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Sunday afternoon, one of the most anticipated duals of the year takes place as Iowa will travel to Ames to take on Iowa State. Yesterday, we released our preview and predictions for the action that takes place. With Iowa slightly down and Iowa State looking very solid, this dual represents the Cyclones best chance to earn a victory in almost 20 years. The last time that Iowa State was able to defeat their in-state rival was December 5th, 2004, when they prevailed 19-16 in Iowa’s fabled Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It’s been a long time since December 5th, 2004. Just how long? Below, we have some fun facts about how different the collegiate wrestling landscape was the last time Iowa State defeated the Hawkeyes. - Head Coaches at the time were Bobby Douglas (Iowa State) and Jim Zalesky (Iowa) - Stars for Iowa State in the dual win include Grant Nakamura (125 lbs) who won by fall, Nate Gallick (141 lbs) who beat Alex Tsirtsis in tiebreakers, Trent Paulson (165) who won a shootout over Joe Johnston, Nick Passolano (174 lbs) who also won a wild one over Luke Lofthouse, and Trevor Smith (197 lbs) who won via major decision. - The December 2004 win for Iowa State is their only victory in Carver-Hawkeye Arena which was built in 1983. - A few weeks after the dual, Iowa finished in second place at the Midlands, Iowa State was third and Illinois took the title with 130.5 points. - A couple months after this dual, Iowa lost to Northwestern for the first time since 1968. That dual saw Adam Fellers get the start for Iowa at 197 lbs. - Iowa would go on to outplace Iowa State at the 2005 NCAA Championships. Iowa was seventh with 66 points (0 champs/4 All-Americans), while Iowa State was tenth with 57 points (0 champs/3 All-Americans). - Earlier in 2004, Oklahoma State won the second of their four straight national titles. They outdistanced second-place Iowa by 41.5 points. - Tom Brands was in his first year as head coach at Virginia Tech. Iowa and Virginia Tech met in a dual and the Hawkeyes won with a 38-0 shutout. It was one of only four losses on the year for Brands at Virginia Tech. - One of Brands’ assistant coaches at Virginia Tech was Doug Schwab. - Kevin Dresser just coached Christiansburg High School to its third consecutive Virginia AA state championship - Terry Brands was in the midst of his third and final season as Head Coach at Chattanooga. Later that season, he’d have two All-Americans Michael Keefe and Jon Sioredas (current Cal Poly head coach). - Iowa assistant coach Ryan Morningstar and Iowa State assistant coach Brent Metcalf just started their senior year of high school wrestling. - A few months before this dual, Iowa State assistant coach Cael Sanderson won an Olympic gold medal in Athens, Greece. Cael’s men’s freestyle Olympic teammates were Stephan Abas, Eric Guerrero, Jamill Kelly, Joe Williams, Daniel Cormier, and Kerry McCoy. - Speaking of Cael; Only he and Pat Smith had won four DI national titles at this time. Three others (Dake/2013, Stieber/2015, and Diakomihalis/2023) have followed. Diakomihalis was five at the time of Iowa State’s last victory. - Iowa State national runner-up Cody Sanderson was the head coach at Utah Valley, which was known as Utah Valley State. - At this time, Iowa State was in the midst of inking the top recruiting class for 2005. That included #4 Cyler Sanderson, #5 Mitch Mueller, #10 Jake Varner, #13 Nick Gallick, David Zabriskie, and Nick Fanthorpe. - The top recruit from the class that just hit campus was Illinois’ Mike Poeta, while Dustin Schlatter (OH/Minnesota) would hold that title for 2005. - Penn State had finished 12th at the 2004 tournament (46.5 points - 0 champs/2 AA’s) and did not crack the top 20 in 2005. - The most recent Hodge Trophy winner was Montana State-Northern’s Emmett Wilson. - The 2004 national tournament featured wrestlers from Boise State, Boston, Cal-State Fullerton, Duquesne, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, Oregon, Slippery Rock, UC Davis, and UNC Greensboro. All these teams have since dropped wrestling. Fresno State has dropped wrestling twice during this span. Additionally, Millersville had four wrestlers at the 2004 tournament. They have since made the decision to compete at the DII level. - At this time American, Kent State, Missouri, South Dakota State, and UC Davis had not crowned a DI national champion. - The only current DI head coaches that have been with their current school since this time are: Jim Andrassy (Kent State), Tom Borrelli (Central Michigan), Joel Greenlee (Ohio), Mark Manning (Nebraska), Brian Smith (Missouri), John Smith (Oklahoma State), and Jay Weiss (Harvard). - Currently, there are seven DI wrestling conferences. For the 2004 NCAA Tournament, there were 11. Ones that no longer exist include the CAA, East Region, EWL, and the West Region.