The Cyclones continue in action Sunday against 13th-ranked Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. at home in Hilton Coliseum.
"We lost some matches we didn't need to lose," Iowa State head coach Cael Sanderson said. "Some guys were out there fighting. I was happy with how Cyler (Sanderson) went out and wrestled. Reader also put the heat on his guy. We weren't 100 percent coming in but a dog on the hunt doesn't scratch its fleas."
ISU's Sanderson was close to scoring a technical fall in his match. The returning All-American was up 17-5 and scored a late third-period takedown to run the score to 19-5. Following through on his own move, the Cyclone dumped the Sooners' 16th-ranked Shane Vernon to his back to score nearfall points. Sanderson didn't stop there. The Cyclone stuck the Oklahoma wrestler in 6:41 to rack up six team points towards to ISU effort.
Following the thunderous applause given at the conclusion of the 157-pound bout, ISU's Jon Reader came out firing. The sophomore Cyclone held a 7-0 advantage heading into the second period against OU's Ryan Smith due to two nearfalls. Reader tallied two third-period takedowns to bring his match total to three and scored the major decision, 16-2.
Redshirt freshman Jerome Ward continued his first Cyclone season with a victory at 184 pounds against Oklahoma's Pat Flynn. Ward sealed the deal in the third period with a takedown at 0:24 and added a riding-time advantage to score the decision, 5-2.
"That was a good match for Jerome," Sanderson said. "The guy he beat is rated nationally and this will give him confidence heading into Sunday."
At 197 pounds, Varner did not disappoint. With ISU holding on to a slim 16-15 team score lead, the No. 1 wrestler at 197 pounds major decisioned OU's Eric Lapotsky, 16-5. Varner recorded seven takedowns over the match.
In the final match of the night, the heavyweights went all out. Cyclone David Zabriskie needed quadruple-overtime to edge Nathan Fernandez of Oklahoma. ISU's heavyweight won 4-2 in the second sudden-victory period off a takedown at 0:14 mark. Zabriskie improves to 22-2 on his junior campaign.
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