Someone needed to pull off an upset if the ASU wrestling team was going to beat Iowa on Saturday.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils (3-2, 1-0), the dual played out as expected with the No. 5 Hawkeyes winning six of the 10 bouts to defeat ASU 26-13 at Wells Fargo Arena.
Iowa (1-0) earned bonus points in four of the matches, winning two by fall and two by major decision.
"We did an average job against them," ASU coach Thom Ortiz said. "I think some of our guys could have wrestled better, especially being at home."
The only bout between nationally ranked opponents featured a rematch between ASU junior No. 6 Brian Stith (157 pounds) and top-ranked Joe Johnston.
The two tangled for the third time with Stith dropping a 4-2 decision for his second career loss to Johnston.
Johnston took a 2-0 lead on a late first period takedown and tacked on another two points with a pair of escapes.
Stith came back with a takedown of his own to open the third period and almost had another to tie the score in the waning seconds of the match.
"(Johnston) does a good job of acting like he's not tired, but I could tell he was as tired as I was, so I went for the win," Stith said.
The Sun Devils picked up victories at heavyweight as Cain Velasquez earned a 4-0 decision, Ryan Bader (197 pounds) picked up a win by major decision, Patrick Pitsch (165 pounds) scored a 6-2 victory and 125-pound Jeremy Mendoza led off the dual with an 8-2 decision against Lucas Magnani.
Mendoza also defeated Magnani 14-0 last year.
"I felt like he was a little scared because we wrestled last year, too," Mendoza said. "My shots were just working for me, and I knew what I could do and couldn't do against him."
ASU travels to Las Vegas to compete in the Cliff/Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Reach the reporter at derrik.miller@asu.edu.
