In the world of collegiate wrestling, bonus points can be hard to come by, but that wasn’t the case at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 11. 

The ISU wrestling team downed Penn by a score of 41-3, winning seven matches with bonus points, including three by way of fall and one technical fall. 

“We can’t give up bonus points and when we get a chance to get bonus points, we have to go get them and so they’re going to be huge on both sides for both teams,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson.

Kyven Gadson began the bonus point spree at 197 pounds, notching a major decision before heavyweight Quean Smith came out and scored another major decision for the Cyclones. Freshman Dante Rodriguez picked up a pin in the first period of his match and seniors Luke Goettl and Michael Moreno followed suit thereafter, adding two more six-point victories to an already lopsided dual. 

For Moreno, it was the first time he’s seen competition, since placing third at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas open in December 2014. The 165-pound All-American sat out the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1-2. If Moreno was experiencing any discomfort or lag in his first match back in over a month, it certainly didn’t show. 

Moreno tallied seven points before scoring the pin in the second period. While taking time off is never something he enjoys, Moreno said the break needed to happen, despite some goals he had set for himself. 

“I’ve been excited to get back and the break was something that needed to happen. I just needed to get my body right,” Moreno said. “Being a competitor, I don’t like taking time off like that. Sitting out a big tournament like the [Southern] Scuffle, especially after last year’s Scuffle, where I had a terrible tournament, I was really looking forward to getting back to that.”

The only damper on the Cyclones’ near perfect outing came at 174 pounds, as Tanner Weatherman was unable to score a takedown in a close 3-2 decision.

“He got dinged a little bit in the Scuffle, but I still think that he had a chance to probably win that match, if we had a couple better scoring opportunities,” Jackson said. “I know he’s really disappointed in that performance, but he’ll come back stronger, healthier and we’ll look for him to resume who he really is on the mat.”

The Cyclones return to the mat at 2 p.m. on Jan. 18 at Hilton Coliseum against Virginia Tech as part of the “Beauty and the Beast” event, in which both ISU wrestling and gymnastics teams compete at the same time.