After the Virginia Tech loss on Saturday, ISU wrestling coach Kevin Jackson wanted to see aggressiveness and domination from his team.

The wrestlers certainly responded against Midland and Boise State.

Iowa State took on a double-header Thursday and pulled out a 51-0 win against Midland and a 34-3 win against Boise State. Pins from Iowa State wrestlers ruled both matches and questions were answered.

“Everyone came out to dominate and everyone came out to get points,” said senior Earl Hall. “We just wanted to come out and show that we were better than last week, and I’m proud that we showed our level of work.”

The expectation coming into these two matches for the players and coaches was to win both in dominating fashion. The team responded by only losing one match out of 20 throughout both duals.

In the Midland match, Iowa State took advantage of points right away with four straight pins in the 133, 141, 149 and 157-pound weight classes. All four of these pins took place in the first period.

Man it feels good to be a cyclone! https://t.co/UflpZmAjQf

— Breitenbach (@LoganBback) November 13, 2015

The pins continued at 184 and 197 pounds with Dane Pestano winning in the second period and Duke Egli winning in 32 seconds in the first period. These six total pins lead to a pumped up and confident ISU team. 

The Boise State dual had more final decisions through three periods, but one pin came from Dante Rodriguez 28 seconds into the first period.

“We want to be a program that has two guys ready to go,” Jackson said. “Dante’s a monster and he goes out there wanting to pin every opponent. I’m excited to have both [Rodriguez and John Meeks] ready to go.”

The situation between Rodriguez and Meeks was a question that was going to be determined in the double-header. There were a few more questions that needed to be answered from these two duals.

The 125-pound class couldn’t be determined on Nov. 12 because Nathan Boston was dealing with an illness and couldn’t compete, so Kyle Larson wrestled in both duals.

Jackson will be looking at the Harold Nichols Cyclone Open to see if a decision can be made.

The heavyweight class was in question after a poor performance from Quean Smith against Virginia Tech, but he silenced all speculation after his match against Boise State. 

The last and most important question was the status of redshirt junior Gabe Moreno. Jackson was hesitant at first but allowed Moreno to wrestle against Boise State. Moreno responded and pulled out a 4-2 victory against Geordan Martinez.

“I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous coming into today’s match,” Moreno said. “It feels good though after doing a couple positions, and we’ll see if I can participate a little bit in the Cyclone Open.”

Boise State and Midland can’t be compared to Virginia Tech, but Jackson was happy with the wins. The team is looking forward to the Cyclone Open on Nov. 15 but have its eyes down the road against Iowa.

“These two wins can definitely build up the confidence for future matches ahead,” Hall said. “Hopefully this Sunday can have a lot of Cyclone versus Cyclone finals in the end.”