It was not the night that the Minnesota Golden Gophers were hoping to have on the mat as they took on Big Ten rival, the third nationally ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. The Gophers, looking to continue their six-dual winning streak in conference play, were defeated by the Hawkeyes 23-11.
In a duel in which the Gophers had to have each of the matchups they were favored in, the night got off to a bad omen when Minnesota's 10th-ranked 125-pounder Cooper Flynn was upset by Iowa's Joey Cruz, the No.23 125-pounder in overtime 7-4.
It marks Flynn's fourth loss of the season and his second in the last week, also falling to Ohio State's Brenan McCrone last week. Since injuring his knee a few weeks ago, Flynn has not been able to find consistent success. He'll hope that the next few weeks off before the Big Ten Championships allow him to get fully healthy.
It wouldn't get much easier for the Gophers as the 12th-ranked Tyler WElls faced off against the country's second-best 133-pounder, Drake Ayala. Ayala built a quick 7-0 lead in the matchup before Wells made a quality fight at the end of the match, falling to the No. 2 Ayala 9-5.
Minnesota's first win of the evening would come at 141 pounds as No. 8 ranked Vance Vombaur defeated Cullan Schriever 14-10. It was a matchup that Vombaur once led 10-3 but two takedowns in the third period by Schriever would give the match a 14-10 final.
Iowa, however, would bounce right back from the loss at 141 with a 5-0 win from 149-pounder Kyle Parco, the nation's third-best wrestler in the weight class as he defeated the Gophers' Drew Roberts. Roberts has now lost four of his last five matches and six of his last eight.
One of the more anticipated matches of the evening and another projected swing matchup coming into the evening was at 157 pounds between Iowa's No. 3 Jacori Teemer and Minnesota's No. 8 Tom Askey. Teemer dealing with injuries hasn't seen much action this year and was inactive for a few weeks ahead of Friday night but if there was any rust, it didn't matter.
After a scoreless first period, Askey picked up a point in the second period with an escape but Teemer, a national runner-up last year was able to tie it up early in the third before picking up a takedown late in the period to take a 4-1 win.
At 165 pounds, Iowa's Micahel Caliendo, the No. 2 wrestler in the country at 175 pounds would have a dominant match against the Gophers' Andrew Sparks, winning in a tech fall 21-5.
Iowa's domination would continue at 174 pounds with Patrick Kennedy defeating Clayton Whiting 8-4. Kennedy found himself leading 8-1 into the final seconds before Whiting earned a takedown to close out the match and narrow the eventual losing deficit to just four points.
Minnesota's second win of the evening came in a thrilling match at 184 pounds between the No.4 ranked Max McEnelly for the Gophers and Iowa's seventh-ranked Gabe Arnold. Two of the best underclassmen in the nation, McEnelly and Arnold would head into overtime tied at 1-1 but McEnelly would earn a takedown of Arnold in overtime to earn the victory.
The redshirt freshman improved to 30-0 in his career and is now 18-0 on the season. The win was his third top-10 win of the season.
Iowa and Minnesota would split the final two matches of the night. At 197 pounds, the Gophers' Isaiah Salazar, the defending Big Ten champion at 197 pounds would give the top-ranked Stephen Buchanan everything he could handle with it heading into the third period at just 1-0.
In the final period, Salazar would look for each angle to potentially attack Buchanan but the nation's top-197 pounder would successfully counter every one of Salazar's moves en route to a 5-1 victory. Salazar falls to 14-4 this season.
Finally, the matchup at 285 between Gable Steveson, the country's top-ranked heavyweight, and Iowa's Ben Kueter was a no-contest. Steveson in his final home match was vintage Gable Steveson, coming out furiously in the first period to pick up a 19-2 tech fall.
Ultimately, the final score would be 23-11 in favor of Iowa but the wins from McEnelly and Steveson were both that Gophers fans could go home happy about.
As previously mentioned, the Gophers will now have time to heal up and get healthy as they won't be in action again until the Big Ten Championships start on March 8 in Evanston, Illinois. The NCAA Championships will run March 20-March 22 in Philadelphia.
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