By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
The ovation for Barry Davis was more than casual applause Saturday night before the former Iowa star-turned Wisconsin coach led the Badgers to something they hadn’t done in 42 years.
Davis became a fan favorite for the Hawkeyes by wearing out opponents and dominating the final period on his way to three NCAA titles from 1982-85, and the heartfelt reception from the 6,225 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena showed they clearly haven’t forgotten the imprint he left on Iowa wrestling.
“I got a little emotional, “Davis said. “I have a lot of good memories of this place, and for those people to remember me after all these years, that’s very special, and I appreciate that very much. It’s nice to have the support still, and it’s nice to be remembered like that.”
Saturday night, however, will be remembered as the night the ninth-ranked Badgers brought Iowa’s longest winning streak to an end.
Wisconsin (16-1) won six of 10 matches, and just like Davis used to do, the Badgers controlled the third period for much of the night in a 21-14 dual victory against the No. 5 Hawkeyes.
Iowa (11-3) had won 32 straight in the series and hadn’t lost to Wisconsin since 1965.
“You can congratulate Barry Davis and Wisconsin and give them credit, and I will give them credit, but it doesn’t do Iowa Hawkeye wrestling any good to congratulate them, “Iowa coach Tom Brands said. “We need to worry about ourselves.”
The issue troubling the Hawkeyes most Saturday night was their third-period breakdowns.
Iowa scored the first takedown in each of the first three matches and held the lead at the midway point in each bout. But the Hawkeyes claimed only one victory in those bouts, and Brands didn’t like the way that match ended.
“Call it what you want, “Brands said. “Call it shape. Call it holding onto a lead. Call it protecting yourself. Call it a lot of things. But the bottom line is, we’ve got to get over the (thinking) that we’re good enough to just show up and wrestle two-thirds of a match or five-sevenths of a match.”
Iowa sophomore Charlie Falck held on for a 12-9 victory against Collin Cudd at 125 pounds, giving up two takedowns in the final minute after building a 10-4 lead.
If the dual didn’t start shifting in Wisconsin’s favor late in the first match, it did at 133. Iowa senior Mario Galanakis led 3-0 in the third period and had more than two minutes of riding time, but Zach Tanelli locked up a cradle for a takedown and a three-point near-fall to seize control of the match on his way to a 7-5 win.
“We’re up 3-0 with riding time and we’re trying to win 4-0 instead of building your lead — hanging on, “Brands said. “What happens when you’re hanging on, that margin that was slim in your favor, it’s over. Now it’s in their favor because they beat us on hustle.”
Tanelli’s victory started a string of four straight wins for the Badgers on their way to a 12-3 lead. No. 20 Kyle Ruschell scored a takedown with 10 seconds remaining in the second period and held off sixth-ranked Alex Tsirtsis for a 6-4 win at 141.
“We wrestled pretty much complete matches, “Davis said. “We wrestled hard all the way through. We wrestled hard on the edge and didn’t give up anything like that.”
Iowa gave itself a chance for a comeback by getting a technical fall win from Mark Perry Jr. at 165 and a victory from Eric Luedke at 174. Wisconsin regained its grip on the dual at 184.
Iowa freshman Phil Keddy scored the first takedown against Trevor Branvold, but the Wisconsin freshman rode two takedowns in the final 2:30 to win 6-2.
In all, the Badgers outscored the Hawkeyes in the third period in five of the eight matches that went seven minutes.
“You can call it what you want, but the bottom line is you’re not getting it done in the third period, “Brands said. “That’s our job as coaches to figure it out. Does that mean we go to three-a-day workouts? Does that mean we reinvent things? I don’t think so. I’ll put a lot of it on me, and I’ll put a little bit of it back on our guys. I tell you what, I hope our guys are putting a lot of it on themselves and a little bit on the coaching staff.”
Heavyweight Matt Fields picked up Iowa’s other win after the Badgers clinched the dual with Dallas Herbst’s 49-second fall against Rick Loera at 197.
“I don’t know what to say for the other guys, “Perry said. “We didn’t wrestle our best, and obviously there’s a lot of room for improvement at all the weights. I’m not going to get too down about it. It’s a dual meet, we didn’t wrestle well, I know everybody’s embarrassed and we don’t like representing Iowa like this. But I’m sure we’ll get back to working hard. We haven’t been where we want to be, but it’s all about March, and hopefully we’ll get where we want to be by March.”
Through January, though, the Hawkeyes have been a puzzling bunch. They’ve had stretches where they appear headed to big things in March, but those stretches have been followed by lulls.
Brands said his team’s margin for error “is so slim, we’ve got to do everything knockout right, every time, over and over again.”
“I’m not down on our guys because our guys are who we’ve got … and our guys are capable, they’ve shown it, “he said. “You put everybody’s best performance on the mat, and we’ve got a pretty good team. But you’ve got to put everybody’s best performance on the mat, every time at the same time.”
WISCONSIN 21, IOWA 14
125 — Charlie Falck (I) dec. Collin Cudd 12-9.
133 — Zach Tanelli (W) dec. Mario Galanakis 7-5.
141 — Kyle Ruschell (W) dec. Alex Tsirtsis 6-4.
149 — Tyler Turner (W) dec. Alex Grunder 8-2.
157 — Craig Henning (W) dec. Ryan Morningstar 2-0.
165 — Mark Perry Jr. (I) tech. fall Jake Donar 18-2 in 4:56.
174 — Eric Luedke (I) dec. Mike Felling 5-0.
184 — Trevor Branvold (W) dec. Phil Keddy 6-2.
197 — Dallas Herbst (W) pinned Rick Loera :49.
Hwt. — Matt Fields (I) dec. Kyle Massey 6-3.
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