Brands' Victory Punctuates Iowa's Domination Of Cyclones
AMES, Iowa — Nelson Brands had his hand raised.
Then the Iowa 184-pounder ran from the Hilton Coliseum floor, carrying a big win with him.
Brands’ 4-3 overtime win over Sam Colbray punctuated the No. 2 Hawkeyes’ 29-6 triumph over No. 11 Iowa State on Sunday.
It was the 16th consecutive victory in the rivalry for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa (2-0) won eight of the 10 matches, a week after sweeping Chattanooga to open the dual-meet season.
Brands, a redshirt freshman, had plenty of answers for Colbray, who is in the top 10 in the three national individual rankings.
“He’s explosive. He’s emotional, in the right way,” said Iowa coach Tom Brands about his nephew. “And we love it.”
Colbray scored an escape point in the second period, then Brands answered with one in the third period. Neither wrestler scored in sudden victory. Colbray had an escape with 29 seconds left in the first tiebreaker period. Brands then scored a takedown with two seconds left, but Colbray answered with an escape a second later.
“I got to his legs and took him down,” Nelson Brands said. “There’s not much to it.”
Brands got an escape when Colbray let him go to start the second tiebreaker round, a decision Iowa State coach Kevin Dresser later regretted.
“You’ve got to put that one on the coach,” Dresser said. “Sometimes in practice, I see Sam just kind of hang on and ride in those situations. I had a little bit of deja vu, in that I just didn’t want him to hang on and get reversed at the end. I decided I would rather go out swinging. We went out swinging and didn’t connect.”
Brands then held on for the win in his introduction to the rivalry.
“I see it as another match. I don’t see it as a rivalry,” he said. “I know it is. I’m going to prepare the same, for every match.
“I didn’t even know he was ranked. I don’t look at that stuff.”
Tom Brands has a choice at 184 — Cash Wilcke was also on the lineup card.
“It’s between two guys, and we’re going to put the best team on the mat every week,” he said. “This week, you saw it out there, for November 24.”
The tense match of the day came at 149, when Iowa’s Pat Lugo defeated Jarrett Degen, 4-3.
There were two replay reviews, with Lugo getting two points on a locked-hands call.
“I guess they got in a scramble there,” Dresser said. “Jarrett thought the referee gave a reversal there. As they continued to wrestle, he locked his hands. The referee did not give him a reversal, and so it became a locked-hands before he put the guy to his back.”
Iowa State’s wins came at 141 and 157. Ian Parker defeated Carter Happel, 6-4, at 141. David Carr downed Kaleb Young, 6-1, at 157.
“We were in a pickle there,” Tom Brands said of the Lugo match. “We were in a couple of pickles — Kaleb Young was in a pickle. We won some pickles. We like that dominant, 100 to zero probability.”
Two-time national champion Spencer Lee opened the dual with a technical fall over Alex Mackall at 125. Austin DeSanto followed with a 16-5 major decision over Todd Small at 133.
Iowa’s Alex Marinelli had five takedowns in a 13-7 win over Chase Straw at 165. Michael Kemerer had six takedowns in a 14-5 victory over Marcus Coleman.
Jacob Warner had an 11-2 major decision over Joel Shapiro at 197, then heavyweight Tony Cassioppi closed the dual with a 6-0 win over Gannon Gremmel.
“That’s a really good team,” Parker said. “They’ll punch you in the face.
“Up and down the lineup, they’ve got some super solid guys,” Dresser said. “We just got beat by a better team today.
“If you’re a Hawkeye fan and you’ve been watching lineups for a long time, it would be hard to find a better one than that. They’ve got some firepower.”