The No. 2 Iowa men’s wrestling team squeezed by No. 4 Ohio State in a 24-13 win inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday.

Top-ranked 157-pounder Jacori Teemer made his return to the mat for the Hawkeyes and saw No. 17 Sammy Sasso. Showing no signs of injury after a leg tweak against Iowa State earlier this season, Teemer pranced around the mat and shot hard — demonstrating his rank in the nation’s 157-pound class.

But top-ranked 133-pounder Drake Ayala sat this one out after a massive ranked win over Illinois’ Lucas Byrd last weekend, giving freshman Keyan Hernandez the go against Ohio State’s Ben Davino in a rough technical fall loss.

“I can tell you that Drake Ayala is one tough son of a gun, and when he’s ready, he will be in that lineup,” Iowa head coach Tom Brands said. “Our team is better with him in the lineup, and today the right call was to have him not go in the lineup.”

Iowa’s No. 28 Joey Cruz proved his worth at the 125-pound spot too with a 6-5 win over Ohio State’s No. 16 Brendan McCrone. And in another set of ranked bouts, Iowa’s No. 2 Michael Caliendo beat No. 9 Paddy Gallagher at 165 pounds, but No. 5 Patrick Kennedy dropped one to the Buckeyes’ No. 6 Carson Kharchla.

The final bouts proved the deciding factor, the Hawkeyes securing the team win with wins at 184, 197, and 285 pounds.

An exciting one

Cruz pushed through McCrone’s torso into the first three-point takedown of the afternoon at 125 pounds. Constantly working him into awkward positions, Cruz opened the second period with another one and evaded a handful of McCrone’s shots.

Starting on top, McCrone piled on riding time but did not let Cruz escape, giving the Hawkeyes a 3-0 lead with Cruz’s 6-5 win after a few stalling points to the Buckeyes.

“He’s become a pillar in our lineup,” Brands said of Cruz. “He’s wrestling well right now, and we’ve got to keep him wrestling well. And he’s having fun and all the things that go with being a competitor.”

Hernandez’s inexperience was pretty clear in the 133-pound bout next, giving up three takedowns to Davino in the first period alone. Davino gathered some riding time but let Hernandez out to pile up the score into the 19-4 technical fall win for a 5-3 Buckeye advantage.

Iowa’s No. 31 Ryder Block got the nod again at 141 pounds but faced top-ranked Jesse Mendez. The latter made impressive work of Block with two takedowns and a man-handling four-point near-fall in the first period alone, culminating in a 19-2 technical fall.

The Buckeyes, up 10-3, Iowa’s No. 2 149-pounder Kyle Parco got on the mat for No. 9 Dylan D’Emilio. He rolled over into a three-point takedown to start but did not find much more leverage.

Parco’s 4-1 advantage became 4-2 with D’Emilio’s escape, but the latter secured a leg and got Hawkeye fans nervous. Rolling under it, Parco turned that into a three-point takedown for an 8-3 win with riding time as he shrunk the Ohio State lead to 10-6.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena erupted as Teemer strolled out from the tunnel with a nonchalant mug — and again when he locked a quick takedown for three points. Tied at three apiece with a stalling point to Sasso, Teemer speared Sasso in a huge takedown for a 6-4 advantage into the third.

Starting down, Teemer escaped Sasso’s grip and shot hard into another three-point takedown for a 10-4 lead, even flinging Sasso over and off of him with a trip of the leg. Pounding his chest in celebration, Teemer’s win brought the Hawkeyes within one at the break.

“When it’s your time to compete, you’re ready,” Brands said of Teemer. “He’s a cool cat, and he is a different cat, and we love him. And you saw that on display, and we’ve just got to keep building and keep getting better.”

Caliendo worked Gallagher’s trip into a single-leg takedown for a 3-0 lead to start, and he did it again as he held Gallagher’s leg up to his shoulder and worked him off-balance. Caliendo defended Gallagher’s shots well for a 7-1 lead into the third, riding time giving him an 11-3 win and Iowa a 13-10 lead.

Kennedy was down, 3-1, after the first period to Kharchla’s chase into a double-leg takedown. And Kharchla locked his leg and twisted it into three more points for a 7-2 advantage to which Kennedy had no answer in a 7-3 loss and 13-13 team tie.

Iowa’s No. 5 Gabe Arnold started his 184-pound bout in aggression with No. 19 Ryder Rogotzke, shoving him in the chest right at the whistle and remaining scrappy throughout the first period. But his escape was the only point through the first half of the match.

Picking Rogotzke’s ankle into a trip, Arnold could not find the three points and kept a 1-0 lead for the final period, which dissolved as he let him out into a 1-1 tie for overtime. There, Arnold shot at Rogotzke’s leg, failed to finish, but shot right back into three points and a win for a 16-13 Hawkeye lead.

“Of course, I like putting points on the scoreboard, and that’s my goal every time I step out on the mat is to freaking make that scoreboard look real lopsided one way and throw up football scores on my side,” Arnold said. “Obviously that’s what I want to do. But sometimes the plan changes a little bit, and you’ve got to deviate from it a little bit. You keep attacking.”

Hawkeye fans amped up, Iowa’s No. 1 197-pounder Stephen Buchanan showed just how stratified the weight class is as he worked into a three-point takedown and two-point near-fall on No. 17 Seth Shumate just two minutes in. A tackle into a takedown put him up, 8-1, into the second period.

Rolling a shot into a three-point takedown, Buchanan took a 12-1 lead and gave Shumate nothing in return. He added another takedown and rolled Shumate into a near-fall for an 18-1 dub to secure the Iowa team win.

But Iowa’s No. 11 Ben Kueter saw Ohio State’s No. 6 Nick Feldman at heavyweight to round things out — although the first period ended scoreless. Kueter escaped to start the second, and a three-point takedown put him up four, which Feldman reversed to shrink it to two.

With a 5-3 lead for the end of the third period, Kueter played defense in dodging leg shots for a massive ranked win and 24-13 Hawkeye finish.

“We’ve just got to keep getting better,” Brands said. “And that’s where we’re at. And, hey, that’s a big win for him.”

Up next

The biggest dual meet of the year comes next as the Hawkeyes travel to University Park, Pennsylvania, for a matchup with No. 1 Penn State on Friday.

The Nittany Lions are undefeated at 9-0 and boast four top-ranked wrestlers in Tyler Kasak at 157 pounds, Mitchell Mesenbrink at 165 pounds, Carter Starocci at 184 pounds, and Greg Kerkvliet at 285 pounds.

“We didn’t get the job done last year, and that sucks, but we’re going to get it done this year,” Arnold said. “So this time, we’ll be in your home dojo. And I promise — your head’s mine.”