The lightweights for the University of Iowa continue to be the foundation that Iowa builds their national title hopes on.
Thomas Gilman and Cory Clark both advanced to their semifinal matches, putting Iowa in second place in the team score….blah blah blah.
Gilman won in sudden victory, but trailed 5-3 to Virginia Tech’s #3 Joey Dance late in the third period, but secured at takedown and rode Dance out to erase his riding time to force the overtime period.
“I wasn’t looking at the clock at all,” Gilman said. “You have it in your head, you know.”
Gilman hit a takedown in the first sudden victory period and the Iowa fans could be heard in the Scottrade center for the first time all weekend. They erupted after the match-deciding takedown.
“It fired me up,” Gilman said after the match. “Getting my teammates fired up by me winning, getting the crowed fired up by me winning, it was an exciting match.”
Iowa’s Cory Clark followed suit a 7-1 dismantling of Iowa State’s Earl Hall. Hall tried to hit his trademark cement mixer in the first period, but Clark rolled out of the move and proceeded control the entire rest of the match.
The only other Hawkeye to join the lightweights in the semifinals tonight was Mike Evans. Evans beat Logan Storley 2-1 in in the ultimate tiebreaker. Evans had enough riding time after a round of overtime to secure the win. There were no takedowns in the match.
“Simple, basic ride.” Evans said of his overtime rideout. “Staying on the hips, staying on the ankles. Keeping forward pressure.”
Evans is the only senior still on the championship side.
“I’m real alone. But you see guys like Bobby Telford go out and get a pin, our hearts are still in the right place. I got no worries about Hawkeyes on the backside.”
The other two Iowa wrestlers did not fair so well in their quarterfinal matches. Sammy Brooks dropped a hard-fought decision to #1 Gabe Dean of Cornell, 3-2. Nathan Burak dropped his quarterfinal to Iowa State’s Kyven Gadson, 12-2.
“We have three in the semi, and we have seven alive,” Iowa Head Coach Tom Brands said after the session. “We just, we need to keep winning. The ideal way to win is to open it up and score a lot of points.”
Of the Iowa guys that wrestled on the backside, Bobby Telford had by far the best day. Telford came out and pinned Binghamton’s Tyler Deuel in 1:47. He then went on to beat Nebraska’s Collin Jensen 9-2. He’ll wrestle UNI’s Blaize Cabell to be an All-American.
Brandon Sorensen also had a good day for Iowa, going 2-0 and one win away from being an All-American. Sorenson beat Clayton Ream of North Dakota State 5-0 and finished a tough match with Alec Pantaleo from Michigan in sudden victory, 3-1. Josh Dziewa won his first match against Nick Dardanes by major decision 18-4, and it looked like he would have a good run on the backside. That all came to a halt quickly when he faced the #3 seed Lavion Mayes. Mayes took Dziewa down three times, scoring the 9-3 victory. Dziewa finished the tournament 2-2.
Iowa State didn’t have a bad Session III either. Their hammer, Kyvan Gadson, won his match by major decision against Nathan Burak, 12-2. Gadson was dominate in the win, doing whatever he wanted against the Hawkeye.
“He’s made the biggest strides, as far as maturity, and that’s the reason why you see him in the semi’s tonight,” ISU head coach Kevin Jackson said of Gadson after the match. “I think personally he’s gotten stronger and gotten focused on what’s most important to him.”
As I said above, ISU’s Earl Hall dropped a 7-1 decision in the quarterfinals to Iowa’s Clark. Hall really didn’t have much offense and couldn’t get anything going. He’ll face Lehigh’s Mason Beckman to become an All-American.
At 165 pound the #2 seed Michael Moreno continues to run through the consolation bracket, securing two wins by pinfall. The first was over North Carolina State’s Max Rohskopf in 3:42 and the second was over Northern Colorado’s Mitchell Polkowske in 4:27. Moreno will face the #3 seed in Isaac jordan to become an All-American, in a match that everybody thought would be on the championship side of the bracket.
The two men that started the day on the backside, Dante Rodriguez and Lelund Weatherspoon, both dropped their next match. They both finished 1-2 at the NCAA tournament.
UNI only had two men left in the tournament, and they were both wrestling for a berth in the semifinals. Unfortunately both Cooper Moore and Blaize Cabell fell short. Moore lost his match by pinfall to Bo Jordan of Ohio State in 3:56. Jordan controlled the match from the start, getting an early takedown and not giving up any points. Moore will face Stanford’s Jim Wilson to become an All-American tonight.
Blaize Cabell dropped his match 6-3 to Northwestern’s Michael McMullan. McMullan also controlled the entire match, never letting Cabell get to his legs. Cabell will face Iowa’s Bobby Telford tonight.
These are the current team scores, Missouri’s Johnny Eblen was disqualified from the tournament after head butting his opponent in his last match. All of his points that he had accrued throughout the tournament have been forfeited, which is why the scores may not be what you were expecting. UNI sits tied for 29th, with 9 points.
Team Scores:
1. Ohio St. 64.5
2. Iowa 47.5
3. Missouri 45.0
4. Cornell 41.5
5. Edinboro 40.5
6. Nebraska 36.5
7. Oklahoma St. 36.0
8. Penn St. 33.5
9. Minnesota 29.5
10. Illinois 26.5
10. Michigan 26.5
12. Iowa St. 26.0
13. Northwestern 24.5
14. North Carolina St. 22.0
15. Lehigh 20.0
15. Wisconsin 20.0
17. North Carolina 18.0
18. Oklahoma 17.5
19. Pittsburgh 16.0
19. Virginia Tech 16.0
Please learn the difference between dominate & dominant.
It’s over Buckeyes will win it very disappointed