The Iowa Hawkeyes came out and took control for the entire meet today at the Iowa City Duals. No mercy was shown as the Hawks defeated Baker College 55-0, Iowa Central 49-3, and Cornell College 55-0.
The domination that was present can be expressed in any number of ways as far as the statistics go: the hawkeyes had 19 falls and another 6 technical falls in 30 matches, half of Iowa’s matches ended with a pin in the 1st period, and the hawkeyes even had a win by injury default due to sophomore Sammy Brooks taking down Baker’s Bryant Guillen a little too viciously (Brooks is currently ranked 10th in NCAA Division I).
The attitude that the Hawkeyes came into the meet with was quite clear afterwards in the locker room. 184 pounder Sammy Brooks was frustrated with only getting to win by injury default saying, “The utimate goal is to dominate your oponnent the best way possible and that’s to get a fall.” Senior heavyweight Telford echoed the mentality of the team saying “I think that’s what’s good about this program. There’s a lot of pissed off kids that are all getting together for a common goal.”
The Hawks mentality may have been solid, but the line up is still being teetered with. Sophomore Topher Carton (normally a 141 pounder) competed at 149 this morning in the stead of Brody Grothus, Brandon Sorenson, and Edwin Cooper who were all sent to compete for the spot at tomorrow’s Joe Parisi Open in St. Charles, MO.
Another weight class with some questions was 197 where retuning NCAA place-winner Nathan Burak was absent. Fellow junior Kris Klapprodt filled in for him and went 2-1 for the day only losing by a 6-11 decision to Iowa Central’s Pat Downey. The status of Nathan Burak is still uncertain at the moment.
The Iowa Hawkeyes look to continue their strong showing in next Saturday’s Corn Cy-Hawk Classic next Saturday against Iowa State at home in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
