Iowa State wrestling begins 2022-23 season with dominant 26-6 win over No. 9 Wisconsin

The first iteration of the 2022-23 Iowa State wrestling team took the mat on Saturday, and this version of the Cyclones looked like the most impressive of any that’s competed under sixth-year head coach Kevin Dresser.

Iowa State went 3-0 at the Battle in the River City, six-team dual-meet event held in Jacksonville, Florida. The Cyclones throttled each opponent: 33-7 over Arkansas-Little Rock, 34-3 over Campbell, then a 26-6 demolition over 9th-ranked Wisconsin.

In all, Iowa State, ranked 14th by InterMat, won 25 of 30 total matches, including 8-of-10 in a dominant win over the Badgers, whose lineup boasts five All-Americans. The Cyclones took the first four weights for an 11-0 lead, then piled on to win by 20.

The Cyclones have now won 16 consecutive dual meets dating to last season, a streak that began with a 23-13 win over then-No. 15 Purdue in a special dual held at Humboldt High School. That streak could very well hit 18, with duals against California Baptist in Ames on Nov. 12 and against Grand View in Humboldt on Nov. 20 up next.

It’s far too early to tell if this Iowa State team is one of the Top-10 teams in the country. The NCAA Championships, where all seasons are remembered (for better or for worse) are still 131 days away. But the Cyclones’ performance on Saturday is exactly how a Top-10 team would start its season.

Here are five takeaways from Iowa State's season-opening results:

Casey Swiderski and Paniro Johnson lead Iowa State's true freshmen performances

Dresser made it well-known that both Casey Swiderski and Paniro Johnson, two true freshmen, would be immediate and heavy contributors for Iowa State this season. They each went 2-0 in their college debuts on Saturday.

Swiderski, at 141, notched a pair of Top-20 wins — 7-4 over Campbell’s Shannon Hanna, ranked 18th by InterMat, and then scored four takedowns in a 10-5 win over Joey Zargo, ranked 11th.

Johnson, at 149, opened with a 3-2 win over Little Rock’s Joe BIanchi, then erupted for four takedowns in a stunning 9-4 win over Austin Gomez, a one-time Iowa State wrestler-turned-Wisconsin All-American who’s ranked No. 2 nationally.

Their back-to-back wins over their Badger opponents gave Iowa State an 11-0 lead over Wisconsin after four weights — but Swiderski and Johnson weren’t the only Iowa State freshmen to get some run this weekend.

Against Little Rock, Jacob Frost and MJ Gaitan both contributed to Iowa State’s 26-point win. Frost, a Class 3A state runner-up for Dowling Catholic last year, notched a 6-2 win over Jayden Gomez at 141. Gaitan, a late addition to the Cyclones’ second-ranked recruiting class, notched a come-from-behind pin over Triston Wills at 174.

Against Campbell, Cam Robinson, who wrestled as a true freshmen during the 2021 season but redshirted last year to maintain four years of eligibility, rolled to a 13-4 major decision over Domenic Defalco at 149.

New rules released by the NCAA allow true freshmen to wrestle in up to five dates of regular-season competition and still maintain their redshirt (this rule doesn’t apply to postseason dates). Dresser and other coaches plan to utilize that rule both this semester and next to judge what their best lineup might look like by March.

Swiderski and Johnson will continue to start, but it’ll be intriguing to see if Gaitan — who also wrestled against Wisconsin, losing 4-3 to James Rowley, another true freshman — will continue to battle with Julien Broderson, who beat Campbell’s Cole Rees 5-2 on Saturday, and Joel Devine, a returning NCAA qualifier, for the starting spot at 174.

MORE: Meet Casey Swiderski, a true freshman who’s in line to start for the Iowa State wrestling team this season

David Carr is going to be just fine at 165 pounds

There were many highlight victories in Iowa State’s triumph over Wisconsin.

There was Swiderski and Johnson, of course, but also Kysen Terukina’s 9-7 overtime win over two-time All-American Eric Barnett at 125 pounds, and also Zach Redding’s 10-4 win over Taylor LaMont, a 2021 All-American for Utah Valley, at 133, and also Sam Schuyler’s 3-2 win over Trent Hillger at heavyweight (more on that coming).

But the marquee match in one of the marquee duals nationally on college wrestling’s season-opening weekend was at 165 pounds, between Iowa State’s David Carr, who bumped up from 157, and Dean Hamiti, a true freshman All-American last year.

Carr ultimately prevailed, 7-5, in a thrilling bout that lived up to the hype and then some.

Carr, ranked 3rd nationally by InterMat scored an early takedown for a 2-1 lead in the first period. Hamiti, ranked 5th, took a 3-2 lead in the second on an escape and a pair of stall calls against Carr. But Carr rallied back in the third with an escape to tie it, 3-3, then two more takedowns to win a match that may very well happen again in March.

Carr spent four seasons at 157. He went 23-1 while redshirting in 2018-19, then 18-1 as a redshirt freshman in ’19-20, where he earned the 3-seed at the NCAA tournament before COVID-19 cancelled it. Then he went 20-0 and won an NCAA title in 2021, then 28-1 last year en route to a third-place finish to become a two-time All-American.

How will he handle the jump to 165? The early returns suggest Carr will be just fine.

He went 3-0 on Saturday, with an 11-1 major decision over Little Rock’s Tyler Brennan and a second-period pin over Campbell’s Riley Augustine before his highlight victory over Hamiti — which may be an important win come March, especially if Carr can win the Big 12, where five 165-pounders are currently ranked in the Top-16 nationally.

Sam Schuyler secures two wins over Top-12 opponents

We mentioned Sam Schuyler earlier, but he deserved his own recognition after knocking off two Top-12 opponents on Saturday.

Schuyler, ranked 16th by InterMat, notched a 6-5 win over Campbell’s Taye Ghadiali, scoring a takedown with 45 seconds left to win. Then he recorded a 3-2 win over Wisconsin’s Trent Hillger, ranked 11th and a two-time All-American, scoring a takedown at the gun to put the icing on Iowa State’s lopsided win over the Badgers.

Schuyler ultimately went 3-0 on Saturday, his first win a 21-7 major decision victory over Little Rock’s Josiah Hill. He was one of five Cyclone wrestlers to go 3-0, joined by Carr, Zach Redding (133), Marcus Coleman (184), and Yonger Bastida (197).

More:A deep dive into the Iowa State wrestling team’s starting lineup for the 2022-23 season

Plenty of bonus points for Iowa State

The Cyclones went 25-5 overall across the three duals on Saturday, which is good, but they scored bonus points in 12 of those 25 victories, which is great.

Coleman, a returning All-American at 184, was the only Cyclone wrestler to score three bonus-point wins in as many opportunities. He beat Little Rock’s Mason Diel by 18-2 technical fall, Campbell’s 20th-ranked Caleb Hopkins by 13-5 major, then pinned Wisconsin’s Tyler Dow — the mathematical clincher against the Badgers, by the way.

Bastida recorded a pair of major decisions, 16-5 over Campbell’s Levi Hopkins and 11-3 over Little Rock’s Stephen Little. Carr recorded a major and a fall. Gaitan’s pin over Wills was the highlight of the Cyclones’ win over Little Rock. Schuyler, Redding, Terukina and Robinson each recorded major decisions, too.

That bonus-point rate of 48% will be tough to keep up for the entire year, especially against tougher opponents — Coleman’s pin was the Cyclones’ only bonus-point win against the Badgers, for example — but it’s a good trend to see early in the season, especially against Campbell and Little Rock, teams a Top-10 team should beat.

More Cyclones:McCrae Hagarty, two-time state champ from Waverly-Shell Rock, commits to Iowa State

The hole at 157 is glaring

The only downside to the Cyclones’ performance on Saturday was the glaring hole at 157 pounds. Dresser tried two guys in that spot on Saturday — Jason Kraisser and Isaac Judge — and they went a combined 0-3.

Kraisser got two matches, losing 4-1 to Little Rock’s Matt Bianchi, and 6-5 to Wisconsin’s Garrett Model, while Judge got one, an 11-8 loss to Campbell’s Troy Nation. Both did some good things despite the losses.

But it’s clear this weight is the one problem Iowa State must fix moving forward. It’s not imperative they get production from this weight to be a Top-10 team in March, but it would surely help if they got something.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

Battle in the River City

Round 1: #14 Iowa State 33, ARK-Little Rock 7

• 125: Jeremiah Reno (ARK) maj. dec. Caleb Fuessley (ISU), 12-4

• 133: Zach Redding (ISU) maj. dec. Josh Sarpy (ARK), 14-5

• 141: Jacob Frost (ISU) dec. Jayden Gomez (ARK), 6-2

• 149: Paniro Johnson (ISU) dec. Joe Bianchi (ARK), 3-2

• 157: Matt Bianchi (ARK) dec Jason Kraisser (ISU), 4-1

• 165: David Carr (ISU) maj. dec. Tyler Brennan (ARK), 11-1

• 174: MJ Gaitan (ISU) pinned Triston Willis (ARK) in 5:27

• 184: Marcus Coleman (ISU) tech. fall Mason Diel (ARK), 18-2

• 197: Yonger Bastida (ISU) maj. dec. Stephen Little (ARK), 11-3

• 285: Sam Schuyler (ISU) maj. dec. Josiah Hill (ARK), 21-7

Round 2: #14 Iowa State 34, Campbell 3

• 125: Kysen Terukina (ISU) maj. dec. Zak Thompson (CAM), 12-4

• 133: Zach Redding (ISU) dec. Domenic Zaccone (CAM), 3-2

• 141: Casey Swiderski (ISU) dec. #18 Shannon Hanna (CAM), 7-4

• 149: Cam Robinson (ISU) maj. dec. Domenic Defalco (CAM), 13-4

• 157: Troy Nation (CAM) dec. Isaac Judge (ISU), 11-8

• 165: David Carr (ISU) pinned Riley Augustine (CAM) in 4:23

• 174: Julien Broderson (ISU) dec. Cole Rees (CAM), 5-2

• 184: Marcus Coleman (ISU) maj. dec. #20 Caleb Hopkins (CAM), 13-5

• 197: Yonger Bastida (ISU) maj. dec. Levi Hopkins (CAM), 16-5

• 285: Sam Schuyler (ISU) dec. #12 Taye Ghadiali (CAM), 6-5

Round 3: #14 Iowa State 26, #9 Wisconsin 6

• 125: #24 Kysen Terukina (ISU) dec. #6 Eric Barnett (WIS), 9-7 (SV)*

• 133: Zach Redding (ISU) dec. #12 Taylor LaMont (WIS), 10-4

• 141: Casey Swiderski (ISU) dec. #11 Joey Zargo (WIS), 10-5

• 149: #24 Paniro Johnson (ISU) dec. #2 Austin Gomez (WIS), 9-4

• 157: #18 Garrett Model (WIS) dec. Austin Kraisser (ISU), 6-5

• 165: #3 David Carr (ISU) dec. #5 Dean Hamiti (WIS), 7-5

• 174: James Rowley (WIS) dec. MJ Gaitan (ISU), 4-3

• 184: #5 Marcus Coleman (ISU) pinned Tyler Dow (WIS) in 1:45

• 197: #6 Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. #20 Braxton Amos (WIS), 5-3

• 285: #16 Sam Schuyler (ISU) dec. #11 Trent Hillger (WIS), 3-2

• *Iowa State was deducted a team point after/during the 125-pound bout.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State wrestling opens 2022-23 season by beating #9 Wisconsin