The Cyclones return to Hilton Coliseum after over a month on the road saw the team continue their early season success. Despite the blizzard, Iowa State stayed hot, dominating Utah Valley 44-3 en route to its second conference win.
Two Cyclones face ranked opponents
Friday night’s dual saw only two matchups between ranked opponents, with the Cyclones walking away with a split in those meetings.
At 184 pounds, Iowa State’s Will Feldkamp (No. 9) defeated Utah Valley’s Jacob Armstrong (No. 28) 19-4, securing five points for the Cyclones in the tech-fall victory.
Feldkamp turned what would have been a major decision victory into a tech fall with a five-point move as time was expiring to claim an extra point for the team total.
In the second ranked match of the night, Iowa State’s Julien Broderson (No. 27) took on Utah Valley’s Evan Bockman (No. 22) at 197 pounds.
With the match tied 1-1 with 10 seconds left, Bockman was able to go on a 5-0 run as time expired, taking the 6-1 victory and securing Utah Valley’s lone win of the dual.
Back-to-back falls at 165 and 174
The Cyclones’ dominant night saw plenty of bonus-point victories, two of which came in the form of pins in consecutive matches.
At 165 pounds, Iowa State’s David Carr made quick work of Utah Valley’s Jaxon Garoutte. After securing three quick takedowns, the No. 4 165-pounder was able to pin Garoutte with 30 seconds left on the clock in the first period.
At 174 pounds, Iowa State’s MJ Gaitan followed up Carr’s performance quite well. Though he did not end the match in the first period, Gaitan put away Utah Valley’s Caleb Uhlenhopp 47 seconds into the second period, securing the six points for the Cyclones.
Cyclone dominance continues
It’s hard to imagine that Iowa State head coach Kevin Dresser could have envisioned a better start to his team’s season.
Through 10 duals, the Cyclones are 9-1, with their lone loss coming to No. 3 Iowa, and in that loss the Cyclones had some heart-breaking finishes and questionable officiating decisions go against them, and could easily be sitting with an undefeated record.
Despite that dual, the Cyclones seemingly have not had to break a sweat.
In the Cyclones’ nine dual victories, they have outscored their opponents by an average of 29.7 points. They have not just been running through sub-par competition either, with four of those wins coming against ranked opponents.
Their dual record combined with their victory at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, which was stacked with some of the nation’s top teams, has the Cyclones out to one of their best starts in recent history, finding themselves at No. 4 in the latest rankings.
It is safe to say that the Cyclones are firing on all cylinders as they enter the bulk of the conference season.
The Cyclones were scheduled to be back in action Sunday with a rematch against No. 13 Pittsburgh, but due to winter weather conditions, the Panthers were unable to make the trip to Ames.
Instead, the Cyclones will return to competition with a trip to Oklahoma, where they will face Oklahoma on Jan. 26 and No. 5 Oklahoma State on Jan. 27.
