Last night, ISU Wrestlers continued their quest for a National Championship after coming off a blow out of Utah Valley State and a strong showing in the Harold Nichols Tournament.

They faced #12 Wisconsin, which is a pretty solid team as they have some ranked guys in their lineup. Wisconsin came into the dual 3-0, and ISU came

As we know, the coaching staff has been emphasizing more aggression. We struggled with this last year, and I didn't see a ton of consistency with it against  Utah Valley State. I figured I'd give the first meet a little bit of a break, because it was the first dual of the season so some nerves might be there, plus it's a team that was a little hard to get motivated for.

Facing the #12 team in the Nation has to motivate our team more. Right?

Here are the matchups along with the results (ISU wrestler listed first). I wasn't able to watch the dual, so I won't have the greatest commentary but I do have some general observations from what I'm seeing with the results and hearing about the match.

I also will list the individual rankings (Intermat) of each wrestler as well. I think this will give the casual fan an idea of how we're looking and how our opponents look.

Without further ado, here are the results with some commentary:

• 125: Tyler Clark (#11) vs. Drew Hammen (NR)
  • Clark wins by decision 7-1 (ISU 3, UW-Madison 0)
  • Doesn't look like there was a lot of action in this match from the score. Clark was warned for stalling while riding Hammen in the first period.
  • In the 2nd period, Clark was down until he reversed at the very end of the period.
  • Unless there was a lot of shooting and missing, it seemed like they didn't do much on their feet or on the mat.
• 133: Nick Fanthorpe (#5) vs. Tom Kelliher
  • Fanthorpe wins by a major decision 15-7 (ISU 7, UW-Madison 0)
  • There looked to be a good amount of action and it seemed like Fanthorpe was aggresive. From looking at things, it seemed like Kelliher hit the wall in the 2nd period and Fanthrope just did a takedown clinic on Kelliher in the 3rd.
• 141: Nick Gallick (#2) vs. Zach Tanelli (#13)
  • Tanelli wins by decision 7-4 (OT/TB1) (ISU 7, UW-Madison 3)
  • It's hard for me to tell what happened in this match without watching it. 3 cautions by Gallick in TB1 when Tanelli is down, seems inexcusable. Gallick got cautioned in the first dual meet as well.
  • Gallick seems to be in a funk: he only won the wrestleoff by 1 point and he just scraped by Utah Valley State as well. I'm not sure what the deal is. He's a good wrestler, but when I've seen him, he's just seemed tenative; not sure if that was the case in this match too
• 149: Dalton Jensen (NR) vs. Kyle Ruschell (#7)
  • Ruschell wins by major decision 11-3 (ISU 7, UW-Madison 7)
  • I was unable to find why Mueller didn't wrestle last night. If you know, please comment below.
  • It looks like Jensen wrestled hard, that's all you can really ask for. You can't be too upset about a redshirt frosh, wrestling his first collegiate dual, up a weightclass (he's a 141), against an upperclassmen #7 guy on the road.
  • Way to wrestle hard Jensen! I think this guy has a lot of potential
• 157: Cyler Sanderson (#7) vs. Ben Jordan (NR)
  • Sanderson wins by decision 6-1 (ISU 10, UW-Madison 7)
  • Not a ton to say. Hard to tell if Cyler was being aggressive and going for takedowns or not.
  • It was a good win, as we didn't want to go down to these guys.
• 165: Jon Reader (#3) vs. Gabe Stoppelmoor (NR)
  • Reader wins by tech fall in 4:50 (16-1) (ISU 15, UW-Madison 7)
  • Not a ton to say other than Reader looked aggressive as he scored 15 points in the first period!
  • I LOVE to see a highly ranked guy just flat out dominate an unranked opponent like this. Way to go! I'm dissapointed I missed this
• 174: Duke Burk (#9) vs. Travis Rutt (NR)
  • Burk wins by decision 8-4 (ISU 18, UW-Madison 7)
  • Burk, a transfer from Northern Illinois made his Cyclone debut.
  • It was a tough, close match going halfway into the 3rd. Burk broke a 4-4 tie with a takedown with 17 seconds left in the 3rd. He then picked up a couple of backpoints to win 8-4
  • Way to wrestle tough and just attack the opponent at the end. I wish I could've seen this match!
• 184: Jerome Ward (NR) vs. Eric Bugenhan (NR)
  • Ward wins by decision 4-2 (ISU 21, UW-Madison 7)
  • Seems similar to Wards match against Utah Valley State: kind of tenative at the beginning, but doing what it takes at the end to win.
  • ISU clinched the dual right here
• 197: Jake Varner (#1) vs. Dallas Herbst (NR)
  • Varner wins by decision 4-0 (ISU 24, UW-Madison 7)
  • Hard to tell much about this match. Varner got a takedown towards the beginning of the first period and rode Herbst the whole period. Seems like Varner was in control the whole time and really this match was never in doubt.
• HWT: David Zabriskie (#2) vs. Kyle Massey (#3)
  • Zabriskie wins by decision 5-3 (SV) (ISU 27, UW-Madison 7)
  • Being from Minneapolis, I know all about Kyle Massey and his brother Jared. They are somewhat of a legacy, at least to me, because I remember them as really young underclassmen dominating our sections. I was a heavyweight but the Kyle wasn't a heavyweight when he was a freshman in high school (I think he was 171 or 189 or something). Anyhow, It doesn't surprise me how successful Kyle has been, and I knew looking at this on paper that it'd be a tough match.
  • It was tough the whole time. In the third period, the match was tied 3-3 and it went into sudden death. Zabriskie was able to get the takedown with 1 second left to win!
  • What I like about Zabriskie is that he wrestles differently than the bigger heavyweights. So many times, you see these guys not really get that many takedowns, and I think it was cool to see Zabriskie get 2 takedowns against a tough opponent. 
  • This was huge for Big Z, as he continues his quest to get a NCAA championship.
• Final: ISU 27, UW-Madison 7

Final Thoughts: 

It is hard to write a ton about a match from just reading about it. I don't like to miss matches, but I won't really be able to see any that are on the road this year. I still want to put something on here so that those who may have missed out, will at least gain something from this.

I'm excited for tomorrow's dual (November 23rd) against Arizona State at 7pm! The Cyclones will be without Varner, Sanderson, and Gallick as they will be out of town for the NWCA All-Star Classic. I think it will be a good test for some of the other Cyclones. We'll get a look look to see how deep we are.

I hope to see all of you tomorrow night at Hilton to watch the Cyclones dominate the Sun Devils!