UNI wrestling earns dual win over South Dakota State and host of Iowans at the UNI-Dome

As expected, Northern Iowa wrestling’s dual vs. South Dakota State on Sunday went down to the wire.

Senior heavyweight Lance Runyon and his 7-2 win over No. 28 Luke Rasmussen was the final decider, as the Southeast Polk alum’s takedown and two reversals tied the dual at 15 each by the end of the event, with UNI winning by criteria with the most bout points scored.

The teams evenly split all 10 bouts, with zero bonus-point victories. While the Jackrabbits brought a tough team to the UNI-Dome, with multiple highly ranked wrestlers, several former Hawkeyes and native Iowans in the lineup, Runyon’s heroics in the dual made the difference.

A pair of wrestlers returned to the mat for UNI after missing all of last season with injury in Kyle Gollhofer at 125 pounds and Cory Land at 133 pounds. Both looked stout against ranked opponents, as Gollhoffer lost an overtime bout with No. 5 Tanner Jordan and Land scrambled his way to a 9-7 win over No. 24 Derrick Cardinal.

To lead 9-6 at the break, Cael Happel picked up a 4-1 win by decision over Julian Tagg at 141 pounds and Ryder Downey secured a stout 8-1 win over No. 17 Cobe Siebrecht, a former Iowa Hawkeye NCAA qualifier at 157 pounds.

The Jackrabbits roared back with a pair of wins by decisions form former Hawkeye Drake Rhodes over Jack Thomsen (12-7), followed by Southeast Polk alum and No. 3 Cade Devos coming back to defeat No. 19 Jared Simma to take a 12-9 lead.

Following a win by decision for No. 2 Parker Keckeisen over No. 4 Bennett Berge in his dual debut of the season after winning a national title, another former Hawkeye in No. 8 Zach Glazier scored the lone takedown of the match against No. 15 Wyatt Voelker to put SDSU up 15-12 heading into the last match.

With Runyon’s win, the dual was tied 15-15 in the team score, but the Panthers outscored the Jackrabbits 62-51 in total match points to win by 16-15 by criteria.

UNI Wrestling vs. South Dakota State box score

• 125: Tanner Jordan (SDSU) over Kyle Gollhofer (UNI) (SV-1 7-4)
• 133: Cory Land (UNI) over Derrick Cardinal (SDSU) (Dec 9-7)
• 141: Cael Happel (UNI) over Julian Tagg (SDSU) (Dec 4-1)
• 149: Colin Dupill (SDSU) over Adam Allard (UNI) (Dec 7-6)
• 157: Ryder Downey (UNI) over Cobe Siebrecht (SDSU) (Dec 8-1)
• 165: Drake Rhodes (SDSU) over Jack Thomsen (UNI) (Dec 12-7)
• 174: Cade DeVos (SDSU) over Jared Simma (UNI) (Dec 7-6)
• 184: Parker Keckeisen (UNI) over Bennett Berge (SDSU) (Dec 8-3)
• 197: Zach Glazier (SDSU) over Wyatt Voelker (UNI) (Dec 4-3)
• 285: Lance Runyon (UNI) over Luke Rasmussen (SDSU) (Dec 7-2)

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.