The Iowa State wrestling squad broke in a brand-new mat this weekend at the 3rd Annual Harold Nichols Cyclone Open.

The cardinal mat with the new logo in the center took a beating as over 100 wrestlers competed during the tournament, but Cyclones as a whole fared far better.

Iowa State claimed four individual champions, and returning national champ Chris Bono walked away with the Outstanding Wrestler award. Plus, four Cyclones won runner-up status.

Several final matches pitted Cyclone against Cyclone. At 134 pounds, for example, returning All-American Dwight Hinson went up against true freshman Luis Blanco.

Both wrestlers had trouble with stalling, and both were awarded points for his opponent’s violation of that rule. For the first two periods, the match remained close, but Hinson eventually pulled away in the last period with an escape and a takedown. Hinson finally finished with the 11-6 decision.

Blanco said that he was not disappointed in the loss. “[Hinson’s] awesome,” Blanco said. “I gotta take what I can get. … He’s second in the nation, and I’m a freshman. I’ve gotta work up to that level.”

Another Cyclone-on-Cyclone war was waged at 167 pounds when Bart Horton went up against freshman Ben Perkins. Horton evaded an early takedown, but throughout the match, the wrestlers traded the lead.

But several aggressive offensive moves by Horton in the second and third periods earned him the 12-7 win.

The last all-Iowa-State final match involved freshman Zach Thompson and Sirrell Gissendanner. While there were no points awarded in the first period, Gissendanner did receive a warning for stalling, which came back to haunt him in the form of points for Thompson in the next period.

A late takedown in the last couple of minutes cemented Thompson’s victory by a score of 3-2.

Thompson said that going head-to-head with Gissendanner was completely familiar. “I wrestle him a couple of times a week, so he knows what I do, and I know what he does,” Thompson said. “I knew it would be a tough match, but I never had a doubt in my mind of winning. You’ve gotta be confident.

“But I figured since I’m a freshman, I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Thompson also said that he doesn’t mind redshirting this year as a freshman. He can still compete in tournaments as an unattached wrestler, which he said he will continue to do in order to gain experience. “That way,” he said, “I can come out strong next year.”

Returning champion Chris Bono didn’t have to wrestle a teammate at 150 pounds. Instead, he went up against Bart Murphy of the University of Pennsylvania. Again, there was no scoring in the first period, but Bono wore Murphy down to the point where the Cyclone scored a reversal and a takedown in the next period.

Murphy’s stalling also added twice to Bono’s point total, as did Bono’s continual takedown of his opponent. Murphy scored only escape points, which handed the 14-7 victory and Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament honors to Bono.

Heavyweight Trent Hynek had a tougher time with his opponent, Joe Allen from Penn. A scoreless first period led into the second, in which Hynek was called for fleeing the mat. Three escapes and a takedown in the final minutes were not enough for Hynek to pull out a win. He fell, 6-5, to Allen.

Head Wrestling Coach Bobby Douglas said he was pleased with his squad’s performance, despite a few flaws. “Overall, we wrestled very well,” he said. “Inexperience showed, but in general, I think we’re on track.

“There was a lot of stalling,” he added. “We’ve got some work to do.”

Douglas was especially proud of the performance of his freshmen, even those who are redshirting and not competing for their first years.

“The freshmen did real well,” he said. “We’ve gotta work on the mat now and get them so they can go on the mat … They’re coming on.”