Iowa State’s 197-pounder, Yonger Bastida racked up over two minutes of riding time in his 20-5 tech fall win over CSU-Bakersfield’s Josh Loomer on Wednesday.
In a normal match, that isn’t unheard of. But for an athlete who has only been learning folkstyle since the moment he arrived in Ames in Nov. 2020, it shows major signs of improvement.
Bastida’s level of talent has never failed to shine in his matches. He is currently on an eight-match win streak. But, his journey to learn a completely new wrestling style has revealed some flaws when on the mat, specifically when he is challenged to wrestle his way out from the bottom
In this match, however, Bastida showed a level of dominance that hadn’t been seen yet.
“The growth and progression just keeps on coming,” head coach Kevin Dresser. “I think you see a guy that’s getting more comfortable on the bottom and get more comfortable riding. I think he went into two and a half minutes or something of ride in time. He’s got a really tough dude at Wyoming. So he’s gonna get tested. He’s got maybe the most brutal schedule the next month.”
Here are some of Bastida’s upcoming match ups:
No. 3 – Stephen Buchanan (Wyoming)
No. 22 – Evan Bockman (Utah Valley)
No. 11 – Jake Woodley (Oklahoma)
No. 32 – Owen Pentz (North Dakota State)
No. 1 – AJ Ferrari (Oklahoma State)
No. 6 – Rocky Elam (Missouri)
Coach Dresser holds high expectations of Bastida as he heads into a tough couple of weeks and hopes to see him continue to clean up his technique.
“You know, he’s such a sponge. He wants to learn it all, you know?” Dresser said. “He tried to turk and got reversed. So we do all these holes and practice these techniques. He wants to try to learn all of them and execute all of them. So you got to love his attitude.”
FINAL RESULTS – Iowa State 44, CSU Bakersfield 0
125 – #24 Kysen Terukina (ISU) dec. Eddie Flores (CSUB), 8-2
133 – Ramazan Attasauov (ISU) wins by forfeit
141 – #11 Ian Parker (ISU) dec. #28 Angelo Martinoni (CSUB), 6-2
149 – #23 Jarrett Degen (ISU) tech. fall Josh Brown (CSUB), 20-5
157 – #1 David Carr (ISU) pinned Brock Rogers (CSUB) (4:21)
165 – Austin Kraisser (ISU) dec. Augustine Garcia (CSUB), 8-5
174 – Julien Broderson (ISU) dec. Albert Urias (CSUB), 4-1
184 – #9 Marcus Coleman (ISU) pinned Jacob Hansen (CSUB) (3:28)
197 – #13 Yonger Bastida (ISU) tech. fall Josh Loomer (CSUB), 20-5 (7:00)
HWT – #29 Sam Schuyler (ISU) Maj. Dec. Jacob Sieder (CSUB), 14-6
Extra Matches
141 – Louie Ramos (CSUB) dec. Charlie Klepps (ISU), 4-1
HWT – Francis Duggan (ISU) pinned Jake Andrews (CSUB) (6:04)
