Over the fall break for UNI students, the wrestling team had two dual meets. On Sunday, Nov. 24, they hosted No. 13 South Dakota State in the UNI-Dome, and on Tuesday, Nov. 26, they faced No. 15 Missouri in Hartland, Wisconsin. In what were two big conference dual meets for the Panthers, they were able to get the team victory in both. These wins put the Panthers on a 2-0 start to the season in dual meets, as well as putting them at 2-0 in Big 12 competition.
The Panthers saw themselves in a close battle in their dual against South Dakota State. Kyle Gollhofer started things off for the Panthers at 125 pounds against a highly rated Tanner Jordan from SDSU. It was a close match that needed extra time to decide a winner, but Tanner Jordan ended up coming away with the victory.
UNI won the next two matches after this, with Cory Land winning in a bit of an upset at 133, and Cael Happel getting the 4-1 decision at 141. At 149 pounds, Adam Allard lost a close 7-6 decision, but Ryder Downey continued his dominance with a 8-1 victory at 157 pounds. After the first five matches, the Panthers led the Jackrabbits 9-6 halfway through the dual.
The last half of the meet started off with Jack Thomsen and Jared Simma battling hard in their matches. At 165, Thomsen lost a close one to a fairly highly ranked Drake Rhodes from SDSU, while Simma lost 7-6 to the defending Big 12 champion at 174. In the 184 pound class it was a battle of two All-Americans from last season, with UNI’s reigning champion Parker Keckeisen going up against No. 4 ranked Bennett Berge. Keckeisen ultimately got the win with an 8-3 decision.
The two teams went into the last two matches of the meet tied, but UNI’s Wyatt Voelker lost at 197 in a 4-3 decision. This left it up to Lance Runyon at heavyweight for the Panthers. He had two takedowns in the match and won by a 7-2 decision. This win brought it to a tie, but the Panthers had an advantage in criteria and came out of the dual with the 16-15 victory.
The Panthers followed up this dual with a far more dominating performance against No. 15 Missouri. To start off the dual, the Tigers took the early lead when Gage Walker defeated UNI’s Gollhofer in a 4-0 decision. The next two Panthers to go out on the mat got victories to put the Panthers out in front. Land had a takedown that led to a 5-2 decision win, and Happel won by a 4-2 decision. Allard lost a close one at 149 to tie the dual up at 6-6 but the Panthers really started to dominate after that.
Downey absolutely dominated at 157 with a 15-0 victory, earning five points for the team. Thomsen picked up the victory at 165 in a close battle, and all the sudden the Panthers led 14-6. UNI did take one more loss on the day, as Nick Fox had to face off against a two-time national champion in Keegan O’Toole. After that however, the Panthers continued to control the dual.
Keckeisen had a commanding victory at 184, winning by major decision, and Voelker and Runyon took care of business in the last two matches of the day. As a team, the Panthers came away with the big 24-10 victory in the dual.
The Panthers were able to get off to a great start of the year in duals this past week, and will next be going to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The event will take place on Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7.
