No. 5 Michigan takes momentum from Iowa with five straight victories.
By DAN MCCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
February 14, 2005
Iowa City, Ia. – The University of Iowa wrestling team first lost its spark and then lost the meet Sunday night.
Fifth-ranked Michigan reeled off five consecutive victories to erase an 8-0 Iowa lead after two bouts and scored a 21-11 Big Ten Conference victory in front of an announced crowd of 4,235 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The fans loved watching 125-pounder Charlie Falck and 133-pounder Mario Galanakis school their opponents on how to continually look for points. Galanakis made amends for his 2-0 loss to Minnesota’s Mack Reiter on Friday night by twice turning Mark Moos for a three-point near-fall.
“I felt real good, real confident, real healthy bouncing around and kept going even though I got put on my back, “Galanakis said. “I didn’t let that bother me.”
By the time they cheered the 10th-ranked Hawkeyes’ last victory at 184, Iowa was in a 15-8 chasm and sinking. Not long after, fans started heading for the exits.
“Three guys wrestled, “said Iowa 149-pounder Ty Eustice, who dropped a 3-2 decision to Michigan’s Eric Tannenbaum. “We haven’t wrestled a match where all 10 guys have wrestled. That’s what (the coaches) said to us the day before the meet, and we still didn’t do it. Until we do that, we’re just going to be a mediocre team.”
The problem was not keeping a high pace, having a lapse of a few seconds or not finishing moves in some swing matches. Iowa (9-5) lost a great chance to get a late-season confidence booster.
“You’ve got to keep your same pace the whole match, “Iowa coach Jim Zalesky said. “To win the close, tough matches, you’ve got to be tough the whole time.”
Zalesky said a prime example of that was at 141, where freshman Alex Tsirtsis trailed, 3-0, early in the second period, got two takedowns in a span of 17 seconds to tie the score, 4-4, then got hit by freshman Josh Churella’s double-leg takedown with 1 minute 45 seconds left in the match.
“(Tsirtsis) put himself back in the match, “Zalesky said, “and all of a sudden when he was back in the match, he switched paces again.”
Fourth-ranked Mark Perry at 165 said Tsirtsis had an opportunity to dominate his bout as early as the second period.
“I don’t know if he saw it, but the kid was broke 30 seconds into the second period, “Perry said.
Any chance for Iowa to retake the momentum at 149 ended when Eric Tannenbaum refused to let Iowa’s Ty Eustice dictate the match, scoring a first-period takedown in a 3-2 victory.
“I’ve watched some tapes of him. I’ve heard everything, and Churella has wrestled him and given me advice, so I kinda knew what to expect, “Tannenbaum said.”
Perry said he felt in control of Michigan’s Ryan Churella, despite a 2-2 tie. In the final 10 seconds of the second period, Churella got a reversal and near-fall for a 7-2 lead. Churella won the match, 7-5.
“We’re losing the close matches on errors, “Perry said. “I was thinking, ‘I rode him out, now I’m going to pound him in the third’ because I felt really good. I shouldn’t have been thinking towards the third, I should have finished the last 10 seconds of the second.”
The loss dropped Perry’s record to 19-3.
THE RESULTS
125-Charlie Falck (I) beat Jim Shutich, 16-6.
133-Mario Galanakis (I) beat Mark Moos, 14-5.
141-Josh Churella (M) beat Alex Tsirtsis, 8-4.
149-Eric Tannenbaum (M) beat Ty Eustice, 3-2.
157-Ryan Bertin (M) beat Joe Johnston, 14-8.
165-Ryan Churella (M) beat Mark Perry, 7-5.
174-Nick Roy (M) beat Cole Pape, 13-6.
184-Paul Bradley (I) beat Joshua Weitzel, 7-5.
197-Willie Breyer (M) beat Adam Fellers, 4-2.
Hwt-Greg Wagner (M) beat Matt Fields, 8-3.
Att.-4,235.
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