AMES — In front of a crowd of over 7,000 fans, David Carr put on his final performance in an Iowa State singlet at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
In dominant Carr fashion, he gave fans 1:42 seconds of action before the whistle was blown to call him the winner by fall over Jeremy Jakowitsch. A surprising opponent after Carr had prepared all week to face off against rival, Keegan O’Toole, who came down with a sickness that resulted in him not making the trip to Ames.
The crowd went wild and gave the 165-pounder a standing ovation as he raised his hands and blew kisses to the crowd before he kneeled and “signed” the mat as his way to show his time here was done.
Dresser has always referred to himself as the promoter and the wrestlers as entertainers. Their goal is to always put on the best show they can for their attendees.
Carr will go down not only as one of the most entertaining wrestlers of the Dresser era, but in the history of Iowa State’s program. Carr closed his dual career record 67-0.
Carr is so entertaining that in his 67th win, he found a way to incorporate one of Dresser’s signature moves from his collegiate career called the “Dresser Dump” into his match.
“It was super special. It was super emotional,” Carr said when recalling his feelings during the match. “A lot of thanks goes out to the fans who showed up. I don’t know that we’ve ever done a whiteout before but that was sweet. To look around and see how many fans were there and see everyone on their feet, it was super special. I couldn’t of thought of a better way to go out. Especially with the “Dresser Dump” to pay homage to Dresser.”
Hilton Coliseum wasn’t always so entertaining but despite that detail, Dresser recalls the excitement around gaining Carr’s commitment to the program and bringing that excitement back.
“Here’s a guy that was a blue chip guy and was the number two ranked guy in the nation his senior year pound-for-pound everywhere and he picks Iowa State,” Dresser said. “When he picked us we were 45th in the nation. So to have the trust in this staff and the vision we had, meant a lot to not just our staff, but to Cyclone Nation. You know, you never know how good a kid’s gonna be when he gets to college. You can speculate all you want. We knew he was really talented but how would he make that transition? How would he handle the toughness of being a Division I wrestler? He obviously made it (the transition) really, really well. He’s a guy like I said, you know last week, he’s a guy that’s gonna go down as a Cyclone great and that’s pretty cool.”
Carr also recalls when first stepping foot on campus, Hilton wasn’t quite what he knew it could be. Carr leaves with a smile on his face with the environment he competed in and helped bring back to life.
“It’s cool to be able to look back at my career and know that you know, I never lost a single dual and it’s cool to see that when I got here we were ranked maybe like 40-something and now we’re top five in the country,” Carr said. “I remember my first dual here, it definitely was not that packed and not loud. For my last dual, how packed and how loud it was, it was just something special. It’s hard to put into words.”
Carr still has plenty of wrestling left before he truly hangs up the Iowa State singlet for good. He’ll look to wrestle his way to earning a fifth conference championship and have his eyes set on closing out his career with a second national title.
