This is a guest post by Nick Isburgh (@nisburgh).
1. Klimara wrestled a great match against McDonough. He didn’t accept a defeat and attacked McDonough the entire match. To hold the #1 wrestler in the nation to a minor decision was in and of itself, a win for the Cowboys. Wow, as only a freshman, if he continues to grow at the current pace, he’s going to win some big matches in the near future.
2. Morrison and Feikert just did not seem to be the aggressors in their matches. Feikert does not look like the same wrestler we all saw at the beginning of the season and Morrison should really trust his leg attacks more against higher competition…they are great!
3. Well, Oliver did manage to match McDonough, although it was only a decision, the fact that he was able to turn the feeling of the match was important. And Dieringer just looked like the spotlight was too big on him in this match. Expect Dieringer to build up some more confidence the rest of the season and compete a little bit more against higher ranked wrestlers later in this season.
4. We really did need bonus points from either Caldwell or Perry in this match to put some pressure on the Hawkeyes. Granted, both opponents were ranked, getting bonus points would have certainly put an insurmountable pressure on the upper weights to perform.
5. Wow! What a win from Chionuma! That was huge for the dual and huge for his confidence! Look for Chionuma to look a little different for the rest of the year on his way to an All-American season!
6. Another huge win in his first match back against a very worthy opponent in Burak. Look for a solid rest of the season by Rosholt, on his way to his own All-American status.
7. Something a lot of people didn’t know, if Iowa had won the final dual and Telford had scored first against Gelogaev, Oklahoma State would have lost according to criteria in a tie-breaker for a dual match. Each team would have had 5 wrestlers to score first (Criteria #6), therefore, the match would have come down to criteria #7: Greater number of points for near-falls. Iowa would have won with St. John’s near-fall of Dieringer in the 157 match. So for Gelogaev to score on a takedown in the first period was HUGE for the Cowboys!
8. Gelogaev did a great job coming back after a major decision loss to Telford last season with a game plan. To not tie-up with Telford even after the absurd clubbing and attempts to get Gelogaev to tie-up was the game plan and it worked in the important win for the Cowboys.
9. The crowd (5,537) did a great job today. It was one of the best crowds that GIA has seen in a long time for a wrestling match! Our fans always have a pretty good feel for the dual, and I feel that the only difference that could have been in this dual was a bonus-point victory for Oliver could have powered up the crowd and given Dieringer a better chance against St. John.
10. To wrestle 10 matches and not have a single bonus-point victory shows just how tough both teams are. Even with 4 (!) of the weight classes featuring the #1 wrestler in the nation! Great victory for the Cowboys, they certainly look as if they have the ability to compete with the Nittany Lions for the National Championship this season!
Bout Results
125: No. 1 Matt McDonough (Iowa) dec. Eddie Klimara (OSU); 10-4
133: No. 2 Tony Ramos (Iowa) dec. No. 5 Jon Morrison (OSU); 3-2
141: No. 10 Mark Ballweg (Iowa) dec. Julian Feikert (OSU); 8-3
149: No. 1 Jordan Oliver (OSU) dec. Michael Kelly (Iowa); 10-4
157: No. 1 Derek St. John (Iowa) dec. No. 9 Alex Dieringer (OSU); 8-4
165: No. 3 Tyler Caldwell (OSU) dec. No. 18 Nick Moore (Iowa); 3-2
174: No. 1 Chris Perry (OSU) dec. No. 4 Mike Evans (Iowa); 4-3
184: No. 15 Chris Chionuma (OSU) dec. No. 10 Ethen Lofthouse (Iowa); 3-2
197: Blake Rosholt (OSU) dec. Nathan Burak (Iowa); 3-2
285: No. 3 Alan Gelogaev (OSU) dec. No. 7 Bobby Telford (Iowa); 7-3
Cowboys win 18-12!
Go Pokes!
This guy is good. Need more from him on the blog. Only thing I’m skeptical on, is being able to contend with Penn St., but stranger things have happened. Also, would love to see Caldwell be on the offensive more. A la chewy. Great post!
Yeah but the thing is that while Penn State may have the overall edge head to head matchups may change that outlook come NCAA if OSU gets a few breaks. Really all it could take is one minor upset and things get very interesting. Good win Pokes.
Thanks for covering this Nick! I agree completely with you on Klimara. He probably disagrees but avoiding bonus points for the Hawkeyes was a victory for OSU.
I’d love to see more wrestling coverage. I’d enjoy a post about how we compare to Penn State in the National Championship format.
Can’t wait for the NCAA Championship to come to OKC next season
Problem with the Penn State match-up is that with the Alton twins in the line-up, you are almost playing with fire. However, OSU has 8 (?) strong weights with the chances of All-American status, whereas Penn State only has 7 (?) but more weights that are stronger. Trust me, it really will be closer than everyone thinks! I would love do to a blog on how we match-up! Maybe a pre-NCAA tournament blog…get with me and lets get a team together to create a detailed outlook on the NCAA’s!
I love the detailed wrestling coverage.
For those of us far away this is great. I get pac 12 wrestling. Miss the good old Oklahoma State Teams.
It was Chionuma that won this match for OSU. Big Upset. Great Job Chris. What’s up with the reserved seating. I thought all wrestling was GA except for the Black Seats and ones behind the scorers tables. We got run off twice by people with reserved seats.
Any coverage on OSU wrestling is appreciated. My response to a couple of Nick’s thoughts (using his numbering).
4. Most followers of each program would have wagered heavily that there would not be bonus points at either ’67 (Caldwell) or ’74 (Perry). Caldwell’s style is not conducive to scoring bonus points and Perry was wrestling a highly ranked wrestler.
8. Nick you have it backwards – Z beat, and I think majored, Telford last year. Z was favored and if he continues to stay healthy and get in better condition, Z will be favored to win a NC this year.
Thank you for correcting me on that Z major decision last year! I completely messed that up! haha. Brain fart…but on both the Caldwell and Perry match-ups, I completely agree that neither would have been slated to earn bonus points!
However, you always have to expect bonus points somewhere in a dual…10 minor decisions is very rare. I expected Chris Perry’s style to be very contradicting to Evans’s style, and for Evans to make a mistake giving Perry the edge…plus I guarantee you if you were to ask Chris, he would highly agree he expects to get bonus points.
With respect to Caldwell, he is really missing something from two years ago, he really isn’t attacking on his feet like you would expect someone who spent a year training for the Olympics, and you just have to see it coming soon…he needs one big breakout match where he combines both his neutral and mat wrestling into one match and really opens up and scores on someone.
Tweet at me (@nisburgh) so we can discuss this stuff for this week’s match-up against West Virginia! I like everyone’s insight and I’m very alone on this wrestling stuff! As you all know, not many people understand wrestling, and as much as I feel like I do know, I obviously don’t know everything!
Thank you for your support and you are definitely welcomed to give your 8 cents to my blogs! I love getting feedback, good or bad, because as a blogger (and sports management major) you WANT to know what fans and readers are thinking, and what they see!