HUMBOLDT — No. 3 Iowa State took down No. 15 South Dakota State 29-7 Sunday afternoon. In the highest profile match of the dual, senior No. 2 Rocky Elam beat No. 6 redshirt junior Bennett Berge 5-1.
Humboldt High School, head coach Kevin Dresser’s alma mater, played host to the ranked Big 12 conference matchup. It was a packed house with a rowdy hometown atmosphere.
With the victory, the Cyclones advance to 5-0 while in Humboldt during Dresser’s time with the school.
The unique venue led to moments that you would not usually see inside of Hilton Coliseum, such as the public address announcer taking a moment during a challenge to make a claim for Humboldt’s own legendary professional wrestler, Frank Gotch, to be the best to ever do it.
The highlights of the dual were undoubtedly the three final matches, all for different reasons. Senior No. 12 Isaac Dean beat redshirt junior Brock Fettig in a sudden victory at 184 pounds, before Elam defeated Berge at 197 and No. 1 senior Yonger Bastida ran over No. 24 redshirt junior Luke Rasmussen at heavyweight for a victory via tech fall.
Dean kicked off the stretch with an extremely tight match against Fettig. After getting taken down in the first period, he brought the score back to 3-2 with a pair of escapes.
Dean’s defense was on full display as he countered a takedown attempt with a slick takedown of his own, and the crowd in Humboldt was on its feet. Fettig scored a pair of escapes of his own, and the match was knotted up at 5-5.
As the match neared the end of the third period, Fettig narrowly avoided a potential takedown on the edge of the mat. Dresser felt that it should have scored and threw in the block to challenge the call, but the call stood and the match advanced to sudden victory.
This followed a successful challenge from the SDSU bench to confirm Fettig’s takedown in the first period.
“He [Dean] is a gritty guy,” Dresser said. “I mean, the referee tried to give it to the other guy two or three times and he stayed in there and was persistent.”
In sudden victory, Dean secured a takedown to secure the 8-5 win.
At 197 pounds, Elam and Berge were the most anticipated match of the day. It was Elam’s first match in around a month and his “Rocky”-themed walkout had the crowd fired up.
Elam carried that momentum to a quick takedown. He racked up a ton of riding time over the first and second periods and secured a 5-1 victory. The win marked his fourth of the season over top-10-ranked opponents.
“I think there’s something to build on there,” Dresser said. “I think we’ve got to go out and maybe separate ourselves a little bit more at the end there, but I thought it was a really good start, getting him back in the groove.”
In the final match of the day, with the dual win already wrapped up for the Cyclones, Bastida showed why he’s ranked at the top of the country. He battled through a little bit of adversity at the opening of the match and was taken down for just the second time this season.
He fired back with an escape and a huge slam. He secured four total takedowns in the first period and did not let up with two more in the second.
Up 22-9, he stamped an exclamation mark on the match with a thunderous takedown to secure the 25-9 tech fall victory. Bastida advances to 16-0 on the season.
Apart from the three wins from the big men, senior no. 13 Stevo Poulin continued his hot streak with a 5-2 decision win over no. 21 Brady Roark at 125 pounds. Junior no. 3 Evan Frost won via tech fall at 133 pounds and his brother, junior no. 6 Jacob Frost, won via major decision at 149 pounds.
At 165 pounds, No. 17 junior Connor Euton took down No. 26 Marcus Espinoza-Owens via 11-4 decision and no. 15 junior MJ Gaitan picked up a decision at 174 pounds.
The Cyclones will return to action Friday against Oklahoma in Norman at 7 p.m.
