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By Molly Irene Olmstead
molly-olmstead@uiowa.edu
AMES, Iowa — The Iowa wrestling team has faced “big question marks” in three different weight classes so far this season: 149, 184, and 197 pounds.
But two of those three weights won in Iowa’s 27-9 victory over Iowa State on Sunday.
Weight classes that seemed consistent coming into the meet — like Ethen Lofthouse’s 174-pound spot and Mike Evan in the 165-pound — came out sluggish. But the weights that struggled before performed well in tough matches, Brands said.
Mark Ballweg wrestled up a weight class from his previous 141-pound status and defeated Iowa State’s Joey Cozart at 149 pounds in a 4-3 decision. Ballweg’s victory was his second at 149 with the Hawkeyes.
Tomas Lira also dominated his somewhat shaky 197-pound class for the Hawkeyes. Lira tallied two takedowns, a three-point nearfall, and an escape against Cole Shafer to win the match, 10-6.
Brands said Lira used his “big motor” to come out victorious over Schafer.
“Smart wrestling wins the day, especially with [Lira],” Brands said. “He maybe wasn’t so smart in a couple of situations there, but he bailed himself out with smart wrestling. He capitalized early, got [Shafer] in trouble early … That’s the difference in the match.”
The difference in another match had less to do with smart wrestling and more to do with technological issues. The scoreboard went down, the clock malfunctioned, and there was match-changing dispute over 0.2 seconds in Hawkeye Vinne Wagner’s 184-pound match.
Wagner lost to Boaz Beard in a 10-9 decision that came down to fractions of a second. He opened the first period with a takedown in 48 seconds, but quickly fell behind and let Beard lead 8-4 going into the third period.
The match was stopped with 13 seconds remaining due to blood on the mat, and Beard only had 1:12 in riding time. Wagner rode Beard for the remainder of the match and the buzzer sounded with one minute of riding time under Beard’s name.
After a lengthy discussion between the referees and timekeepers, it was determined that Beard had exactly 1:00.2 in riding time and his hand was raised.
“[It was] math to me,” Brands said. “I’m not very good at math, but I’ll tell you, that’s a goofy, goofy deal there.”
Iowa State’s head coach, Kevin Jackson, agreed that the match was unusual but said he didn’t think his wrestlers handled the ups and downs of the day as well as the Hawkeyes did.
“I do think emotionally, I see some things that I didn’t like to see as far as how they walked out on the mat,” Jackson said. “I do think sometimes you do have reside from matches before.”
The Hawkeyes won the first five matches and tallied pins from 133-pound Ramos and 157-pound Derek St. John in under five minutes apiece. St. John said the match streak wasn’t about momentum; it was just business as usual.
“I’m not really sure if it’s a momentum thing as much as it is just guys getting ready for themselves and going out and taking care of their own business,” St. John said. “Once you do that, it’ll take care of the team. They know that. Everyone knows that.”
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