Iowa State Cyclones Yonger Bastida celebrates after winning over Missouri Tigers’ Zach Elam during their 285-pound wrestling in the Big-12-conference showdown at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Ames, Iowa
AMES — He pinned his first Big 12 tournament foe in 30 seconds. The next one? That stick took longer — 2:17. So, after Iowa State standout heavyweight Yonger Bastida won his first two matches by fall en route to his first Big 12 tournament title a week in a half ago, a question naturally arose: When did the high-energy Cuban transplant become a pinner?
“I don’t know,” Bastida said smiling as he spoke before the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which begin Thursday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. “The team (needed) some points. They (needed) some pins, so I just (went) out there (and said), ‘I will try to do my best every time.’”
Mission accomplished. Bastida scored bonus points in three of his four wins at the Big 12s, helping the Cyclones win the team title for the first time since 2009. Now he sets his sights on the national tournament, where he’s ISU’s highest seed (No. 2) and poised to make a big run for the first time since attaining All-American honors at 197 in 2022.
And to say Bastida (24-0) is confident would qualify as a gross understatement.
“They have to try to survive,” he said of his competitors. “Every time they wrestle me, they have to try to survive, because I am ready. I will be ready, every time, to go.”
That level of preparedness and precision is what ISU head coach Kevin Dresser will demand of each of his nine NCAA qualifiers and he’s convinced they can all deliver points to help the Cyclones potentially notch a top-three finish for the first time since 2010.
“I think we’ve got a good team,” Dresser said. “We’re gonna need some breaks to get up there to the top and we’re going there to get to the top.”
Especially fourth-seeded 165-pounder David Carr, who has one last shot to climb the podium at nationals. The 2021 national champion and four-time All-American’s seed may be lower than usual after he suffered an 8-2 loss to two-time defending champ Keegan O’Toole of Missouri in the Big 12 title bout, but his discipline and deep resolve make him a threat to win the whole thing for a second time.
“Just this being the last tournament gives me a lot of fuel,” said Carr, who is 115-5 in his college career. “With O’Toole, (it was) a lot of little adjustments, a lot of little things. (I was) really close to a takedown, really close to some different things, so, for me, working on those things this past week and working on the little things, I think, will make a big difference.”
Dresser said Carr’s mindset hasn’t changed. If anything, that sub-optimal seeding may drive him even more as he wrestles his last time in a Cyclone singlet.
“It’s always (been) a little bit easier for him as his career’s went on to be the hunter instead of the hunted,” Dresser said. “So he might get to be the hunter for one more time in his career and he doesn’t get to do that much. I think he’s pretty excited about that.”
No doubt. And so is Bastida, who secured his first Big 12 crown by springing a stunning six-point move on Air Force’s Wyatt Hendrickson after he’d been forced to hop around on the mat with one leg in the air.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Bastida, who noted he’s been good on one leg ever since he started wrestling as a 10-year-old in Cuba. “I know what I can do. So I just did it.”
