Iowa State lost to Old Dominion 22-13 in its season-opening dual meet Sunday at Hilton Coliseum.

“We’ve got to do some soul-searching; we’ve got to do some soul-searching as a team to find out how bad we want this thing,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson after the meet.

The meet began with a hard-fought loss at 174 pounds by No. 17 Mikey England against Billy Curling. England trailed 2-0 after the first period but escaped in the second to enter the third trailing 2-1.

England notched a takedown 45 seconds into the third before letting him escape with one minute remaining in the match. England shot for another takedown to take the match but failed, getting taken down instead to fall 7-3.

Clock issues were resolved early in Boaz Beard’s match at 184 pounds. Beard notched a takedown in the first minute, tallied a 3-point nearfall and rode Austin Coburn for 1:58 before conceding an escape.

Beard went on to record the first bonus points for the Cyclones with a 10-2 major decision of Coburn.

“It wasn’t my best match,” Beard said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do still.”

Despite the promising victory, Beard did not enjoy having to wait and see how the rest of the team did while wrestling so early in the meet.

“I went out there and got the win, but it’s kind of demoralizing going out there and seeing my teammates fall,” Beard said. 

Kyven Gadson made his long-awaited debut at 197 pounds returning from a torn labrum that has kept him sidelined for the majority of the past two season.

A takedown attempt went for naught for Gadson to end a scoreless first period. Henderson escaped in the second period to take a 1-0 lead into the third, but Gadson tallied a reversal before another escape knotted the match at 2-2.

However, Jackson said Gadson was robbed of a point since his escape from the bottom was so quickly met with a takedown he felt it was confused for a reversal.

“Obviously he broke free from his opponent, and I thought a point was awarded; I thought he gave a point for an escape,” Jackson said of the scrap. “He took a shot seconds after that and got the takedown.” 

Gadson could not tally a last-second takedown, sending the match into overtime. It was there that the notched the match-winning takedown with 11 seconds in the sudden victory period to win 4-2.

After Iowa State’s Matt Gibson squeaked by Matt Tourdot 4-3 in the heavyweight match, Old Dominion (2-0) doled out its first ranked wrestler in No. 18 Jerome Robinson at 125 pounds.

Robinson went to work early on Iowa State’s Ryak Finch, getting a quick takedown and ending the first period leading 2-1. Finch, who is ranked 15th at 125 pounds, nearly notched a takedown at the edge of the mat in the first, but had to settle for a reset in the middle much to the dismay of the ISU crowd at Hilton Coliseum.

After two reversals and an escape in the second, Finch and Robinson entered the third period knotted 4-4. Robinson escaped from the down position in the third, holding off Finch for a 5-4 victory to cut Iowa State’s lead in the dual to four at intermission.

John Meeks, a true freshman who went undefeated in his four years at Des Moines Roosevelt High School, made his dual debut at 133 pounds for Iowa State against Scott Festejo.

Meeks fired a nasty counter attack two minutes into the first period that nearly caught Festejo on his back before a reset. Meeks conceded a delayed takedown near the northeast edge of the ring to Festejo late in the second period with the score knotted at 2-2 to fall behind before an escape had the match at 4-3 heading into the third.

Festejo rode Meeks for the entirety of the third period to take the 6-3 victory.

After the meet, Meeks was not too talkative.

“I just didn’t wrestle like I should,” Meeks said. “Plain and simple.”

Luke Goettl, ranked 18th at 141 pounds, fell to No. 16 Justin Lavelle in a 5-3 sudden victory decision to give Old Dominion its first lead of the meet since the 174-pound match.

A takedown late in the second period nearly resulted in a pin, but Goettl rode Lavelle tough before conceding the match-tying takedown with 13 seconds to go in the third before sealing it in sudden victory.

After Old Dominion’s Alex Richardson pinned Matt White at 149, ISU redshirt freshman Logan Molina lost by major decision to No. 19 John Nicholson at 157.

Nicholson, a former prep star at Des Moines Roosevelt High School, notched two takedowns in the first period and accumulated more than three minutes of riding time. Nicholson’s 12-3 major decision mathematically handed Iowa State its first loss of the season.

Michael Moreno defeated Adrin Taylor 7-2 at 165 pounds to conclude the dual.

Iowa State will be back in action Saturday, Dec. 1, when it takes on its rival Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.