HAWKS PLUCKED
On their home mat, Iowa tied for 4th; only 1 Hawk in finals
By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Bloodied, bruised and bandaged, Alex Tsirtsis was the face of Iowa wrestling Saturday night.
The Hawkeyes looked like a group that had been in a backyard scuffle and lost.
In reality, they had. In their own back yard.
When the fight ended and the first day of the Big Ten tournament was finished, so were Iowa’s title hopes. The Hawkeyes completed the day in a tie for fourth with 75 points — 39,½ behind first-place Illinois. Freshman 165-pounder Mark Perry Jr. will be Iowa’s only representative in a championship match this afternoon.
“It couldn’t have gone any worse; I’m the only guy in the finals, “Perry said. “It’s a little bit embarrassing. I know no Hawkeye fans like excuses, but a lot of our guys are young. But they’re still making those same mistakes. I don’t know why they’re making them.”
This wasn’t what the Hawkeyes expected. This wasn’t what they said would happen when the calendar flipped to March and the Big Ten rolled into town.
“Not at all, “said junior 184-pounder Paul Bradley, one of Iowa’s seven wrestlers left in the consolation bracket. “But what can you do except go on each match here? It’s going to do us no good to put our head down and put our tail between our legs and give up. We can still get some guys through to nationals and have a presence there.”
Seven Hawkeyes clinched a ticket to the NCAA meet, which begins March 17 in St. Louis. Junior Adam Fellers will wrestle for seventh place and a spot in the national tournament, and six of his teammates could still come back to place third this afternoon.
“We’ve still got one day left to redeem ourselves, “Tsirtsis said. “It’s a little surprising, but at the same time there was a couple close matches and a couple things go the other way and we might have some more finalists, too. That little bit extra is what we need. We just need to sit down and look at it as a team and fire it up for tomorrow and really fire it up in a couple weeks.”
But Saturday was the same, worn-out story Iowa has told throughout the season. The Hawkeyes finished the day winning 14 matches and losing 12. They dropped six matches that were decided by two or fewer points in the championship bracket.
“It’s frustrating, “Iowa coach Jim Zalesky said. “It’s frustrating because you’re yelling from the corner, you tell them how to wrestle, and they tell us they’re going to wrestle that way and then they go out — and whether it’s nerves or whatever it is — they just don’t wrestle like we want them to wrestle or like we know they can.”
Perry, trying to extend Iowa’s string of seasons with a Big Ten champion to 36, will face Michigan’s top-seeded Ryan Churella in the finals.
“I did my part so far, and everyone’s always told me all you can do is win, “Perry said. “You can’t win for the other guys. I think some guys just have to want it a little more when they’re down by one or it’s tied up. We have to be attacking instead of letting them attack.”
Zalesky hinted Saturday night that the rest of the Hawkeyes could use a shot of Perry’s confidence.
“I don’t know if every guy fully believes they’re going to win every match they go into, “Perry said. “It can’t be coached. You’ve got to believe you’re going to win that match. I don’t know if every time they go out they know they’re going to win. I know every time I go out there, I’m going to win. Sometimes you don’t win, but I don’t go into a match thinking I’m going to lose.”
Even in winning Saturday, Perry was upset with how his match ended. He built a 6-0 lead after one period against third-seeded Matt Nagel of Minnesota and held on for an 8-4 victory.
“I wrestled three minutes of good wrestling, “he said. “I could’ve ran three miles after that match. It might have looked like I was tired, but I just quit wrestling. I knew he couldn’t come back, but that can’t happen at the national tournament. If I wrestle the whole seven minutes like I wrestled that first period, I’m going to be pretty tough to beat.”
Iowa struck out in its other three semifinal bouts.
Top-seeded Mark Jayne of Illinois used a takedown with 54 seconds remaining to beat Iowa junior Mario Galanakis 4-3 at 133. Wisconsin freshman Craig Henning, a No. 6 seed, countered a Ty Eustice shot to beat the Iowa junior 4-2 in overtime. Illinois’ Alex Tirapelle, ranked second nationally, beat Joe Johnston 9-5 at 157.
Reach Andy Hamilton at 339-7368 or [email protected].
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