Quick Recap – Panthers Dim Golden Flashes

Quick recap of the UNI 31-16 win over the Kent State Golden Flashes today. You can find the full play by play here.

• Well, heavyweight JJ Everard didn’t wrestle today. UNI took the forfeit loss at 285 pounds after Everard was unable to continue in a match on Friday at Ohio. Everard will have a scan of his knee done tomorrow.
• UNI came out ready to put up some big numbers to outweigh the loss of Everard. Jay Schwarm got things started off with a fall and teammates Max Thomsen and Bryce Steiert matched the lightweight with second-period falls. It was a big win for Schwarm, and he’s now 3-1 in his last four matches filling in for Dylan Peters.
• Taylor Lujan got a little bit of a scare, as he only won 6-4 over Jared Walker. Walker took a lot of shots, and although Lujan was able to sprawl/work his way out of most of them he didn’t seem like he was prepared for them. Lujan got taken down to start the match but didn’t give up an offensive point the rest of the way. Give credit to Lujan for fighting out of so many attempts, but he probably won’t be able to do that all the time against better competition.
• 141 and 157 continue to struggle. Tyler Willers and Paden Moore could really have used a bump in standings with a win today, but neither were able to get there. Both went 0-2 on this roadtrip, and with a big dual with Oklahoma on the horizon, as well as the defacto MAC Championship dual a week later, they’ll need to find an extra gear to help UNI to two more wins.
• Overall, just like the dual Friday night, this was a good win for UNI. The Panthers are undefeated in MAC competition, with only two duals left. This pretty well sets the stage for a showdown with Missouri on February 12th for the conference dual championship, as they are also undefeated. Of course, the conference tournament is the big one, getting a win over Missouri in a three years would be a great way to end dual season.

#23 UNI 31, Kent State 16
125 – Jacob Schwarm (Northern Iowa) over Cory Simpson (Kent State) (Fall 1:38) UNI 6-0
133 – Josh Alber (Northern Iowa) over Unknown (For.) UNI 12-0
141 – Chance Driscoll (Kent State) over Tyler Willers (Northern Iowa) (Dec 5-2) UNI 12-3
149 – Max Thomsen (Northern Iowa) over Tim Rooney (Kent State) (Fall 4:48) UNI 18-3
157 – Casey Sparkman (Kent State) over Paden Moore (Northern Iowa) (Dec 7-3) UNI 18-6
165 – Bryce Steiert (Northern Iowa) over Isaac Bast (Kent State) (Fall 4:23) UNI 24-6
174 – Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) over Jared Walker (Kent State) (Dec 6-4) UNI 27-6
184 – Drew Foster (Northern Iowa) over Jerald Spohn (Kent State) (MD 14-1) UNI 31-6
197 – Stephen Suglio (Kent State) over Jacob Holschlag (Northern Iowa) (MD 12-1) UNI 31-10
285 – Devin Nye (Kent State) over Unknown (For.) UNI 31-16