions surrounding No. 7 Drake Ayala at 133 pounds and No. 8 Nelson Brands at 174 pounds — the Hawkeyes looked near-perfect this time around.

Ayala beat Trayce Eckman in a 14-6 major decision, and Brands beat out Patrick Kennedy for the start and then crushed Grant O’Dell with a 20-5 technical fall.

Despite a scarily narrow 5-3 win from Iowa’s No. 6 Gabe Arnold over Devan Hendricks at 184 pounds, the back end of Iowa head coach Tom Brands’ starting lineup is showing serious consistency. 

No. 1 Stephen Buchanan earned a 16-1 technical fall over Andrew Liber at 197 pounds, and the 285-pound No. 12 Ben Kueter pinned Daulton Mayer in just 32 seconds.

Likewise, the 157-pound No. 1 Jacori Teemer pinned Gray Ortis in 24 seconds, reversing a hold on his leg to an athletic takedown and roll into the fall.

The other four Hawkeye starters each recorded technical falls:

• At 165 pounds, No. 2 Michael Caliendo beat Cole Nance, 21-6
• At 149 pounds, No. 4 Kyle Parco beat Zac Cowan, 21-4
• At 141 pounds, Ryder Block beat David Mayora, 19-4
• At 125 pounds, No. 32 Kale Petersen beat Jack Parker, 26-6

Altogether, the Hawkeyes recorded six technical falls, two pins, and two decisions.

Up next

The highly anticipated rivalry matchup comes next, the No. 11 Iowa State Cyclones come to Iowa City for a dual meet on Nov. 23.

The Cyclones are 1-1 this season, dropping a very close one to Stanford — who the Hawkeyes handled — on Nov. 8 by a 23-21 margin. But they bounced back with a 29-9 win over Navy on Nov. 15.