Sunday, January 31, 2010

SHUT. OUT.

I was reunited tonight with the face of the mat, only to see the top-ranked Hawkeyes shut out Michigan State in front of a crowd of over 7,000 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It's not that I've missed a lot of matches so far since the new year, but I hadn't seen one up close since early December.

I found myself in the 24th row against Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago, and I might as well have called that a nose bleed seat as I watched a way too close for comfort dual meet as the Hawks just barely squeaked by a win. If Oklahoma had had another pin on their hands, there may not be a 0 in the "loss" column for the Hawkeyes.

Close matches brought to you by 165-pounder Ryan Morningstar, 133-pounder Daniel Dennis, and 184-pounder Phillip Keddy to mention a few.

Dennis redeemed himself however tonight after upsetting top-ranked Spartan Franklin Gomez, who solemly left the mat after his defeat. With Gomez solo on the ranking list for Michigan State - the rest of the Hawkeyes carried their weight bringing the end of the dual to a 37-0 shut out.

125-pounder Matt McDonough continued his win streak with a pin against Michigan State's Brennan Lyon in the first period.

141-pounder Montell Marion reclaimed his domination after being defeated against Penn State Friday night by winning in a dec. against Michigan State's Dan Osterman, 6-0.

149-pounder Brent Metcalf continued his pin streak by pinning Michigan State's David Cheza, 3:37. Although Metcalf didn't have a knee jacked into his face like he did against Purdue - Cheza's palm was pretty heavy on the top-ranked wrestlers lower face.

157-pounder Aaron Janssen came out to defeat Michigan State's Anthony Jones, 1-0 while 165-pounder Ryan Morningstar brought down MSU's Kyle Bounds, 3-0.

174-pounder Jay Borschel gave the Hawks a maj. dec. after defeating MSU's Ian Hinton, 8-0.

184-pounder Phillip Keddy was looking like himself again tonight - after being defeated against Penn State last Friday and barely squeaking by a win against Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Keddy held his weight against MSU's Nick Palmieri and ended with an 8-1 decision to continue the Hawkeye winning streak.

197-pounder Luke Lofthouse had injured 197-pounder Chad Beatty on the edge of his seat, with crutches lying on the floor next to him. Lofthouse kept his lead and ended the match with a dec. against MSU's Tyler Dickenson, 10-7.

And to end the night for the top-ranked Hawks was no one but Hwt. Dan Erekson who was able to return last week after being out on injury since the start of the season. He ended with a dec. against MSU's Alan O'Donnell, 8-2.

It was no surprise when I looked through the lens to find somewhat of a victory smirk on any of the top-ranked wrestlers...but then I remembered that after being crowned NCAA Champions for the second year in a row - and no smirks trickled out of that - this was nothing to them. Just one more number added to there already undefeated record.