Bonus points set Iowa State apart in 19-15 win over No. 3 Arizona State

Jan 8: David Carr defeats Tony Negron 17-2. Photo by Jacqueline Cordova / Cyclone Fanatic

Iowa State and Arizona State split five match wins each but bonus points determined who the better team was at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones defeated the Sun Devils 19-15.

Kevin Dresser has preached the importance of wanting to see his team consistently earn bonus point wins. This weekend, he had several wrestlers step up and get the job done to secure back-to-back team victories.

David Carr specifically continues to be a force for his team in this area.

The 165 pounder got Hilton Coliseum on their feet with a 17-2 technical fall win in 5:35. If it wasn’t for that 5-point win, Arizona State could have easily been in the hunt to swing the dual their way.

As soon as he stepped off the mat, Carr did a victory lap high fiving all of the hands of the fans surrounding the mat as they cheered him on.

“Durbo (Ben Durbin) said it would be cool if I went and gave people high fives after the match just to get fans pumped up,” Carr said. “They pay good money to sit that close. Plus, to get fired up for the next guy coming out and (Julien) Broderson delivered. He looked great.”

Broderson has stepped up big this weekend in this area as well. He had a 22 second pin against Wyomig and notched a 17-5 win against Arizona State. A major decision that set the Cyclones apart that included a dominant five minutes of riding time.

Another wrestler familiar with bonus points is Yonger Bastida. In his 197 match, the Cuban native won 23-11. A match where Bastida had his guy have to take injury time because he was on the verge of puking.

“It’s nice to get a win. Ending that way isn’t exactly how we wanted but I hope in the long run the lessons learned there will be very valuable. Maybe we can look back a the first week of January with these guys when we get to the end of the season. Our upper weight guys did a good job,” Dresser said.

Unfortunately, the highly touted freshmen, Casey Swiderski and Paniro Johnson, found themselves dealing with “growing pains” as Dresser calls them as they found themselves losing their matches in overtime.

“I don’t want to say I told you so but I said we were going to see some freshmen stuff and well, we saw freshmen stuff today,” Dresser said. “They’re growing pains but they’re just right there. I think everyone can see that they’re just right there.”

Currently, the Cyclones are ranked No. 4 but come the start of the new week they will most likely find themselves ranked No. 3 which will be their highest ranking since 2009-10 season.

“This was an ugly “W”,” Dresser said. “Our gas tank is getting better which is what I wanted to do. I see a lot of progress but it’s just one of those where we have a lot of things we can go fix. Which is also kind of nice as a coach.”

For Carr, he is enjoying the tougher schedule and hopes the team can walk out of the win over Arizona State knowing that the best is yet to come.

“Greater later,” Carr said. “It’s good to beat a good team like this. We’ve wrestled a tough schedule — It’s early on. I want to see the best version of Iowa State in March.”

Regardless of how they won it, this marks Iowa State’s third win over a top-three opponent in the last 14 seasons. A pivotal win for the program.