ST. CHARLES, Missouri – The University of Iowa wrestling team won a pair of duals on Friday night at Francis Howell High School at the Journeymen ‘Unvicil War’. The Hawkeyes defeated Princeton, 39-3, before defeating Army, 23-16, in the nightcap.
The second win was head coach Tom Brand’s 300th career dual victory.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Brands. “This team has a lot of work to do. It’s a characteristic of a good coach to be looking ahead not behind.”
The Hawkeyes won 15 of the 20 bouts in the two duals and secured bonus points in 11 matches.
In the opening dual of the night the Hawkeyes won nine bouts over Princeton. Including six straight via bonus points.
Iowa started the run of technical fall victories with Kyle Parco at 149 as he defeated Christopher Martino, 17-2. Miguel Estrada made his dual debut defeating Cody Tavoso, 21-6, at 157. At 165, Michael Caliendo won 19-3 over Hudson Hightower and Nelson Brands won 20-4 over Xavier Giles at 174.
Stephen Buchanan also tallied a technical fall at 197 over No. 18 Luke Stout, 18-3.
Iowa got major decisions from Drake Ayala over Daniel Jones, 13-2, at 133 and Gabe Arnold at 184 over 27th ranked Michael Squires, 19-6.
“It’s good to get out there,” said Ayala. “Everything wasn’t perfect, but it is early December so a long way to March. Have a lot of work to do.”
Iowa also won a decision at 125 with Joey Cruz defeating No. 30 Ethan Rivera, 6-1. Ben Kueter closed out the dual with an 8-2 decision over No. 33 Sebastian Garibaldi.