Iowa State wrestling sent 12 wrestlers to Akron, Ohio to compete at the U23 World Team Trials from June 1-3.

None of the 12 Cyclones won their weight classes, but a few athletes made deep runs in the tournament. The upper-weight matches also featured some Cy-Hawk matches.

Leading the charge for Iowa State wrestlers was newcomer Alex Mackall. Mackall wrestled at 57-kg (about 125-pounds).

Mackall jumped out to a hot start, winning his first three matches via technical falls. In his fourth match, Mackall faced adversity.

Mackall led 4-1 late in the second period over Lehigh’s Brandon Paetzell. With seven seconds left, Paetzell scored four points to tip the score to 5-4 and snag the victory.

In the consolation bracket, Mackall tacked on another technical fall before losing by technical fall to Stanford’s Gabriel Townsell. To end Mackall’s weekend he won by forfeit to place seventh.

While Mackall found success at 57-kg, Sinjin Briggs struggled at 61-kg (about 134-pounds). Briggs lost to Gardner-Webb University’s Brandon Bright and Northern Colorado’s Sean Cannon by a score of 10-0 in each match.

Ryan Leisure wrestled at 65-kg (about 143-pounds). Leisure ended his weekend with a 12-2 loss to Oklahoma State’s Kaden Gfeller.

Leisure started strong before running into Gfeller, rattling off four straight wins. Leisure also lost to Ohio State’s Luke Pletcher, 11-0.  Leisure began the weekend with a 6-5 win over Drew Fairbanks.

NCAA qualifier Jarrett Degen competed at 70-kg (about 154-pounds). Degen ended his weekend with an 11-0 loss to Isaiah Hokit of Fresno State.

Degen also lost to Hayden Hidlay, but he knocked off Wilfredo Gil and Mason Wohltman.

Iowa State had a trio of wrestlers at 74-kg (about 163-pounds): Tanner Lundgren, Skyler St. John and Chase Straw. 

Lundgren went 0-2 on the weekend, Straw finished 2-2 and St. John totaled a 6-2 record.

At 79-kg (about 174-pounds), Ames native Hank Swalla tallied a 3-2 record. Swalla’s three wins came via Jose Acosta, Jacob Connors and Jordan Bernal.

His two losses were to Buffalo’s Jake Lanning, 9-4, and Purdue’s Tanner Webster, 10-0.

Also at 79-kg, DeMichael Franklin lost to Caleb Stockmaster and David McFadden, but Franklin picked up one win on the weekend with an 11-6 win over Central Michigan’s Sage Castillo.

Sam Colbray started strong in the 86-kg (about 190-pounds), winning three straight and outscoring his opponents 24-0.

In his fourth match, Colbray fell 7-6 to Pittsburgh’s Nino Bonaccorsi. Next, Colbray recovered, defeating Nino Bastianelli, 7-0.

Colbray edged out North Carolina’s Devin Kane, 12-9. To end the weekend, Colbray got his chance to wrestle Iowa’s Cash Wilke after some controversy in the Cy-Hawk dual.

Wilke knocked off Colbray, 7-4.

Danny Bush also wrestled at 86-kg. Bush beat Toledo’s Dominic Vasquez, 4-0, to start the weekend. Purdue’s Jared Florell and Iowa’s Mitch Bowman both beat Bush by technical fall.

At 97-kg (about 202-pounds), Kaden Sauer opened his weekend with wins over Michigan State’s Shwan Shadaia and Minnesota’s Wyatt Richardson. Nebraska’s Eric Schultz and Northern Illinois’ William Feldkamp handed Sauer a pair of losses, ending Sauer’s weekend.