COLLEGE WRESTLING: NO. 10 IOWA 23, NO. 15 PENN STATE 16
Hawkeyes spoil another PSU bid
Saturday, February 05, 2005
BY ANDY ELDER
For The Patriot-News
STATE COLLEGE – When you’ve had your heart broken by Iowa as many times as Troy Sunderland has, you understand why the Penn State wrestling coach wasn’t looking for silver linings last night.
He and 3,207 fans, including university president Dr. Graham Spanier, had just watched as No. 10 Iowa slipped by No. 15 Penn State 23-16 in a win that was there for the taking.
Iowa won six of 10 bouts, including two of three — 125, 133 and 141 — Penn State coach Troy Sunderland had called “must-wins “before the match. And the Hawkeyes won the two bouts Sunderland had labeled “swing matches “– 157 and heavyweight.
“Not all 10 guys showed up ready to wrestle tonight. For us to win against a tough team, we have to have everyone giving 100 percent. We had some guys wrestle with their hearts on their sleeve and give it everything they had and just got beat. Other guys had it in their grasp, but let it slip away. Other guys just weren’t ready to step on the mat, “Sunderland said.
“And you can’t not be ready to step on the mat against Iowa.”
The match couldn’t have started any better for Penn State. After Iowa’s Charlie Falck had built a 4-2 first-period lead on Adam Smith, the Nittany Lion senior from Newport barred an arm and decked Falck in 4:34.
“It felt good, but then things didn’t go real well so I was getting upset. I really thought we were going to win tonight. There were a couple guys I’m not really sure were ready to go tonight, “Smith said.
“It’s kind of funny. Today I was looking online and I saw a quote [by Falck that said], ‘I really don’t like being on bottom. I’m having a lot of trouble there.’ I turned to my roommate and said, ‘This is sweet.'”
The sweetness soured in a hurry for the Nittany Lions. No. 9 Mario Galanakis avenged a Midlands loss to No. 19 Bryan Heller 8-4 at 133.
And, at 141, No. 12 DeWitt Driscoll trailed Alex Tsirtsis 4-2 heading into the third but rode the Iowa wrestler the entire period, earning a stalling point and riding-time point to send the match into overtime. But Tsirtsis scored a takedown 42 seconds into the one-minute overtime period to pull out a 6-4 win.
Iowa then ripped off three straight lopsided wins to race to a 20-6 lead. No. 5 Ty Eustice won by match termination over Jack Decker at 149 and No. 4 Mark Perry pinned Jarrad Turner in 2:02 at 165. Those losses were understandable.
What wasn’t was No. 18 Nate Galloway’s 23-10 major decision loss to No. 8 Joe Johnston.
But, just when it looked like the Lions would once again be on the long end of an Iowa rout, an unlikely source gave Penn State a spark.
Yonushonis scored eight points in a frenetic third-period scoring burst to earn a 12-4 major decision over Luke Lofthouse.
Then at 184, Penn State’s Eric Bradley won the marquee match of the night, 3-2, over Paul Bradley. Eric countered a rare shot by Paul in the third period and converted it into the winning takedown for the win.
With two bouts left, Penn State trailed 20-13 and hope still flickered for the Nittany Lions.
No. 13 Phil Davis (Harrisburg) kept that hope alive with a dominating 8-2 win over Adam Fellers at 197.
Iowa finally snuffed out that last flicker of hope at heavyweight. Freshman Matt Fields, a 253-pounder who is ranked No. 8, turned away an upset bid by Joel Edwards, 4-2.
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