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IOWA CITY, Iowa – The fourth-ranked University of Iowa wrestling team doubled up No. 16 Lehigh on Saturday, winning seven-of-10 matches to top the Mountain Hawks, 28-14, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Hawkeyes won the dual’s first six bouts, piling up a 25-0 advantage in takedowns and scoring bonus point in five matches.
Spencer Lee opened the scoring with a first-period technical fall. He registered a takedown in the first 10 seconds and added three four-point turns to terminate his 125-pound match, 15-0, in 2:30.
“I’m the first guy, so I feel like it’s my job to get the ball rolling and score as many points to get the team fired up,” Lee said.
Iowa won by major decision in the next three matches. Austin DeSanto scored eight takedowns in a 19-8 win at 133. Max Murin scored four takedowns and added four nearfall points at in a 14-3 win at 141, and Pat Lugo scored eight points in the final minute of the first period en route to a 12-3 win at 149.
DeSanto and Murin both bounced back from losses last week.
“I can harder wrestle harder than that pace,” DeSanto said. “I want to improve my pace every single match.”
Murin said he took a monkey see, monkey do approach to getting back on track. The plan he said, was to wrestle every tick of the clock.
“I don’t have to look very far to see other guys like Marinelli and DeSanto. They do it every match and I knew I had to do the same,” Murin said. “The coaches have been on us all week. We had a bad last week but we can’t do anything now. We have to learn from it, and I feel we’ve done pretty good job at fixing our mistakes and capitalizing.”
Iowa won its fifth match before intermission at 157, where Kaleb Young used a first period takedown and 1:47 of riding time to defeat No. 15 Josh Humphreys, 4-1.
The Hawkeyes went 2-3 after the break. Alex Marinelli played catch and release for six minutes, 28 seconds, in a 20-5 technical fall at 165, and Cash Wilcke scored a takedown 43 seconds into sudden victory to win 6-4 at 184.
“I think they are realizing that how hard they wrestle is most important. Do you want to wrestle like this and leave it up to chance or do you want to slam the door on these guys,” said Iowa head coach Tom Brands.
“The higher pace you wrestle, the better your chances. Those matches when you wrestle that type of pace, it’s over halfway over through the second period. The thing is you have to keep your foot on the gas pedal.”
NOTABLES
- Iowa scored the dual’s first 25 takedowns.
- Lee improved to 5-0 with his fourth technical fall of the season.
- Lugo won for the first time at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
- Moody was making his second career dual appearance.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes compete at the Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
#4 IOWA 28, #16 LEHIGH 14
125 — #1 Spencer Lee (IA) tech. fall Luke Resnick (L), 15-0; 5-0
133 — #12 Austin DeSanto (IA) major dec. Brandon Paetzell (L), 19-8; 9-0
141 — #20 Max Murin (IA) major dec. Ryan Pomrinca (L), 14-3; 13-0
149 — #10 Pat Lugo (IA) major dec. Jimmy Hoffman (L), 12-3; 17-0
157 — #8 Kaleb Young (IA) dec. #15 Josh Humphreys (L), 4-1; 20-0
165 — #4 Alex Marinelli (IA) tech. fall Cole Walter (L), 20-5; 25-0
174 — #6 Jordan Kutler (L) major dec. Jeremiah Moody (IA), 12-3; 25-4
184 — #14 Cash Wilcke (IA) dec. Andrew Price (L), 6-4 SV1; 28-4
197 — #14 Jake Jakobsen (L) pinned Steve Holloway (IA), 1:01; 28-10
285 — #6 Jordan Wood (L) major dec. Aaron Costello (IA), 13-3
Records: Iowa (6-0), Lehigh (0-4)
Attendance: 7,434
