The larger concern was that McD was never really that close to finishing one of his own shots he was able to win this time without completing a shot of his own, but that won't always be the case. To his credit, Nico did have the most dangerous shots in the match - he got to McD's legs on a couple occasions and was in fairly deep before McD was able to stalemate him. (I thought the uncalled false starts Megaludis got away with at several points were more egregious mistakes on the part of the referee.) but it's almost never going to be called. Is there an element of stalling in that? I would say so. Nico remains adept at frustrating McDonough, mostly by locking up in a lot of collar-and-elbow ties on top and leaning hard on McD. We knew this would be a close match - both their matches last year were nervy affairs and there had been nothing from either guy this season to suggest that this match would be any different. And McD might have to get by Nico twice more this season to claim additional trophies for his collection? Yeesh. I can't take too much credit for being right, though - I picked the favorite at every right but 174, and even that was a toss-up.ġ25: Well, this was a rather heart attack-inducing way to start off the night. I just don't see Tony getting a pin, Ballweg getting a major, or Taylor getting a tech fall. Those results were pretty similar to the predictions in my preview earlier in the week - I got the match-winner right in all ten matches and the bonus points right at 184. Hopefully this win gives them some confidence to keep moving forward and to keep striving to improve and be aggressive. Iowa picked up some bonus points of their own in this meet (133 and 141), but they're going to need to continue to improve on that front if they're going to mount a real challenge to PSU for the hardware this year. This win doesn't necessarily turn things upside down for the Big Ten and NCAA title races in March Penn State is still going to be a deserved favorite in those events thanks to their ridiculous bonus point capability. this was a great, wonderfully impressive win for Iowa, but it was just that: a single win. Odds are pretty good that we'll be seeing several of these guys in the NCAA finals in a few months. Six of those wrestlers were in the top two at their respective weights. These teams were ranked #1 and #3 entering this dual and those numbers were well-deserved - 13 of the 20 wrestlers that competed last night were ranked in InterMat's top-10 last week. The other thing that made this dual so much fun was the sheer quality on display. Granted, not every match featured a ton of offense - you could count the number of decent shots at 125 on one hand (and let me just say that it's a pretty weird day when the heavyweight match features four times as many points as the 125-lb match) - but many of them did, which made things a lot of fun. But it was a breath of fresh air to see some wide-open wrestling in such a big dual meet too often these meets devolve into tense, turgid affairs with most of the wrestlers afraid to cut loose (see: too many Iowa-Oklahoma State matches to count). Sometimes it was the Iowa wrestler putting a beatdown on their PSU counterpart (Ramos, Ballweg) sometimes it was the PSU wrestler thrashing an Iowa wrestler (Alton, Taylor, Ruth). Five of the ten matches last night involved bonus points. It's great to see guys take chances, hit big moves, and score points. This dual was great fun to watch on TV I suspect it was even better live.Īnd, again, the wrestling in this dual was just plain fun. ![]() So to all those in attendance: well done. It's impossible to quantify, but I don't doubt that that charged atmosphere put a little extra pep in the step of the Iowa wrestlers and helped them get some big wins (especially since three of Iowa's six wins came down to the final seconds). 15,000+ Iowa fans (and a few Penn State partisans) packed into Carver-Hawkeye Arena, setting the mark for the 7th-largest attendance for a dual meet in NCAA history and creating an absolutely electric atmosphere. ![]() Two very good teams going back and forth, a pretty substantial amount of exciting wrestling, back-and-forth action, a dramatic battle for the win that came down to the final match, and - oh yeah - an electric crowd. If you wanted the perfect two-hour advertisement for college wrestling, you'd be hard-pressed to find something better than Friday night's Iowa-Penn State dual. ( PHOTO CREDIT: Darren Miller / Hawkeye Sports )
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