Late-season injuries finally played into Iowa State’s favor in its 33-14 victory over Arizona State on Sunday at Hilton Coliseum.

No. 18 Iowa State (9-8, 0-3 Big 12) earned 12 points after No. 13 Arizona State (5-11, 1-2 Pac-10) forfeited both the 157- and 174-pound matches. This came as a relief since 141-pounder Chris Drouin remained out recovering from a concussion.

“It’s very difficult to win if you’re not putting your best team out there, your best athletes out there,” said coach Kevin Jackson. “Fortunately for us they were down a couple weight classes.”

Not including the three forfeits, the Cyclones won five of the seven matches of the dual, including a 14-3 major decision by Jon Reader in the 184-pound match against Jake Meredith. Jackson called for Reader to wrestle up a weight class for this match.

“We didn’t really know what they were going to do,” Jackson said of the Sun Devils. “[Meredith] is a leg-rider and as you know Cole [Shafer] has had a tough time getting off the bottom. I wanted to get off to a good start and make sure that we ensured victory, and I knew Jon would go out there.”

Reader was originally hoping to not have to wrestle and take the night off, but he moved up to fulfill Jackson’s request with only 45 minutes notice before the dual meet.

“I believe in coach Jackson and everything he does, so if he tells me to leap then I’m going to leap,” Reader said. “His word is concrete.”

Consistency was prevalent in the other wrestlers on the team who picked up wins as well on Sunday afternoon.

“Jerome Ward seems to be focusing for seven minutes now, my heavyweight [Kyle Simonson] seems like he’s back on track,” Jackson said. “So our guys that have been pretty much consistent remain consistent.”

An unfamiliar face walked onto the cardinal and gold mat at Hilton, as Chris Spangler made the start at 165 pounds with Andrew Sorenson moving up to take the forfeit victory at 174.

A takedown by Spangler with 20 seconds left in the first period against Te Edwards put the Sun Devil on his back, quickly leading to a pin.

Despite having not wrestled since the Midlands Championships in late December because of a concussion, Spangler felt no extra weight riding on his shoulders heading into his first match of the season at home.

“It was just time to get out there and carry stuff over that I’ve been working on in the practice room,” Spangler said.