On the heels of its best National Duals finish in seven years, the Iowa State wrestling team dropped a hard-fought dual meet to No. 1 Oklahoma State by a 24-14 margin Tuesday night.

The crowd on hand at Hilton Coliseum was larger and louder than usual and was able to witness an exciting and competitive match as these two teams met for the second time in four days.

“Our fans are coming back, and they liked what they saw (against Oklahoma State). They see the effort, and we depend on them to help us score points,” said head coach Bobby Douglas.

Zach Thompson was able to give the Cyclones an early lead after winning a 4-2 decision over Josh Cruzan in the 197-pound weight class. Thompson is currently ranked fourth in the country with a 20-3 record, and is coming off of an undefeated performance at the National Duals last weekend.

However, the Cowboys would counter with a fall by heavyweight Dave Anderton at the 1:45 mark. Anderton was able to use his huge size advantage to pin the much smaller Mark Knauer, although Knauer had won their previous meeting 11-7.

Oklahoma State sent top-rated Teague Moore to the mat against Cyclone freshman Jesse West in the 125-pound match. Moore was able to use his veteran experience to record a major decision over West and remain undefeated on the season.

At this point the score was 10-3 in favor of OSU as fourth-ranked Cody Sanderson took on returning national champion Eric Guerrero. Guerrero, the long-time rival of Cyclone great Dwight Hinson, protected his No. 1 ranking by defeating Sanderson 6-0.

At 141 pounds, Charles Walker extended the Cowboys’ lead by recording a 10-2 major decision over junior Benjie Winegarden. With the Cyclones trailing 17-3, Cole Sanderson took to the mat against second-ranked Reggie Wright.

Wright recorded a major decision over Sanderson the last time these two wrestlers met, but the Sandersons’ father, who was also their high school coach, was in attendance and provided Cole with some valuable pointers before the match.

Cole was able to feed off of the crowd’s energy to score a third period reversal and gain riding time as he held on to win a close 5-4 decision.

“(Wright) is a great wrestler and he beat me (at the National Duals), but I was making a few mistakes so my dad worked with me on him,” said Cole. “I went out with a strategy this time and wrestled smart, and I new I could beat him if I did that.”

That narrowed the Cowboy lead to 17-6 heading into the 157-pound match between No. 9 David Maldonado and his nemesis, fifth-ranked Jimmy Arias. Maldonado controlled the tempo throughout the match, but Arias was able to elude Maldonado’s repeated attempts for a takedown.

After Arias scored an escape to even the match at 1-1 in the third period, it appeared the match would be headed to overtime. However Arias was able to come up with a takedown with only three seconds remaining to win the match 3-1.

“He wrestles me really well and stays on the edge of the mat when he gets into trouble so he can get out of bounds. He just waited for me to make a mistake, and then he capitalized on it,” said Maldonado on wrestling Arias.

With the Cyclones trailing 20-6, they needed to the win the rest of their matches if they hoped to come away with an upset. Second-ranked Joe Heskett proceeded to narrow the gap to 20-10 after a 10-1 major decision over Ty Wilcox.

At the 174-pound weight class, Perry Parks was faced with the formidable task of wrestling top-ranked Mark Smith, who is continuing the Smith family legacy at Oklahoma State.

Parks was able to get an early 2-0 lead after taking down Smith, but the seasoned veteran was just too much for Parks as he went on to win a major decision by a 15-6 margin to seal the victory for OSU.

However, the majority of the fans on hand stuck around for the final match of the evening to watch Cyclone sensation Cael Sanderson. The second-rated freshman controlled his match with No. 6 Mark Munoz and very nearly recorded a pin.

Sanderson moved his unblemished record to 23-0 as he won a 10-2 major decision to make the final score 24-14 in favor of Oklahoma State.

Despite the loss, ISU wrestlers and coaches were pleased with their team’s effort.

“If you would have told me that we would be ranked fourth in the country and doing as well as we are doing, I would have never believed it,” said Douglas.

Iowa State will now prepare for a Big 12 showdown with Oklahoma on Saturday. The Cyclones defeated the Sooners 19-17 last weekend in a tough and exciting dual meet.

“We’re going to wrestle them with everything we’ve got,” said Douglas, “Oklahoma is a very good team; although we beat them in Iowa City, it will be a great battle.”

One of the key matchups will be between Heskett (21-0) and fourth-ranked Rodney Jones, whom Heskett upset 6-3 in their last meeting.

“Our team is doing extremely well, and right now during the season we’re showing a lot of heart,” said Heskett, “Oklahoma is a great team, but we’re ready for it and I’m always ready for a great battle.”

An even larger crowd is expected to be on hand when the Cyclones take on Oklahoma at 1 p.m. this Saturday in Hilton Coliseum.