It was an improvement from last week, but the Arizona State wrestling team fell for the fifth time in the last six duals, losing to Iowa State 23-18 Friday night.
Freshman Matt Kraus started the night off right at 141 pounds, defeating redshirt sophomore Luke Goettl 6-5 to give the Sun Devils (7-10) an early 3-0 lead.
After redshirt freshman Preston McCalmon dropped his match at 149 pounds, redshirt sophomore Joel Smith gave the Sun Devils the lead back, beating redshirt freshman Logan Molina 6-0 at 157 pounds.
Extra points would prove to be the Sun Devils downfall from there, though.
ISU No. 19 redshirt sophomore Michael Moreno won by fall over ASU freshman Ray Waters, then No. 20 ISU redshirt freshman Tanner Weatherman beat sophomore Rush Hall by major decision 15-4 to give the Cyclones the lead back 13-6.
The Sun Devils wouldn’t go easily, though.
Redshirt sophomore Kevin Radford defeated redshirt sophomore Mikey England 10-9 in a highly contested match at 184 pounds to bring the score back to 13-9 Cyclones.
The next match proved to be the defining one of the night as No. 9 redshirt sophomore Kyven Gadson knocked off redshirt senior No. 7 Jake Meredith 9-1 in dominating fashion at 197 pounds.
The match was Meredith’s first since returning from a concussion.
No. 17 redshirt senior heavyweight Levi Cooper brought the score back to 17-12 after defeating redshirt senior Matt Gibson 5-2.
The Cyclones put the dual away in the next match when redshirt sophomore Ryak Finch pinned redshirt sophomore Dalton Miller with 30 seconds remaining in the first period to push the lead to 23-12.
Iowa State forfeited the final match of the night at 133 pounds, bringing the final match score to 23-18.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
