Photo Courtesy of Jacqueline Cordova/CycloneFanatic
The Cyclones went Panther hunting at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday afternoon, as head coach Kevin Dresser likes to call it when Iowa State faces off against Northern Iowa.
Iowa State took care of business and took down Northern Iowa 27-14.
One of the bright spots of the day came at 141 pounds.
No. 9 Anthony Echemendia was set to take on No. 6 Cael Happel. A rematch from December when they faced off at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas. A match that left a sour taste in Echemendia’s mouth after losing 9-3.
This time, Echemendia came out confident and prepared to flip the results in his favor.
“I was looking forward to this match,” Echemendia said. “You know, I just felt the energy and the crowd, every time I get the opportunity to compete here in Hilton it’s great. I just went out there and I wanted to perform and give it everything I had in front of these people who come and support (us).”
Echemendia and Happel went back and forth swapping takedowns and escapes in the first two periods. This set them up to enter the third period tied 6-6 with Hilton Coliseum on the edge of their seats. Echemendia got his revenge and shot for a takedown with 18 seconds left on the clock. He took down Happel 9-6.
The confidence came on full display when Echemendia took Happel to his back in an explosive throw.
“You know, I’ve been in those positions before and I haven’t been confident enough to do that,” Echemendia said when recalling the takedown that landed Happel on his head. “I’m just like, every time I get there, I gotta start putting that thought in my head, that that’s just what we do.”
“He works hard. It’s really important to him,” Dresser said when discussing Echemendia’s match. “He’s a disciple of what it takes to win at this level. He’s had to make adjustments and you know, he wrestled Happel back in early December and didn’t like the result. You know, we sat him out last weekend he was you know a little bit banged up and maybe more a little bit mentally banged up. So I sat him out just because I wanted to get a little fresher mentally.”
Echemendia wasn’t the only one who stepped on the mat with confidence. Of their seven wins, the Cyclones won five with bonus points. Evan Frost, Casey Swiderski, David Carr and Yonger Bastida all won by technical fall. Bastida secured the technical fall before the first period even ended.
Dresser is feeling positive about his team, despite losing three matches they anticipated winning.
“I’m preaching to the team right now to be very greedy,” Dresser said. “We shouldn’t have lost the three matches that we lost. Obviously at 184, we knew we were outmatched. But, you know, we shouldn’t have lost 125, we shouldn’t have lost 157 and we shouldn’t have lost at 197. We had our opportunities in all three of those matches and didn’t capitalize. The good side of it is, you know, we can learn from it. Hopefully, along with being greedy, you have to be hungry.”
The biggest takeaway from the team right now? They are closer than ever. So close, they all died their hair a yellow-blonde color that they picked out in the cheap hair dye aisle at the store, according to Swiderski.
“I think it’s good right now. They cheer for each other, they pull for each other,” Dresser said. “You got Cuba and Michigan, and you know, you got all these guys from all over that really got a common goal right now. They really want to win the Big 12 and they want to get to the NCAA tournament and compete for a top spot. We talk about it all the time.”
The Cyclones have one last dual meet standing in their way of March and it’s going to be a heated Big 12 matchup when the No. 7 Missouri Tigers make their way to Ames for the first time since rejoining the Big 12 Conference.
