CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — In front of a record-setting crowd at McLeod Center Friday night, the third-ranked Iowa State wrestling team notched a 19-12 win over No. 17 Northern Iowa.
The dual victory marked four in a row for Kevin Dresser’s program over the Panthers. This continues Iowa State’s undefeated streak in Big 12 competition notching their seventh straight win.
“Great atmosphere. Great crowd. Great energy,” Dresser said.
Iowa State set itself apart with six total match wins over the Panthers. Highlight performances came from the younger grapplers Zach Redding and MJ Gaitan.
Dresser has documented how hard Redding has been working behind the scenes to be “the guy” at 133 pounds. Redding finally saw the payout defeating No. 11 Kyle Biscoglia with a takedown in sudden victory to put the Cyclones on the board.
“It feels really good to know the work I’ve been putting in paid off tonight,” Redding said. “I knew coming into the dual that it was going to be a close dual and that my match was one of the main swing matches. It felt good to just go out there against a guy who is pretty stingy and hard to score on and just wrestle smart and get that takedown in overtime to get the win.”
In a lineup move that was previous used against Iowa, Dresser felt true freshman MJ Gaitan had a better shot at winning at 174 pounds than usual starter Julien Broderson.
True freshmen are granted the opportunity to wrestle five total times and it won’t burn their redshirt. This marked Gaitan’s fifth bout of the season.
The California native topped Lance Runyon 9-5. After trailing by three, Gaitan threw it all out there notching two takedowns in the final minute of the match. Plus, he surprised Runyon and got him to his back on the edge for four nearfall points.
“He gave us a better chance to win that match,” Dresser said. “That’s two really good wrestlers and that’s a really good match. If you keep throwing him out there, he’ll figure it out. He’s got a lot of composure for a young kid and you can’t teach that. That’s just who he is and how he was brought up.”
Dresser’s focus is now on ending the regular season undefeated in the Big 12.
“I just know we’re in a good spot right now,” Dresser said. “I like this team right now. Obviously, there are really young guys in some spots and then we’ve got some veterans. Truly, to be honest, I’m sure a forward-thinking person and we try to be a real forward-thinking staff that I can’t even tell you what the heck I was thinking last year except I was really excited because we beat UNI 16-15. I don’t remember a lot about where we were team-wise but we went on to beat Missouri the week after to go on and win the conference and go undefeated. We’re going to try to do that again next Wednesday.”
Post-Dual Video
Match-by-Match Results
No. 3 Iowa State 19, No. 14 Northern Iowa 12
125: Kyle Gollhofer (UNI) dec. Ethan Perryman (ISU), 8-6
133: Zach Redding (ISU) dec. Kyle Biscoglia (UNI), 4-2
141: Cael Happel (UNI) dec. Casey Swiderski (ISU), 4-3
149: Paniro Johnson (ISU) vs. Adam Allard (UNI) or Cael Rahnavardi (UNI)
157: Derek Holschlag (UNI) dec. Jason Kraisser (ISU), 4-1
165: David Carr (ISU) maj. dec. Austin Yant (UNI), 20-6
174: MJ Gaitan (ISU) dec. Lance Runyon (UNI), 9-5
184: Parker Keckeisen (UNI) dec. Marcus Coleman (ISU), 7-5
197: Yonger Bastida (ISU) vs. Kalob Runyon (UNI) or Wyatt Voelker (UNI)
285: Sam Schuyler (ISU) vs. Tyrell Gordon (UNI)
