Iowa State dropped a 31-7 loss to Northern Iowa marking their worse loss to Northern Iowa in over a decade. The worst loss Iowa State had suffered previously was a 24-13 effort during the 2013-14 season.

Iowa State was without No. 18 141-pounder Ian Parker and lost several close matches to the Panthers.

Parker had a knee scope last Thursday and had been wrestling at full-go during practice for two days, but the Iowa State coaching staff decided to withhold Parker with the expectation he should be ready to go next weekend.

“There were seven weight classes up for grabs today and we didn’t get after them hard enough,” said coach Kevin Dresser.

Aside from the missing Parker, Dresser felt the only mismatches during the dual against Iowa State were 125-pounds and 174-pounds. At 125, Sinjin Briggs was pinned in under a minute by No. 20 Jay Schwarm for the Panthers. Iowa State 174-pounder Danny Bush then fell to No. 7 Taylor Lujan 17-6.

In the only ranked matchup of the night, No. 19 Jarrett Degen faced Northern Iowa’s Max Thomsen, who is ranked No. 7 at 149-pounds.

During the first period, Thomsen was able to earn a takedown against Degen, who escaped to leave the score at 2-1 after one period. A low scoring second period only saw Thomsen secure an escape after choosing the bottom position.

In the third period, Degen began on bottom where he escaped. Thomsen was then able to get deep into his shots on Degen’s long legs and secured two more takedowns. Degen escaped from both and riding time was added to Degen’s score, but Thomsen was able to defend late shot attempts from Degen to win 7-5.

After the dual, Dresser reflected that Degen needs to work on his shot defense and avoid letting other wrestlers into Degen’s legs.

“Thomsen’s a good guy, so you give up a deep shot on him, he’s going to finish,” Dresser said, “You can roll around with 50, 60 percent of the nation, but you can’t roll around with the top 25 percent of the nation.”

In a rematch at 197-pounds, Sam Colbray from Iowa State faced No. 19 Jacob Holschlag from Northern Iowa.

Earlier this season, Holschlag defeated Colbray 9-2 at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

Yesterday, Colbray did not wrestle versus Fresno State because of sickness. Instead, Iowa State rolled out fellow 197-pounder Joe Teague, who was subsequently pinned.

According to Dresser, Colbray had an inconsistent week of practice due to being sick, but Dresser believes that is no excuse to not bring consistency to the room.

“He’s made some strides, but he has to challenge himself to make that next stride,” Dresser said.

Today against Northern Iowa, both Colbray and Teague were listed as probable starters, but Colbray was good to go.

The first period of the match was scoreless. Beginning the second period on bottom, Colbray was nearly turned numerous times for back points by Holschlag.

Instead of yielding the points, Colbray was able to fight off Holschlag’s attempts. Then in the third, Holschlag began the period on bottom where he was able to earn an escape to make the score 1-0 and the two battled in the neutral position.

With just seconds left in the third period, Colbray was able to get onto one of Holshlag’s legs on the edge of the circle. Holschlag defended it well and was able to create distance so that Colbray couldn’t pull in his leg for a takedown.

Colbray’s grip slid down to Holschlag’s ankle as the Panther pulled away and the referee called out of bounds with a mere two seconds left on the clock essentially clinching the match for Northern Iowa.

With riding time added, Holschlag notched his second win over Colbray with score of 2-0.