Defending champion Iowa dominates 35-6

Defending champions do not rebuild.

They reload, which the IU wrestlers found out the hard way against Iowa.

In their most lopsided defeat of the season, the Hoosiers fell 35-6 to the three-time defending champion Hawkeyes on Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.

Against an Iowa lineup featuring seven ranked grapplers, IU managed only two wins, and all but three of its losses were by major decision.

In the first Hoosier victory, 149-pound senior Kurt Kinser racked up an entire period of riding time in the second period, then escaped at the beginning of the third, leading to a 2-0 win with riding time against Iowa’s Matt Ballweg.

At heavyweight, graduate student Ricky Alcala continued his recent successes with snatch singles, taking a 6-1 lead in the first period before holding on to win 6-5 against Blake Rasing.

For the first time in a dual meet this season, junior Matt Powless did not get his hand raised. In just his third defeat of the year, Powless, ranked fifth in the latest Intermat rankings, lost to 12th-ranked Luke Lofthouse, 10-5. His record now stands at 30-3 on the year.

The Hawkeyes took a commanding lead early with pins by defending national champion Matt McDonough against IU redshirt freshman Justin Brooks at 125 pounds and Tony Ramos against IU junior Matt Ortega at 133 pounds.

Throughout the meet, Iowa recorded 32 takedowns to five for IU.