The beginning of the CyHawk dual started at 133-pounds. Both teams’ top wrestlers took the mat — No. 4 Earl Hall vs. No. 2 Cory Clark.

Hall got a quick takedown 33 seconds into the match. Cory Clark, last year’s NCAA tournament runner-up at 133-pounds, didn’t get a single takedown the entire match.

Clark beat Hall 9-2.

After the quick first takedown Hall never looked to get another one. Hall chose the bottom to begin the third period, which was tied 2-2. Hall was trying to get the escape and win the match. Clark got a 4-point nearfall and a 2-point nearfall in the third.

This trend of Cyclone wrestlers failing to get their offense off continued throughout the day against No. 2 Iowa.

The Cyclones lost the dual 33-6.

Dante Rodriguez at 141-pounds was one of two Cyclones to win Sunday afternoon. Iowa’s hand fighting definitely slowed the Cyclones down.

“I believe that we are always aggressive, they just brought the hand fight to us,” said Rodriguez. “All week coach told us they were going to bring the hand fight, and we knew that, but we just let them hand fight us and not get our aggression off.”

He said they see guys like Hall and Tanner Weatherman bring the fight to the mat and the rest of the Cyclones follow suit. But tonight, Hall didn’t bring the fight to the mat.

“It’s a little frustrating to see Earl go out and get a takedown in the first period and then not fire off another good shot, he knows that,” said the 165-pound Weatherman. “I think that’ll be changed in the future.”

Even in Rodriguez and Weatherman’s wins, the Cyclones didn’t look overly impressive. Rodriguez is a wrestler known for pinning his opponent and being very aggressive. He had a scoreless first period and only two takedowns in his 6-2 victory.

No. 11 Weatherman beat an unranked Patrick Rhoads 10-9, a match he should have won by more.

“We didn’t bring our best match, we didn’t bring our best effort, and that’s very, very disappointing based on all the time, energy and effort that we put in to preparing for these guys,” said ISU wrestling Kevin Jackson. 

Dane Pestano actually got disqualified for stalling in his dual at 184-pounds. Pestano received five stall warnings in his match, which earned him the disqualification.

He wasn’t the only Cyclone wrestler to get called for stalling. In total, the Cyclones received eight stall warnings and seven stalls that resulted in Iowa points.

The Cyclones knew that Iowa would bring some tough fighting positions and the hand fight, Jackson said. The Cyclones didn’t bring the effort though.

“The stallings were bad, they were really bad,” Jackson said. “I think it comes from effort, I think it comes from hand fight, I think it comes from effort on the bottom.”

It wasn’t all on the wrestlers, though. Jackson was more than willing to place the blame on his shoulders as well.

“I take responsibility. It’s my fault, they’re my team,” Jackson said. “Obviously I’m disappointed in myself. I’m disappointed in the performance for sure.”