No. 1 Iowa Wins Beats Michigan 22-9, Wins B1G Championship

The University of Iowa wrestling team improved to 9-0 in the conference and captured the Big Ten regular season dual championship with a 22-9 win against 16th-ranked Michigan on Friday, February 13, 2015.

The win gave Iowa the outright dual championship for the seventh time since the conference started recognizing a dual champion in 1999. The Hawkeyes have won or shared the title in seven of the last eight years, but like in years past, it’s a trophy that is here today, gone tomorrow.

“It's not what our ultimate goal is,” said junior Nathan Burak, “but like coach says, it's just another feather in our hat and that was what was ahead of us so we got it.”

The Hawkeyes won seven-of-10 bouts and owned a 13-3 advantage in takedowns, but had more than a handful of slow starts, including six scoreless first periods, and split six matches against ranked opponents.

“I don't think we wrestled to score points, I think we wrestled to hand fight and I think we wrestled to stay in there,” said UI head coach Tom Brands. “I think we wrestled to survive and I don't know if your best chance to win is to try to survive. Your best chance to win is to go out and score points and to put the energy into that simple task. We need to do a better job of that."

NEXT UP: Iowa finished the dual season 14-0 and 9-0 in the Big Ten. The postseason begins Sunday against Virginia in the opening round of the EAS/NWCA National Duals.

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Tom Brands. “It was not an inspiring performance for whatever reason. The stats that I looked at, I don't look at stats much, but the stats I looked at were not pretty.”

Iowa hosts Virginia on Sunday at 1 p.m. (CT) on Mediacom Mat at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for youth 18 and younger. UI students and children five years old and younger are admitted free.

Match Results: #1 IOWA 22, #16 Michigan 9