“We should have done well today,” said Hawkeye Head Coach Tom Brands. “We’d like to widen the gap. I like seeing guys go out and do what they do well. That’s how they need to perform.”
Iowa jumped to an early 6-0 lead when sophomore Grant Gramball opened the meet with a 10-3 victory at 184 and senior Luke Lofthouse followed with a 6-4 win at 197. Junior Blake Rasing kept rolling for the Hawkeyes with a major decision at heavyweight before sophomore Matt McDonough put the crowd of 8,976 on their feet with a second period fall. McDonough, the NCAA defending champion at 125, earned his sixth fall of the season to tie Mark Ballweg for the team lead and give Iowa a 16-0 lead.
Redshirt freshman Tony Ramos scored a 5-2 decision over 15th-ranked Ian Paddock to improve his collegiate dual record to 6-0. Ramos’ victory gave Iowa a 19-0 edge heading into the intermission.
Iowa’s Ballweg brothers collected Iowa’s sixth and seventh straight victories of the match with a pair of major decisions at 141 and 149. Mark Ballweg recorded four takedowns and used a point for riding time to pick up his 10-2 win. Matt Ballweg finished with five takedowns and recorded over three minutes of riding time to earn his first major decision of the season, 12-3.
“That was a big win for Matt Ballweg,” said Brands. “He’s a senior and he stepped up tonight. I thought he got crisper as the match went on. Sometimes he gets sloppy, but today he cleaned it up. He’s a senior and it’s important that he finishes strong.”
The Hawkeyes picked up a pair of decisions in two of the three final matches, including Derek St. John’s 9-3 win at 157 and Ethen Lofthouse’s 3-1 decision at 174. Lofthouse entered the third period with a 1-0 advantage before OSU’s 13th-ranked Nick Heflin scored an escape with 1:37 left to tie the match, 1-1. Lofthouse then scored a takedown with :17 seconds remaining to secure the victory.
Ohio State’s lone win came at 165 in the sudden victory period. Senior Aaron Janssen scored a third period escape stretch his lead to 3-1 before the Buckeyes’ ninth-ranked Colt Sponseller scored a late takedown to force overtime. Sponseller then recorded a takedown in the extra frame for the 5-3 win.
Iowa also sent 14 competitors to the Pat “Flash” Flanagan Open in Dubuque, IA, Saturday, crowning five individual champions. Winning titles, while competing unattached were junior Montell Marion (141) and true freshmen Jake Ballweg (149), Nick Moore (165), Mike Evans (174) and Bobby Telford (Hwt.). Also placing were redshirt freshmen Nick Trizzino (141-2nd), Joe DuCharme (165-4th) and Tomas Lira (184-184-2nd), true freshmen Matt Gurule (125-2nd), Michael Kelly (165-2nd) and Walt Gillmor (165-3rd), and junior Ethan Sebert (149-6th). Gurule, Kelly and Gillmor were competing unattached.
Up next for the eighth-ranked Hawkeyes is their first Big Ten road trip of the 2010-11 season. Iowa will face No. 19 Northwestern (14-1, 1-1 Big Ten) Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena. They will then move on to No. 2 Penn State (12-0, 1-0 Big Ten) for a Jan. 30 dual at 1 p.m. (CT) at Rec Hall. The Iowa vs. Northwestern dual will be streamed live on bigtennetwork.com, while the Iowa vs. Penn State dual will air on the Big Ten Network Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. (CT).
Results:
184 - Grant Gambrall (I) dec. C.J. Magrum (OSU), 10-3 *
197 - Luke Lofthouse (I) dec. Peter Capone (OSU), 6-4
Hwt. - Blake Rasing (I) maj. dec. Zach Stolarsky (OSU), 12-1
125 - Matt McDonough (I) pinned Bo Touris (OSU), 4:37
133 - Tony Ramos (I) dec. Ian Paddock (OSU), 5-2
141 - Mark Ballweg (I) maj. dec. Randy Languis (OSU), 10-2
149 - Matt Ballweg (I) maj. dec. Mike Fee (OSU), 12-3
157 - Derek St. John (I) dec. Sean Nemec (OSU), 9-3
165 - Colt Sponseller (OSU) dec. Aaron Janssen (I), 5-3 SV
174 - Ethen Lofthouse (I) dec. Nick Heflin (OSU), 3-1
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