The No. 3 Iowa men’s wrestling team upset the No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowboys in a 21-16 finish inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday.

In a last-second flip, Iowa head coach Tom Brands picked freshman phenom Angelo Ferrari to start at 184 pounds with Oklahoma State’s No. 3 Dustin Plott. Ferrari gave Plott an overtime battle and Hawkeye fans a glimpse of the future with a 6-3 upset win that will rock the college wrestling world.

“It was awesome going against my brother’s old team — biggest rivalry in college wrestling,” Ferrari said in reference to former Cowboy national champion A.J. Ferrari. “And it was the best moment of my wrestling career so far.”

Iowa’s No. 2 Michael Caliendo picked up a big ranked win over Oklahoma State’s No. 6 Cameron Amine in a nice technical show of wrestling out of the break. And top-ranked 197-pounder Stephen Buchanan did the same for the Hawkeyes over the Cowboys’ No. 6 Luke Surber.

“I’m always growing, and I’m just always getting better,” Caliendo said. “And the mental side is real, and I think that I’m getting the hang of it, and I’m
starting to feel a lot better out there.”

But it was the lighter weights that set the tone.

No. 2 133-pounder Drake Ayala saw Japanese rising star Rin Sakamoto in Sakamoto’s debut this season. The Hawkeye opted to wrestle on one knee for much of the match, and he got Hawkeye fans amped up with an 11-1 major decision win.

No. 3 149-pound Hawkeye Kyle Parco turned an uneventful opening to his match with No. 18 Cowboy Carter Young into a 6-1 ranked win. And No. 3 157-pound Hawkeye Jacori Teemer, sporting a shoulder wrap, worked No. 14 Caleb Fish into a 10-6 ranked win too.

Set the tone early

Iowa’s No. 16 125-pounder Joey Cruz fell into a takedown from Oklahoma State’s No. 4 Troy Spratley pretty quickly in the opening match, Spratley amassing a minute of riding time across three mat returns in the first period.

Ducking Cruz’s shot, Spratley’s speed twice countered it into single-leg takedowns to take a 10-1 lead for the third period. Spratley let Cruz up after two takedowns in chase of a technical fall, taking the 17-3 major decision instead and a 4-0 Cowboy lead.

A back-and-forth battle over leg control got Ayala on board first with a three-point takedown next. Although Sakamoto was aggressive and confident, a beautiful slip over the top gave Ayala three more points and put him up at 7-1 for the final period.

Sakamoto taking his time between whistles got Hawkeye fans aggressive too, but Ayala maintained his composure and game plan into a final three-point takedown and 11-1 win by major decision to tie this one at four apiece.

“Drake Ayala had to stay in there,” Brands said. “He’s slippery. He’s quick. He’s got some funny different positions. He had to wrestle the full seven minutes to get it. And you’ve got to work hard, and you’re getting bonus points — it means that your mind is in the right place. You’re headed in the right direction. And that’s always a topic going into the postseason.”

Oklahoma State’s No. 5 141-pounder Tagen Jamison took on Brands’ pick of Jace Rhodes to start over Cullan Schriever. Although both scoreless for most of the first period, Rhodes got his foot in the door with a double-leg attack that he couldn’t finish.

But Jamison finished his own attack that became a 4-0 lead with an escape in the second — and then 7-0 with a persistent single-leg attack into the takedown. So Jamison put the Cowboys up, 8-4, with an 8-0 major decision win.

Working Young away from the edge of the mat, Parco searched and scrambled for control of the back but couldn’t find it in the first period. A mat return kept Parco’s control of two minutes of riding time across the second period, a stalling call making a 1-0 Parco lead for the third.

Young defended Parco’s shots well throughout the match until the final seconds. Parco played the rules to his advantage and dragged Young back to the mat before dropping onto him for a three-point takedown that secured the 6-1 win for an 8-7 Oklahoma State lead.

Teemer tackled Fish right into a linebacker-esque three-point takedown for a 3-0 lead to kickstart the next bout. And a scramble to the mat pushed Teemer’s back into Fish’s chest for an awkward three-point takedown and 6-1 lead a minute later.

Another hard tackle got Teemer fired up after a slap to the face from Fish, the former taking a 9-4 lead into the final two minutes. There, Fish erased his riding time and gave him a couple of pushes to the back of the head after the official’s whistle. But Teemer opted not to react as he got his hand raised with the 10-6 win and 10-8 Iowa lead for the break.

Upset alert

Caliendo opened the second half of the dual meet with a hold on Amine’s right leg, pulling him toward the center of the mat and dropping down hard. The move immediately put Amine in serious pain as he slammed his headgear on the mat but rose and returned.

So Caliendo escaped for a one-point lead to resume this one, made 4-0 with a beautiful shot at the hips that sent Amine straight to the mat. A single-leg takedown for three points settled the 10-1 major decision and 14-8 Iowa lead ahead of 174 pounds.

“I had a high pace, and a guy like that wants to slow the match down,” Caliendo said. “I forced him to wrestle in positions he didn’t want to wrestle in.”

Nelson Brands got the nod there for the Hawkeyes against the Cowboys’ No. 3 Dean Hamiti, a Wisconsin transfer. Escaping a leg lock early, he couldn’t duck it the second time and fell to a 3-0 deficit after one.

The second period went scoreless, Brands defending well but blocked on any glimpse of an attack. Hamiti’s physicality collapsed Brands into a second takedown and ultimately the 8-1 loss to shrink Iowa’s win to 14-11.

Starting conservatively, Ferrari kept to his style of wrestling on one knee for what became a scoreless first period. But he found an ankle pick and flipped Plott over into a three-point takedown in the second to wake Hawkeye fans up with a 3-1 lead.

Up 3-2 for the final two minutes, Ferrari lost his riding time to Plott’s advantage and could not escape with four of his mat returns. So Plott’s riding time moved this one to overtime despite Ferrari missing a reversal by inches.

The two flipped control to start the overtime period. And despite neither finding the edge, an ankle pick from Ferrari pushed slowly over into a takedown that gave Ferrari a 6-3 win, erupted Carver, and put Iowa up, 17-11.

“Why do I train this hard every single day to the max if I don’t want to go against those top guys?” Ferrari said. “I just keep getting better. I think my offense is the best in the country. And I wait in that first period, but when I go to score, I can score.”

Buchanan rolled around Surber into a three-point takedown early in the 197-pound match even with a test from Surber’s resistant defense. Aside from a stalling point for Buchanan, respective escapes marked the rest of the match until the third period.

There, with a 5-1 lead, Buchanan took his advantage into over a minute of riding time and then a four-point near-fall that settled a 10-1 major decision and guaranteed Hawkeye win with a 21-11 lead for the heavyweight match.

“Bonus points are important,” Brands said. “Domination is important. And it wasn’t easy. It was hard work.”

Iowa’s No. 11 Ben Kueter weighed in roughly 30 pounds lighter than Oklahoma State’s No. 3 Wyatt Hendrickson before this final 285-pound match, which Hendrickson simply dominated.

Three takedowns and a reversal later, Hendrickson held the 11-3 lead with almost four minutes of riding time before he sank Kueter into a four-point takedown and 18-3 technical fall loss — a sour end to the 21-16 upset win.

Up next

After a grueling regular season schedule, the Hawkeyes get two weeks off to tweak things before the Big Ten Championships at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, on March 8 and 9.

Ayala and Buchanan are likely Iowa’s top seeds in this year’s tournament, a handful of other Hawkeye starters barred from the best spot by Penn State’s dominance this season.

“We’re going to the postseason,” Brands said.