U of I Wrestling: Perry helps No. 1 Hawks secure Midlands title, ISU 2nd
By Dan McCool • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • December 31, 2007
Read Comments(14)Recommend (4)Print this page E-mail this article
Share this article: Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine What’s this?
Evanston, Ill. - Mark Perry cleaned up on the individual honors while his Iowa wrestling teammates won the team race in the 45th annual Midlands tournament Sunday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Perry, the defending NCAA champion at 165 pounds, won four honors - five if you include his dominating 8-0 victory over Jon Reader of Iowa State in the championship match.
The senior was named outstanding wrestler of the tournament and the champion of champions - an award voted on by the champions - along with an award for the most pins in the shortest time (four in 8 minutes 10 seconds) and one for being the high-point scorer on his team. Perry scored 30 of Iowa's team points with his four pins and a major decision.
Iowa, which crowned four of its five finalists as champion, finished with 185 points in winning the team title for the first time since 2002. Defending Midlands champion Iowa State was second with 139.
The 46-point margin of victory was the fourth-largest for Iowa in its 19 Midlands championships.
Northern Iowa finished 15th with 39 points.
The Hawkeyes' performance on Sunday was impressive. It was a showcase, according to Iowa's 149-pound champion
Brent Metcalf.
"I tell you what, our team is the real deal,"
Metcalf said. "The way our team is wrestling, I think that's the biggest indicator at this tournament. We've got a lot of guys really stepping up and wrestling to their potential. These aren't upsets, these are guys wrestling to their potential."
Perry said he got tired of the teasing from his teammates and some coaches about how Reader, a highly touted freshman, might cause him trouble when they would meet. Their scheduled meeting in the Iowa-Iowa State dual Dec. 9 was erased because Perry was serving a one-meet suspension for a flagrant misconduct penalty.
"I knew (Reader) was dangerous," Perry said. "I just wanted to make a statement that when I'm solid and I'm on, I feel like I'm the best."
On Sunday, Perry got a takedown in the first minute of action. He also turned Reader for a three-point near fall in the second period. By the time the 7-minute match ended, Perry had his string of seven consecutive pins snapped, but he built up 5:36 of riding time.
"I could have gone for a lot more turns," Perry said, "but he was down by quite a bit so the only way he could have come back was through a fall. It's not really the way I like to wrestle, but it's the way we're winning."
Reader said Perry showed how solid he is. It's time to go back to work, Reader said.
"We've got to change things," Reader said. "It's building blocks for later. I'll have the same mindset going into the next match if I ever wrestle him again. We've got to change some things, some little things, and go after him again."
Iowa State's lone champion was 184-pounder Jake Varner, who got a takedown in overtime for a 3-1 victory over Jake Herbert of Northwestern. Varner is ranked No. 1 nationally while Herbert sits out the college season in order to train for a spot on the 2008 Olympic freestyle team.
Herbert beat Varner 6-1 in the 184-pound championship match at the NCAA tournament last season.
After a 1-1 draw in regulation, Varner fought out of Herbert's bodylock and then stopped his arm throw to score the winning points with 22 seconds left in the 1-minute overtime.
"He tried the arm throw and I pulled my arm back and got behind," Varner said.
U of I Wrestling: Perry helps No. 1 Hawks secure Midlands title, ISU 2nd 
Linear Mode
