Photo courtesy of Iowa State athletics communications.
Saturday night’s 31-7 loss to UNI wasn’t an easy one for Iowa State to stomach, but it was important when it comes to measuring progress and looking to the future.
The immediate future involves only one remaining dual – a big one against the University of Iowa next Sunday.
Losing is never easy, but how you lose truly does matter in a rebuilding year.
Against UNI, it all came down to close matches
Of the nine matchups, five (149, 157, 184, 197 and 285) came down to last second points.
These close matchups tell us two things:
1 – The Cyclones are putting in effort that we weren’t seeing at the beginning of the season.
2 – The Cyclones are still making small mistakes that are costing them matches.
“Good teams expose you and we were exposed,” said Dresser following the loss.
The team who took the mat against Northern Iowa might have lost, but fought until the final second of the third period.
Of course there are mistakes that can be picked apart in watching film. The Cyclones could have won some of those close matches and it always comes down to small mistakes and staying out of bad, avoidable situations.
“When you wrestle a good team, they bring a certain level of intensity,” said Dresser. “When they raise it, you have to raise it and we didn’t.”
Still, there is a feeling around Iowa State wrestling that something is clicking and as Cyclone fans are used to hearing, you have to trust the process.
Having these guys show the fight they did on Saturday will hopefully show up Monday morning in the room to fix the little things.
“When things get hard you find out where guys are at,” said Dresser.
Effort finds results
Sophomore Markus Simmons and junior Skyler St. John were the only Cyclones to get a win against the Panthers, and they were much deserved.
Simmons dominated his match and showed what the work with assistant coach Derek St. John is doing for him on the mat.
Simmons didn’t allow a single point in his bout. He stayed consistent and showed a lot of energy from the moment it started until the end. There were no shortcuts taken from Simmons, having won in a 14-0 major decision.
St. John has had a tough year but this result should give him momentum.
St. John came on the mat facing off against Dan Kelly and won by a 7-4 decision in perhaps his best performance of the season.
Following the dual Coach Dresser expressed his pride in Skyler St. John working hard all week to get to UNI and come out a winner.
