Wrestling: Cyclones continue early season dominance; blank Rider 34-0
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by InterMat
After an opening season win at the Hilton Coliseum, coach Cael Sanderson brought his young Iowa State Cyclones out east for a Friday night dual with Rider at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.
The result was a 34-0 blanking of Gary Taylor’s Broncs as the Cyclones prepare for a quad on Sunday in Binghamton.
Rider, still devoid of several starters until the second semester, put up a much better fight this time around than they did a week ago against Missouri.
Taylor thought his team fought harder, but still failed to come away with an individual win.
“You have to get ready and you have to fight and you have to score last. That part I though we did better tonight,” said Taylor.
Iowa State opened up with a 3-2 win at 125 pounds as Mark Kist made his Cyclone debut a victorious one with a decision over freshman Mitch Fenton.
“Getting that first win feels great, especially to wrestle in an Iowa State singlet,” said Kist. “I wanted to get another takedown towards the end, but I just pushed the pace. This is different from wrestling in a tournament because during a dual there is only one match going on at a time. All of the focus is on you and I like that.”
For the second straight week, Zac Cunliffe found himself wrestling a nationally-ranked opponent. This time it was Nick Fanthorpe and the Iowa State sophomore notched a 12-4 major decision over the former CAA champ.
“We wanted to take at least our best kids and show them what March looks like,” said Rider coach Gary Taylor. “The opportunity to wrestle these teams will help to motivate, not devastate.”
Cunliffe missed all of last season with an injury and he’s still struggling to regain his form.
“The two kids he lost to are obviously very tough kids, but I think as the year progresses, he gets used to competing again, he’ll be pretty good,” said Taylor.
Nick Gallick picked up a 5-0 decision at 141 over Fred Rodgers to push the score to 10-0 before Mitch Mueller topped Don Fisch 3-2 at 149 pounds.
“They split last year and they’re both tough, it’s going to be close matches,” said Taylor. “It’s important that Donnie wrestle the very best kids he can wrestle to get himself ready for this year. And Doug and T.J. and Zac.”
The win was big for Mueller, who sustained an injury that hampered him down the stretch last season when Rider came to Ames.
“Rider is a solid program with solid kids,” said Sanderson. “This just gives us more preparation for our season.”
Cyler Sanderson kept his solid pace at 157 pounds with a 10-5 victory over lanky Rob Morrison which paved the way for redshirt freshman Jon Reader to pick up one of two Iowa State technical falls on the night.
Reader scored a reversal early in the third period to pick up the tech.
Kansas native Chris Pursel, who like Kist was starting for the first time in the Iowa State lineup, beat Joe Ferber 7-3 at 174 pounds.
“Both Kist and Pursel's had a great first match,” said Sanderson. “They did what we told them to and we're proud of them.”
The second of two bouts with a pair of ranked wrestlers also went Iowa State’s way as returning NCAA runner-up Jake Varner built a solid lead on Rider’s Doug Umbehauer and took an 8-4 victory on the bus with him to Binghamton.
David Bertolino moved to 2-0 at 197 pounds with a 5-4 upset victory over 16th-ranked T.J. Morrison.
Bertolino led 3-0 midway through the second before getting taken down, cutting the lead to one going into the third. Morrison took the lead with a reversal in the third and needed to ride Bertolino out to erase the riding time to pick up the win, but Bertolino freed himself from Morrison’s grip to tie the score at 4 with 15 seconds to go. Bertolino got the decisive point in the 5-4 win with 1:15 of riding time.
“It was a close match,” said Bertolino. “I knew that my conditioning was better than his and that he would break before I would. I wanted to push the pace. I knew he was hurting more.”
The win was a turning point for Bertolino, who is wrestling up two weights from last year’s 174-pound class.
”I've been waiting to wrestle someone tough and have the chance to prove myself at this weight,” said Bertolino. “I knew that it was a matter of time before someone tough came along. This is definitely a confidence builder for me.”
David Zabriskie’s New Jersey homecoming was a successful one, as the Branchville native scored a barrage of double legs and sweeps to score a four-point technical fall over Peter Reid at heavyweight. Zabriskie came close to scoring nearfall points on two occasions, but only managed a one-count each time.”
Rider will lick their wounds after facing two ruggedly tough Big 12 schools, but despite winning just one of 20 bouts in the last two weeks, Taylor acknowledges the benefits of wrestling the “big guns” early.
“I think it does two things,” started Taylor. “It does a lot for our program in the sense that recruiting kids, they can see that you’re certainly not running from teams and you’re trying to compete against the best and get your individuals the best competitions and getting them prepared to be an national champion or an All-American.”
“From a community standpoint, part of college coaching and college sports is you want to do things for your community,” said Taylor. “You want to encourage young kids that are just coming out for the sport or young in the sport.”
Concluded Taylor: “If you’re a young kid and you’re just starting, you can walk out to the building and see Cael Sanderson. He’s a pretty good hero/model situation to look at in terms of you’ve watched him on TV win an Olympic gold medal.”
