AMES — After a closely-contested season-opening dual with Stanford, where Iowa State wrestling lost, 23-21, and missed nearly half of its starters due to various injuries, Cyclones coach Kevin Dresser is pleased to report that the team is inching closer to full strength.
“(Casey) Swiderski, if everything goes well, he’s going to be wrestling this weekend,” Dresser said Tuesday. “M.J. (Gaitan) will be wrestling this weekend. Paniro (Johnson) will be wrestling this weekend, on Saturday, he’s legal to go. He’s ready to go. … Yonger (Bastida) is a maybe this weekend. He’s been training, he’s been back on the mat, but we’re going to have to see how the day goes. Jacob Frost is going to wrestle this weekend at Grand View, for sure. He was dinged up, so we’re on the mend.”
Dresser plans on having a better gauge of his injury report after Thursday’s practice when they intend on engaging in hard drills. Many members of his squad will either be making their season debuts in Friday’s dual meet against visiting Navy or Saturday’s Grand View Open at nearby Grand View University.
“We’ll evaluate Thursday where we’re going to send guys, but it’s nice to have such a quality event 25 miles down the road,” Dresser said.
Senior Kysen Terukina is expected to return next week, and he’ll be competing against freshmen Osmany Diversent and Adrian Meza for the 125-pound spot in the Cyclones’ lineup
Navy is 1-2 this season. The Midshipmen defeated Drexel, and their losses came against top 25 opposition, Pittsburgh and North Carolina.
The Midshipmen are led by senior 141-pounder Josh Koderhandt (InterMat’s No. 9-ranked wrestler in his weight class), and sophomores Danny Wask (ranked No. 23 by InterMat at 174 pounds) and Daniel Williams (No. 30 by Intermat at 184 pounds).
The season-opener against Stanford allowed many Iowa State newcomers to make their debut and don a Cyclone singlet for the first time.
Freshman Daniel Herrera was one of three true freshmen to start for the Cyclones, and he recorded a convincing technical fall over Stanford’s Jackson Mankowski.
He may start again on Friday if Bastida remains out.
“I actually had a lot of fun,” Herrera said. “It’s been a long time coming for me and my family. Made a lot of decisions leading up to this point. I’m just very grateful to have that opportunity to go out and wrestle in front of all the fans.
“… I want to be an entertainer. Dresser says that a lot and that’s one thing I value, because people don’t pay tickets just to come see you put up one takedown, three points — that’s not what they want to see. They want to see you put up points and high-flying action.”
Senior transfer Evan Bockman had wrestled at Hilton Coliseum as an opponent in the past, but he got to relish finally being cheered on by the home crowd. Bockman is one of the most seasoned grapplers on the Cyclones’ roster, previously wrestling at Utah Valley and California Baptist.
He scored three takedowns in the final 45 seconds of his match to seal a 15-7 victory over Luke Duthie in his Cyclone debut and his first time competing after cutting down to 184.
Bockman hopes he and his teammates can build off of that experience competing against Stanford, but also attain their first dual meet victory of the season.
“We were pissed about that (loss), we were ranked, but it was definitely an upset by Stanford,” Bockman said. “We had some freshmen in the lineup that didn’t wrestle as good as I know they could have, so we knew that as well, but coming into this next dual with Navy, we’re gonna have a lot more starters in our lineup. We’re super confident.”
Cyclones’ probable lineup for Friday’s Iowa State-Navy dual meet
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125: Adrian Meza, Fr., 1-0 season record
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133: Evan Frost, So., 0-0, or Garrett Grice, So., 0-1
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141: Casey Swiderski, Jr., 0-0, or Zach Redding, Sr., 0-1
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149: Anthony Echemendia, Sr., 1-0
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157: Kane Naaktgeboren, Fr., 0-1
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165: Connor Euton, So., 0-1, or M.J. Gaitan, So., 0-0
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174: Aiden Riggins, R-So., 0-1
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184: Evan Bockman, Sr., 1-0
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197: Christian Carroll, R-Fr., 1-0
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285: Yonger Bastida, Sr., 0-0, or Daniel Herrera, Fr., 1-0
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State wrestling: Cyclones on the mend heading into Navy dual
