The ISU wrestling team held its annual intrasquad wrestling meet Thursday night at Ames High School.

The intrasquad meet is held before each season to give wrestlers a taste of what the season will hold in store for them, as well as showcase some of the budding talent on the team.

“I think their intensity was high and I thought they wrestled hard,” said coach Kevin Jackson. “They were excited and eager to get out here in front of ISU fans and compete and get a small taste of what it feels like to strap on that Iowa State singlet eventually.”

The bout at 149 pounds showcased an ongoing battle between senior Nate Carr Jr. and sophomore Max Mayfield.

After a scoreless first period, Carr scored a double-leg takedown on Mayfield to take a 2-1 lead. Carr rode out the period to accumulate 1:27 of riding time.

Carr notched a reversal from the down position in the third period to take a 4-1 lead and the momentum of the match.

Mayfield failed to make the most of a second escape as Carr went on to win by a 5-2 decision, as well as temporarily win the starting spot at 149 pounds.

“It’s my first time down to 149,” Carr said. “I really wanted to wrestle a methodical match; smart, hard, not giving up any points. I really didn’t let loose in the first period because I wanted to see how my body would do first with the big cut from 171 [pounds]. I kind of slow-paced it. I definitely can wrestle a lot better, a lot harder.”

Redshirt freshman Trent Weatherman featured the only pin of the night, pinning true freshman Mikey England in 2:23 while wrestling up at 165 pounds.

Weatherman, a 157-pounder from Maxwell, is one of three Cyclones to have a solidified spot on the starting lineup.

It was a tough night for Patrick Hunter, however. The junior college transfer dropped both matches in which he wrestled, losing by a 9-1 major decision to freshman Ryak Finch and getting taken down in the sudden victory period against freshman Brandon Jones to lose a 6-4 decision.

Hunter, a junior college national champion who transferred from Iowa Central Community College, was the projected favorite to win the starting spot at 125 pounds.

Matt Gibson turned heads in the last match of the night, defeating fellow heavyweight Kyle Simonson in a close 6-3 decision.

“I thought Matt Gibson performed really, really well against Kyle Simonson,” Jackson said. “In practice I think Kyle got the best of Matt, so I think it might have surprised the coaching staff a little bit that Matt came out the way he did come out and wrestled as tough as he did.”

Jackson says this will be the first of many bouts between the two heavyweights.

“We have two quality heavyweights right there,” Jackson said. “They’ll battle it out the whole year. The guy that qualifies the weight class will end up wrestling for us.”