Wrestling takes down Iowa State at Williams Arena

On a night in which three athletic events took place within 30 yards of each other on the University of Minnesota campus, the Gophers wrestling team took care of Iowa State 34-6 at Williams Arena.

“I think overall we’re starting to go forward and do what we want to do,” head coach J Robinson said. “But it’s the same thing — we have to be more aggressive, we have to move our hands and we have to be more dominant when we’re wrestling.

“The guys are starting to get the idea but we’re not there yet and we have got to keep that aggressive pressure on them all the time.”

The dual was held at Williams because of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament being held at Sports Pavilion. The Gophers’ hockey team was also in action across the street at Mariucci Arena.

ISU forfeited the 125-pound match that was supposed to feature No. 10 Ryak Finch and newly first ranked Zach Sanders and gave the Gophers an early 6-0 lead.

Minnesota did not look back from there.

The Gophers won the next four matches before the intermission break.

David Thorn (141) and Dylan Ness (149) both recorded major-decision wins for Minnesota.

“I wanted to come out and wrestle like I should have been, because I haven’t been doing too well in my opinion that last couple weeks,” Ness said. “The plan was to stay at him the whole time and keep the pressure on him and score as many points as I can.”

Alec Ortiz (157) had a huge night for the Gophers, recording a pin with 16 seconds left in the first period.

“I don’t remember [the match] too well because there was a lot of adrenaline and what not,” Ortiz said of his match. “I just saw the body lock and I’m really comfortable with my upper-body so the second time I got to it I just decided to commit and it worked out pretty well.”

Ortiz replaced Jake Deitchler in the Gophers lineup.

ISU won the next two matches after the intermission in entertaining fashion. The 165- and 174-pound weights were the only weights in which the Cyclones had higher ranked wrestlers than the Gophers.

The Cyclones’ Andrew Sorenson (165) defeated Minnesota’s Cody Yohn after the two were tied at three after one. Both wrestlers rolled around the mat with each other numerous times.

Chris Spangler (174) won the final match of the night for ISU against the Gophers’ Logan Storley 5-3.

Storley wrestled in his first dual for the Gophers this season after sitting out the past couple weeks with a sprained ankle.

“[Storley] wanted to get a match in, we wanted him to get a match in before the Southern Scuffle,” Robinson said. “It was a good thing to see where he is and it’s a good thing for him to understand what he’s got to do here the next three weeks getting ready for the Southern Scuffle.”

It looked like Storley had recorded a takedown in the third period when Spangler was up 3-2; however, it was not called by the referee. The non-call brought head assistant coach Brandon Eggum to the edge of the mat, where he argued with the referee.

Robinson said his team needs to work on winning close matches.

“We need to score more points, we need to find ways to win those one-point matches,” Robinson said. “At [165] and [174], we’ve got to win those, and in order to do that we have to attempt more shots and go after them more.”

Minnesota won the last three matches of the dual. Kevin Steinhaus (184), Sonny Yohn (197) and Tony Nelson (Heavyweight) all recorded wins for the Gophers. Steinhaus and Sonny Yohn had major-decision wins.