3 things we learned from Iowa State wrestling's dominant performance at Collegiate Duals

The Iowa State wrestling program continued its stellar run Monday, winning all three matches in Nashville, Tenn., at the Collegiate Duals, including victories over No. 13 Pittsburgh and No. 5 Cornell.

Just last week, the Cyclones expressed a ton of confidence following their first-place finish at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. It carried on in Nashville, with the team combining for eight wins against ranked wrestlers.

Here are three things we learned from Iowa State's trip to Music City:

Cody Chittum rolls in home state

Have a day Cody Chittum!

The country-music lover and Tennessee native was dominant in his home state on Monday. Starting against unranked Jared Keslar of Pittsburgh, Chittum won by major decision (13-2). He followed that with a 10-6 ranked win over Little Rock's No. 28 Matty Bianchi and nearly had a tech fall over Cornell's Cole Handlovic (20-6).

This performance comes after getting battered in a brutal weight class at the CKLV against then-No. 9 Daniel Cardenas of Stanford and No. 5 Bryce Andonian of Virginia Tech at 157 pounds. The Cleveland, Tenn., native has a ton of talent as the No. 1 pound-for-pound recruit of Flowrestling's 2022 class rankings, so we'll have to see if Monday's outing will propel Chittum to reach that potential.

Anthony Echemendia is going to be just fine at 141 pounds

Two-ranked wins (No. 15 Cole Matthews of Pittsburgh and No. 16 Vince Cornella of Cornell) and three total victories by major decision was the end result of Echemendia's day in Nashville.

He started the year at 149 pounds, defeating Casey Swiderski in wrestle-offs to begin the season. Before the dual in Humboldt against Wisconsin, Echemendia came to the coaching staff and said they needed to find a way to get Swiderski in the lineup and that he would move to 141 pounds to do so. Since, Echemendia is 3-1 in duals and finished seventh at the CKLV. Swiderski is 7-2, with four wins over ranked opponents.

In other words, the Cyclones have their guys at 141 and 149 pounds going forward.

Cornell wrestles without top guys against Iowa State

After Cornell's No. 5 Brett Ungar (125 pounds), No. 2 Vito Arujau (133 pounds), No. 15 Meyer Shapiro (157 pounds) and No. 3 Julian Ramirez (165 pounds) wrestled in the previous two matches against Little Rock and Pittsburgh, none took the mat against ISU. Ramirez was the most notable not to wrestle after handing David Carr his first loss of the season and just the fourth loss of his career by a 4-3 decision at the CKLV.

Cyclone fans took to social media after the loss, expressing displeasure that Ramirez wouldn't wrestle again with Carr. Several Cornell wrestlers posted after the match, citing there were injuries and that the full story was not out there regarding why several ranked wrestlers decided to not wrestle.

Hurt or not hurt, ducking or not ducking, guys like Ramirez don't have much reason to take a rematch with someone as good as Carr after beating them once. For the NCAA Championships, Ramirez will have that head-to-head advantage when determining seeding. A loss on Monday would have nullified that.

There are a lot of calls for the NCAA to find a way to make guys wrestle in matches like Monday's, but doing so would only encourage wrestlers to compete through injuries, which nobody would want. To win a national championship, you have to beat the best of the best anyway, so a seed change from No. 2 to No. 3 really shouldn't matter a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Iowa State's team and fans have a right to be upset that they didn't get a chance to wrestle against Cornell's best athletes, but there's really not much of a solution to this problem unless the NCAA wants to encourage wrestlers to compete through injuries.

No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 13 Pittsburgh

• 125 pounds - #22 Kysen Terukina (ISU) dec. Colton Camacho (PITT), 6-4
• 133 pounds - #8 Evan Frost (ISU) dec. #23 Vinnie Santaniello (PITT), 9-6 SV-1
• 141 pounds - #14 Anthony Echemendia (ISU) maj. dec. #15 Cole Matthews (PITT), 12-3
• 149 pounds - #19 Finn Solomon (PITT) dec. Zach Redding (ISU), 8-4
• 157 pounds - #21 Cody Chittum (ISU) maj. dec. Jared Keslar (PITT), 13-2
• 165 pounds - #4 David Carr (ISU) maj. dec. #8 Holden Heller (PITT), 9-1
• 174 pounds - #17 Luca Augustine (PITT) dec. #22 MJ Gaitan (ISU), 5-4
• 184 pounds - #14 Reece Heller (PITT) maj. dec. #5 Will Feldkamp (ISU), 14-6
• 197 pounds - #17 Mac Stout (PITT) maj. dec. Rowan Udell (ISU), 10-2
• 285 pounds - #3 Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. #10 Dayton Pitzer (PITT), 6-3

No. 6 Iowa State 31, Little Rock 9

• 125 pounds - Ethan Perryman (ISU) dec. Jeremiah Reno (LR), 10-9
• 133 pounds - #21 Nasir Bailey (LR) TF #8 Evan Frost (ISU), 15-0 (1:57)
• 141 pounds - #14 Anthony Echemendia (ISU) maj. dec. Brennan Van Hoecke (LR), 19-6
• 149 pounds - Zach Redding (ISU) maj. dec. Kyle Dutton (LR), 9-1
• 157 pounds - #21 Cody Chittum (ISU) dec. #28 Matty Bianchi (LR), 10-6
• 165 pounds - Connor Euton (ISU) dec. Joey Bianchi (LR), 10-7
• 174 pounds -  #22 MJ Gaitan (ISU) maj. dec. Kodiak Cannedy (LR), 15-4
• 184 pounds - #5 Will Feldkamp (ISU) WBF Triston Wills (LR), 3:21
• 197 pounds - #13 Stephen Little (LR) dec. Caleb Helgeson (ISU), 14-5
• 285 pounds - #3 Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. #27 Josiah Hill (LR), 14-4

No. 6 Iowa State 26, No. 5 Cornell 15

• 125 pounds - Greg Diakomihalis (CORN) WBF #22 Kysen Terukina (ISU), 6:34
• 133 pounds - #8 Evan Frost (ISU) dec. Ethan Qureshi (CORN), 12-5
• 141 pounds -  #14 Anthony Echemendia (ISU) maj. dec. #16 Vince Cornella (CORN), 13-4
• 149 pounds - Zach Redding (ISU) dec. Ethan Fernandez (CORN), 5-1
• 157 pounds - Cody Chittum (ISU) maj. dec. Cole Handlovic (CORN), 20-6
• 165 pounds - #4 David Carr (ISU) WBF Benny Rogers (CORN), 2:57
• 174 pounds -  #22 MJ Gaitan (ISU) dec. Benny Baker (CORN), 10-7
• 184 pounds - #9 Chris Foca (CORN) dec. #5 Will Feldkamp (ISU), 8-7
• 197 pounds - #7 Jacob Cardenas (CORN) WBF McCrae Hagarty (ISU), 3:19
• 285 pounds - #3 Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. #19 Lewis Fernandes (CORN), 6-3

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.