CEDAR FALLS – In a duel where almost every match went down to the wire, No. 14 Iowa State found itself on the wrong end of too many close matches and suffered a 26-10 loss to No. 4 Northern Iowa Sunday.
The dual started off perfectly for the visiting Cyclones. Instead of starting at 125, the dual started at 133, which meant that Iowa State’s top-ranked wrestler, No. 4 Evan Frost, took the mat first.
Frost was matched up with Northern Iowa’s No. 17 Julian Farber. The match started off slow with the score knotted at zero after the first period, but Frost upped the intensity for the rest of the match.
Frost would go on to defeat Farber 8-0 in a major decision, giving Iowa State its only bonus points of the dual.
From that point on, almost every match was close and competitive, but unfortunately for Iowa State, most of them went in favor of Northern Iowa.
In the next match at 141, Evan Frost’s twin brother, No. 11 Jacob Frost, took the mat to face off against Northern Iowa’s No. 4 Cael Happel.
After a 0-0 first period, Frost found himself down 6-3 after Happel secured two takedowns in the second period, but Frost didn’t go down without a fight.
The sophomore secured a takedown in the third period to tie the match at six, keeping his upset hopes alive. But Happel immediately countered.
Happel got a very quick escape and takedown to reclaim the lead at 10-6, eventually defeating Frost 10-7.
“With Happel, he was just savvy there,” Iowa State head coach Kevin Dresser said. “We scored and boom, right away he turns around and scores right on us, so I think the savviness and maturity of Happel won that match.”
Following that match was one that was even more competitive and intense at 149.
Iowa State’s No. 6 Paniro Johnson took on Northern Iowa’s No. 15 Colin Realbuto. It was apparent that if the Cyclones wanted to pull off the upset, this was a match that they would need to have gone their way, and for a while, it looked like it would.
Johnson started off hot, taking a 3-1 lead after the first period. Johnson kept his foot on the gas until midway through the third period when things seemed to change.
After extending his lead to 7-4, Johnson started to falter. Realbuto was the one pushing the pace and Johnson couldn’t keep up.
Johnson was called for two stalling penalties, which resulted in a tie of seven, and the match went to overtime.
Within seconds, Johnson allowed Realbuto to take him down, losing the match 10-7 and handing Iowa State its second crushing defeat in a row.
“Once I gave up that second takedown, emotions started going down, but you gotta bring those back up and mesh,” Realbuto said.
“The moment got to him and he’s got to figure that out,” Dresser said. “He’s still a sophomore, but sometimes I don’t know if he’s gonna figure that out.”
In the following match at 157 lbs, Iowa State’s No. 11 Cody Chittum took on Northern Iowa’s No. 5 Ryder Downey.
Due to Johnson’s loss, the pressure on Chittum to pull off the upset grew. Iowa State needed to make up the points it lost, and Chittum came through.
The match didn’t feature a single takedown until the third period. With the match tied at one, Chittum was able to take down Downey to take the 4-1 lead and he eventually went on to win 4-2.
“Good for Cody Chittum, beating that guy,” Dresser said. “If you’re not well conditioned, you’re gonna have a tough time with Cody Chittum.”
That result gave Iowa State the lead and momentum going into the next match, but very little went its way for the remainder of the dual.
The Cyclones would go on to lose four straight matches. Three were by five points or less and the other came via a pin from Northern Iowa’s No. 2 Parker Keckeisen.
With the score at 20-7 and the dual already decided in the Panthers’ favor, Iowa State freshman Daniel Herrera secured a 3-1 victory at 285, and the Panthers’ Kyle Gollhofer defeated Iowa State’s Osmany Diversent via a pin at 125, to make the final score 26-10.
The final score doesn’t look very close, but this dual was decided in large part by a few coin-flip matches going the wrong way for the Cyclones.
