Freshman Greg Jones scored the first points for the Mountaineers by earning a major decision against Nick Passolano at 174 after an Iowa State win at 165 to start the match. The Cyclones then scored a major decision and technical fall at 184 and 197, respectively, to make the score 12-4. Senior Ryan Kehler, ranked 13th in the nation in the heavyweight class, got the Mountaineers back in the match with a last-second takedown against No.17 Mark Knauer to close the gap to 12-7. WVU lost that momentum when in the next match when Ricky LaForge took an early 4-0 lead, but got reversed and pinned at 1:53 by Ty Malia at 125.
The Mountaineers' Shane Cunanan, ranked 12th in the nation at 141, recorded the day's only upset by defeating No.7 Aaron Holker 10-5. No.19 Billy Smith battled Iowa State's No.6 Billy Maldonado but lost 6-4 on a takedown in overtime.
"I thought we had a nice effort today," head coach Craig Turnbull said. "We came out here to win, but I think we learned a lot. "They were in trouble," Turnbull said about the momentum of Kehler's win and LaForge taking the early lead. "But they took charge and won the matches that we thought were pretty evenly matched."
West Virginia will return to action November 30-December 1, when they travel to Las Vegas,
Nevada, to compete in the Las Vegas Invlitational.