HUMBOLDT — In the high school gym of the Humboldt Wildcats, alma mater of Kevin Dresser, it was difficult to find an empty seat in the house as Iowa State and Grand View faced off for the first time since 2013.
The Cyclones stunned the Vikings in a 40-0 shutout win.
Iowa State notched its 18th consecutive dual win, the fourth-longest streak in school history. Which led to the Cyclones snapping Grand View’s 116 dual-win streak, the longest ever at any level of collegiate wrestling, which began in 2013.
“You know, as your program evolves and you get better, you have to learn how to wrestle as a favorite and sometimes a strong favorite,” Dresser said. “Grand View has everything to gain and nothing to lose in a situation like this. So, we have to figure out how to wrestle with a huge target on our backs. I told all 10 guys, you guys are all favored to win so now you have to go out and figure out how to do it when somebody really wants to win and take you out.”
All 10 wrestlers secured solid wins with five of them being bonus point wins.
“I knew Grandview would wrestle hard. Especially the first five weights, I was really impressed with how hard they wrestled us and I knew they’d wrestle as hard. Coach Mitchell does a great job. And you know, I think the fans got a lot out of it. There were some great scrambles.”
A match like 149 pounds had almost every patron on their feet. Freshman Casey Swiderski racked up five takedowns in just the third period to bring Iowa State its first bonus point win of the afternoon.
At 157 pounds, Jason Kraisser and Giovanny Bonilla had some impressive scrambles that ultimately led Kraisser to get the reversal and land Bonilla on his back for the fall.
Then you look at veteran wrestlers David Carr, Marcus Coleman and Yonger Bastida who racked up a combined 53 points.
Dresser, however, is still focused on how the team can continue to improve and grow as a program.
“There were some close matches. We have to get better at wrestling, you know. We make too many technical mistakes. We’ve got some guys in here that wrestle pretty hard,” Dresser said. “But man, we have got to get better at wrestling in the next week or two and continue to get better. That’s my takeaway and I’m gonna let them know that.”
Iowa State 40, Grand View 0
125: Kysen Terukina (ISU) dec. Esco Walker (GV), 5-2
133: Ramazan Attasauov (ISU) dec. Carson Taylor (GV), 7-3
141: Casey Swiderski (ISU) dec. Shea Ruffridge (GV), 14-8
149: Paniro Johnson (ISU) dec. Blake Gonzalez (GV), 3-1 SV-1
157: Jason Kraisser (ISU) WBF Giovanny Bonilla (GV), 5:59
165: David Carr (ISU) TF Marty Margolis (GV), 17-1 (4:41)
174: Julien Broderson (ISU) dec. Isaiah Luellen (GV), 4-2
184: Marcus Coleman (ISU) maj. dec. Ben Lee (GV), 15-6
197: Yonger Bastida (ISU) maj. dec. Garavous Kouekabakilaho (GV), 21-8
285: Sam Schuyler (ISU) over Greg Hagan (GV) (Inj. Def.)
