MADISON, Wisconsin — Creeping onto the mat, loosening the bulging muscles around his black singlet, Gabe Arnold dropped to his knees at the “W” in the middle, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He thanked God for the opportunity to wrestle at the Wisconsin Field House — an opportunity that ended in a lightning-quick victory.

But as his opponent, Wisconsin’s Dylan Russo, hustled out to the mat, the calming demeanor shifted. The fifth-ranked 184-pound Hawkeye was already set in the neutral position, his right arm hanging out before him by the time Russo arrived. He paid no mind to Russo, only to the open space before him.

“Whenever I get out there in the middle of the mat, I’m just there, and I don’t really see my opponent until that whistle blows,” Arnold said. “That’s just my tunnel vision or the way I see things … It’s my way of focusing, just how I operate.”

But when Russo stepped in opposite him and the official’s whistle blew, Arnold’s predatory eyes jumped at that opportunity.

Just over a minute later, the arena fell quiet, Arnold constricting each of Russo’s limbs and pressing his shoulder blades into the mat. Then as Russo, dejected, faded back toward the Wisconsin bench, the official paraded both Arnold and his victorious hand across the mat — a pin worth six of No. 2 Iowa’s 45 team points on the day to Wisconsin’s zero.

“I just like to put up points,” Arnold said. “If a pin is there, I’ll take it. If not, then I’ll resort to my bread and butter — putting it on guys, finding the tags, finding ways to win matches.”

Then came second-ranked 197-pounder Stephen Buchanan in similar fashion, earlier standing beside Iowa head coach Tom Brands and pointing to family in the crowd. After stints at Wyoming and Oklahoma, Sunday was Buchanan’s father’s first time watching him wrestle in college — their hometown of Loyal just under three hours north of Madison, Wisconsin.

But his father only saw 40 seconds. Buchanan shifted right into a mindset of aggression and dominance at the whistle. And that saw him pin Niccolo Colucci well before the first period’s two-minutes-remaining mark could even hit.

“It’s always great wrestling after Gabe because he’s such a fluent wrestler who is really fun to watch,” Buchanan said. “It’s always exciting to come after him because you’re coming off of big moves or pins like you saw … He makes the atmosphere — if you’re in an enemy territory, silent; and if you’re at home, really loud.”

The sudden progression of the dual meet emphasized the importance of staying ready. No. 12 285-pounder Ben Kueter was next up and surprised how little time he had to get warm between No. 5 Patrick Kennedy at 174 pounds and his own match.

“Kueter was down here not aware that it was going up quick, so he went out there coming up like it came up quick,” Brands said. “Side story and a lesson there: you’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to be ready for anything.” 

And as Kueter won, 8-0, the two pins also underlined just how dominant Brands’ back-half of the lineup is. 

Kennedy, ranked fifth, beat Wisconsin’s No. 31 Luke Condon by a 19-4 technical fall in the second period. And No. 2 165-pounder Michael Caliendo toyed with the Badgers’ Gavin Model like a ragdoll into a 21-6 technical fall before that one could even reach the second period.

“You’ve got a high-powered lineup up there — heavyweight has got to be ready,” Brands said. “You get basically three first-period terminations and then an early second-period termination. That was a 20-minute segment for those four matches from [165 to 197 pounds]. Awesome. Hey, we’ll take that every time.”