Trent Weatherman went into his match at Sunday’s dual meet against Minnesota having lost six-straight matches. After a sloppy contest, Weatherman was the one with his hand raised for a change.

“It’s one of those things where you just kind of getting in a rut [when] losing becomes a habit, and it’s nice to get out of that and get a win,” said Weatherman, who defeated Minnesota’s Joe Grygelko in a 2-0 decision. “You’ve just got to kind of fight through it, grit your teeth and get tough.”

In its 26-13 loss to No. 5 Minnesota (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten), No. 13 Iowa State (6-5, 0-1 Big 12) experienced some positives to go along with all of the problems that came with the first home loss of the season.

Senior Jon Reader stayed perfect after dominating No. 8 Scott Glasser in a 13-3 major decision. The win brought Reader, who is ranked No. 1 in intermatwrestle.com’s national poll, to 24-0 on the season.

“We tell him to stay calm,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. “Stay calm, go out there and do what you do every day and wrestle. I think that match right there was the best he’s probably wrestled this year against a quality opponent.”

The continuing trend of flash and excitement has been taking place this season with Andrew Sorenson.

The 165-pound junior managed a come-from-behind victory over No. 7 Cody Yohn to win by a decision of 9-7. Sorenson trailed by as much as 7-3 after Yohn secured a reversal in the second period, but the Woden native managed to secure the victory after fighting back in front of a raucous crowd to finish off the dual meet.

“I train to beat everyone,” Sorenson said. “I train to be the best guy, and deep down I think I’m the best guy. There are stepping stones along the way, and this was a stepping stone with him being higher ranked or whatever you want to call it.”

A dinged-up Jerome Ward took it to Joe Nord in the 197-pound match. Ward wrestled cautiously as both wrestlers received warnings for stalling at the same point in the match, but Ward held off while receiving an extra point for exactly one minute in riding time to win in a 5-2 decision.

Even though he wasn’t feeling 100 percent out on the mat, the fact that Ward managed to win with injuries was a big boost to his confidence.

“I’m sitting at about 70, 75 percent right now,” Ward said of his health. “If I could go out there and pull a win off when I’m at about 85 to 90 percent, I’m going to have way more confidence, and I’m going to put it out there and it should be fun.”