Iowa State wrestling was staring down the worst weekend in its history on Sunday against Oklahoma State.

The Cyclones trailed 28-0 going into the 197-pound bout. Iowa State had never been shutout at home in school history.

Oklahoma State sent out its backup Derek White to wrestle Marcus Harrington. Harrington got the first takedown.

“I saw the score before I walked out and you never want to leave a dual without putting any points up,” Harrington said.

It was the only takedown that was needed to prevent the first home-shutout ever.

Iowa State lost the meet 34-3.

“You’re looking at a shutout,” coach Kevin Jackson said. “I know that’d be history making in itself — that score is probably history making in itself, but you don’t want to get shutout even if it is the No. 1 team in the country.”

Even though the Cyclones prevented the shutout, the 31-point margin is the worst home-loss in school history.

While it was important to prevent the shutout, the win was even more important for Marcus Harrington. He hadn’t won a match in a dual since Iowa on Dec. 10.

“[A win] has been needed for a while, and I’m just excited to get back on that track,” Harrington said.

He hasn’t always wrestled his hardest this season, but on Sunday Harrington put together a seven-minute match.

Despite the horrible team result, individually Iowa State’s wrestlers competed hard, which is something they couldn’t say when they lost to Oklahoma on Friday.

“Our effort and energy was better man for man, we just have to get our offense off better,” Jackson said.

Jackson began his press conference on Friday saying that winning was a habit and losing was a habit, and right now, they’re in a losing habit.

It showed on the mat.

Of the 10 wrestlers Iowa State sent out, only three produced wins — one of which came on a defensive pin when Lelund was getting ridden hard.

The other two that got wins — Earl Hall and backup Carson Powell — didn’t hide how they felt.

“Personally, I think we all have to really look inside ourselves and decide if we really want it or not,” Powell said. “We have to go on that soul-searching journey to find if this is really what we want to do.”

Hall said guys should know by the end of their redshirt year if collegiate wrestling is for them.

“If you’re still here — we’re grown men, everybody is 18 and above, everybody lives by themselves, nobody lives with their parents anymore,” Hall said. “We’re grown men. Everybody has to step up to the challenge. There’s nobody here to hold your hand. The coaches can do all of the extra training, all of the extra work, do x, y and z for you.

“But it’s on us. We wrestle by ourselves. It’s me versus the other guy. That’s all I have to say about that.”

After the Oklahoma match, Jackson said to put all of the blame on him.

“If you haven’t been able to reach your true potential or wrestle the way you want to wrestle, it’s my fault,” Jackson said. “It’s coach Jackson’s fault for not being able to get you to do that. I’ll take it all. Blame it all on me. I’m the reason you can’t execute in some of those positions.”

Hall and Powell didn’t let him off of the hook that easy. They said it’s on the wrestlers for not competing hard and winning matches.

“You can’t put [the blame] on the coach,” Hall said. “We wrestle, we go out there and compete. People can say, ‘[Jackson] doesn’t fire the kids up, he doesn’t train them correctly.’ Come to practice, come watch us work out, come to the individuals. See the things that he does for us.

“When we have to wake up for 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. workouts they are there — they don’t even have to be there, but they are. What are we doing to show them? That’s why I dig deep. Angel [Escobedo] puts in so much time with me I refuse to lose anymore. I can’t take a back seat to anybody.”

Powell said the coaches would do anything the wrestlers asked of them.

“They’d bleed for us, to be honest,” Powell said. “They’d go to hell and back [for us] — and I’d follow them.”

Hall expected a better effort from Iowa State against Oklahoma State.

“Oh we are going to go out there and scrape,” Hall said. “They’re the top-ranked team in the country. We’re going to go out there and scrape, we don’t have anything to lose.”

As a whole, Iowa State did compete harder, but the talent disparity was too much to overcome.

“Better effort but a disappointing result,” Jackson said.