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Hawkeyes Blank Wildcats

Sports

January 28th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

EVANSTON, Illinois – The third-ranked University of Iowa men’s wrestling team won all 10 matches to blank the Northwestern Wildcats, 46-0, on Sunday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

In a dual that lasted an hour and 23 minutes the Hawkeyes won eight bouts via bonus points, including ending six matches early via technical fall or pin.

Iowa recorded 33 takedowns to Northwestern’s one.

“We are going to Michigan next week,” said head coach Tom Brands. “We have a lot of work to do. We got a lot of bonus points again. We had two falls in this dual meet, we won an overtime match, and we have to keep it rolling.”

At 125 No. 5 ranked Drake Ayala got the Hawkeyes started using 3:22 to win a 19-4 tech. fall over Massey Odiotti.

It was the first of three straight tech. falls for Iowa as Cullan Schriever used 5:09 to win, 24-9, over Patrick Adams at 133 and at 141 Brody Teske won, 17-1, over Kolby McClain in 4:50.

11th ranked Caleb Rathjen ended the streak of tech. falls with a pin over Aiden Vandenbush at 149, winning in 3:46.

Second ranked Jared Franek finished out the first half of the dual with a ranked win defeating No. 19 Trevor Chumbley, 4-1, in sudden victory.

No. 6 Michael Caliendo won the only other ranked matchup of the dual after the 10-minute intermission. He needed 4:59 to win 21-5 over No. 15 Maxx Mayfield. The Geneva, Illinois, native has seven tech. falls on the season.

No. 9 Patrick Kennedy tallied an 11-3 major decision over David Ferante before Aiden Riggins recorded an upset decision at 184 over 24th ranked Troy Fisher, 4-2.

14th ranked Zach Glazier extended his winning streak to 18 and remained undefeated with an 11-2 major decision over Evan Bates.

Ben Kueter ended the dual with a bang needing only 45 seconds to pin Jack Jessen.

“That is what Kueter does best,” said Brands. “He is very calm, very comfortable, in positions that maybe aren’t conventional. Pretty good transition, not just bailing himself out and getting a stalemate when the guy is deep but putting a guy in trouble, and then you have to put the clamps on a guy and end it. He did that, and sometimes that is hard to do. You get the whole enchilada with him.”

“I am pretty good in that position,” said Kueter. “I have strong hips, I guess you could say, so I was comfortable where I was at. I knew that was what I wanted to do. Just like my coaches were saying, take my first scoring opportunity, and that is what I did, finished the match.”

The victory moves Iowa’s dual record to 10-0 and 5-0 in Big Ten Conference action. The Hawkeyes travel to Michigan on Friday at 2 p.m.