Exactly two years, 11 months and five days separate the ISU wrestling team’s last win in Big 12 competition before its most recent tally in the conference win total.

With its 30-3 win against West Virginia on Saturday, the Cyclones snapped that skid to end an East Coast road trip in which they went 4-0 in duals.

“We’ve struggled; we’ve had some very, very good teams that we’ve been competing against in the Big 12,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. “It’s not like we’ve been wrestling 10 teams; we’ve got three teams that we’ve had to wrestle against, and all three of them have been very good over the last couple of years.”

The Cyclones’ last Big 12 win came on Feb. 21, 2010 when they were led by eventual-Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner and David Zabriskie to a 34-7 win against Nebraska at Hilton Coliseum.

The 2009-10 season was Jackson’s first season as the ISU coach and was when every starter on the team was a recruit of former ISU coach Cael Sanderson. However, Jackson said there is not much of a difference between winning with Sanderson’s recruits and winning with his own.

“The only difference is when I first got here; those guys were juniors and seniors,” Jackson said. “There’s always a difference of competing with a team of juniors and seniors and a team of sophomores and freshmen.”

Jackson’s starting lineup now includes three upperclassmen — Max Mayfield (149 pounds), Boaz Beard (184) and Matt Gibson (Heavyweight) — with youth dominating the seven other weight classes.

Meeks coming around

Of the three freshmen in the starting lineup, 133-pounder John Meeks is the only one who has not redshirted. Meeks’ novice had been evident with his 5-6 overall record before beating West Virginia’s Colin Johnston in overtime on Saturday.

However, Jackson said Meeks is getting back to his winning ways even though his offense has been stalling as of late.

“Mentally, he never lost his confidence,” Jackson said of Meeks. “The matches that went into overtime, we didn’t get off enough offensive attacks… We didn’t shoot enough; we didn’t attack enough, and our counter-offense was off.

“For you to be able to beat the best guys, you have to stay on your offense, and your counter-offense has to be on as well.”