There was a clear sign Friday night that the Minnesota wrestling team was having a bad night. Its high point in its dual against Iowa State âÄì a forfeit victory for Jayson Ness at 133-pounds. The Cyclones swept the other nine matches and handed the Gophers their worst loss of the year, a 29-6 drubbing just two days before Minnesota closes out its regular season at home against Indiana. The Gophers now find themselves in the midst of a three-meet skid, surely not what they had in mind with the postseason looming. But against Iowa State, there seemed to be nothing they could do. âÄúMinnesota is one of the best programs in the country, we know that,âÄù Cyclones head coach Cael Sanderson said. âÄúAny time you get a chance to compete against them you definitely want to be at your best. We won a lot of close matches; that was the key. The scoreboard doesnâÄôt necessarily reflect the dual.âÄù SandersonâÄôs spin is pretty courteous. The scoreboard reflected the dual quite well. Sophomore heavyweight Ben Berhow was the only Minnesota wrestler to score first in his match; in every other, the Gophers fell into an early hole. Though most matches werenâÄôt blowouts âÄì Iowa State only notched two bonus points âÄì Minnesota always seemed to be on the defensive. âÄúTheyâÄôre a good team, theyâÄôre hard to score points on,âÄù Sanderson said. But when the Gophers failed to score points themselves, it didnâÄôt really matter. MinnesotaâÄôs pair of 7th-ranked wrestlers âÄì redshirt freshman Zach Sanders at 125 and sophomore Mike Thorn at 141 âÄì both suffered close losses early in the dual, which didnâÄôt bode well for the remaining wrestlers. The Cyclones put a ranked wrestler on the mat for every match, and by the time their two top-ranked men, Jake Varner and David Zabriskie, grappled at 197 and 285, respectively, Iowa State had already clinched the dual. Of course, that didnâÄôt stop from adding an exclamation point with VarnerâÄôs 14-4 major decision over Gordon Bierschenk and ZabriskieâÄôs 11-6 victory over Berhow.