Junior Thomas Gilman of Iowa gave a thumbs-up to the more than 11,000 people in attendance at the Carver Hawkeye arena after he pinned redshirt freshman Skyler Petry.
The pin was a sign of things to come, as the Hawkeyes opened the dual with two consecutive pins and went on to dominate the Gophers 34-6.
“We were there in a lot of our matches, but our guys just stopped. They stopped wrestling, and they can’t do that,” head coach J Robinson said.
The Gophers never came close to digging their way out after the two pins quickly put them in a 12-0 hole.
No. 7 Tommy Thorn won the next match against senior Brody Grothus of Iowa at 141 pounds to cut the deficit to 12-3, but Minnesota never drew the dual that close again.
“It was 12-0 [in the dual], and I thought that we had to get the momentum back in our direction,” Thorn said. “I ignored the crowd, ignored everything else. I knew that I was just wrestling the one guy. I had to take care of my match; I didn’t worry about anything else.”
The Hawkeyes won the next five matches in a row to take a commanding 31-3 lead. Thorn briefly picked the Gophers back up, only to see Iowa pin them back down again.
No. 13 Jake Short lost the next match at 149 pounds 6-2 to No. 2 Brandon Sorensen. Then No. 18 Edwin Cooper Jr. and redshirt junior Brandon Kingsley wrestled at 157 pounds. The match went into overtime, but Cooper had a takedown in the extra period to win 4-2.
Redshirt freshman Dylan Urbach lost by major decision afterward, and redshirt sophomore Nick Wanzek just avoided a technical fall in his match to lose by major decision.
Redshirt sophomore Chris Pfarr wasn’t able to avoid a technical fall in his match, getting pinned by redshirt junior Sammy Brooks to make the dual score 31-3.
No. 4 Brett Pfarr stopped the losing streak for the Gophers in the next match, winning at 197 pounds. His match with No. 3 Nathan Burak was tied 4-4 at the beginning of the third period, but Pfarr pulled ahead later to 6-5. Burak failed to take down Pfarr in the final seconds of the match, and Pfarr earned the victory. It was Pfarr’s eighth victory over a ranked opponent this season — a team high.
“Really good match, just didn’t finish right, and I’ll use it as a learning tool,” Pfarr said.
The dual ended with another loss for the Gophers in the heavyweight class to make the final score 34-6. The loss tied Minnesota’s largest margin of defeat this season and snapped a two-dual winning streak.
“We talked to each guy about what they need to do,” Robinson said. “This is the point where the metal hits the road.”
