Perry star brightest as Iowa wins event
By DAN McCOOL • Register Staff Writer • January 1, 2008
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Evanston, Ill. ? Iowa won its first Midlands Open wrestling team title since 2002 on Sunday night at Welsh Ryan Arena, crowning four champions and scoring a record 185 points.
The No. 1 Hawkeyes finished 46 points ahead of No. 2 Iowa State, the defending champion. Iowa had nine placewinners while the Cyclones had eight finish in the top eight. Northern Iowa took 15th with 39 points. Its only placewinner was 197-pounder Andrew Anderson, who was sixth.
But the big winner Sunday night was 165-pound champion Perry, whose 8-0 major decision over Jon Reader of Iowa State in the finals was the only time in five tournament matches that he did not get a pin.
Along with the title, Perry was voted outstanding wrestler of the tournament.
His four pins in a total time of 8 minutes 10 seconds were the most in the quickest time. With bonus points in each match, Perry scored 30 team points.
Perry has 12 pins this season, one behind his collegiate career-high set in 2005-06, when he won a most falls award in the NCAA Tournament. Bruce Kinseth holds Iowa's season mark with 23 in 1978-79. Perry is three shy of matching Lou Banach's 40 pins at No. 10 on the Hawkeyes' career list, led by Ed Banach's 73.
Perry has an opportunity to get his 13th pin Saturday night, when the Hawkeyes wrestle Oklahoma State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Perry's uncle is Oklahoma State coach
John Smith.
"It's being more aggressive when you hit your holds instead of kind of hitting them," Perry said, "or kind of throwing a power half just looking like you're doing something instead of getting on top and tearing the guy's arm off."
Iowa coach
Tom Brands said a prevailing thought in the sport is that explosiveness is measured on the feet, and how opponents are taken off of theirs. Perry had a different look of power in the finals against Reader when he turned the Iowa State freshman for three near-fall points in the second period.
"(Perry) was explosive with that half-nelson," Brands said. "The only thing is he didn't sink it deep enough, but he was explosive with it, changed pace and that's why he scored points with it."
Perry said he got a reminder of how to put an opponent on his back at last season's NCAA Tournament. When he got mad, it was easier to turn an opponent.
"It hit me that I've got to put a little more effort, more hustle into my top riding," Perry said. "When I hit a move and I'm putting them to their back, I've had a problem with them getting off their back. Now I feel when I get a guy on his back, for the most part it's over."
The finishing step of a pin takes a little extra force, Perry said.
"It's just a mindset when you hit a half or you've got a guy in a headlock, just make it tighter," Perry said. "Make it more painful and the guy will get pinned."
Wait over: Tyler Mumbulo of Upper Iowa, competing for the Peacock Wrestling Club, placed eighth at 125 pounds to become the first Upper Iowa wrestler to place at the Midlands since Dwain Burkholder placed at 118 pounds in the 1973 tournament. Upper Iowa coach Heath Grimm was not sure what place Burkholder finished.
Perry star brightest as Iowa wins event 
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