Sorensen, No. 1 Hawkeyes rally to edge Ohio State

It took Brandon Sorensen more than five minutes to pick up steam Sunday.

It took his team a lot longer than that.

In the end, though, Sorensen and the Iowa wrestlers brushed off a series of sluggish starts by finishing with a flurry.

Three takedowns in the final 90 seconds launched Sorensen past All-American Hunter Stieber at 149 pounds and four straight victories to close the dual lifted the top-ranked Hawkeyes to an 18-14 road win against No. 7 Ohio State.

Sorensen quieted the crowd inside St. John Arena by rallying from a three-point deficit in the final period, culminating his comeback in the final 20 seconds when he spun around Stieber for the winning takedown in a 9-7 victory.

"I kept going to my attacks and I kept coming after him and he went downhill, and that's when I capitalized," said Sorensen, a freshman locked in a battle with junior Brody Grothus for Iowa's starting job at 149. "I kept coming and that was the difference."

It turned out to be the difference in the dual, too.

Iowa scored seven takedowns as a team and won six bouts to overcome three-time national champion Logan Stieber's technical fall at 141 and Johnni DiJulius' 7-5 upset win over No. 4 Cory Clark at 133.

Ohio State also picked up wins from Josh Demas – a 5-2 winner against Michael Kelly – and freshman Bo Jordan, who handled Nick Moore 9-2 at 165. The Buckeyes led 14-6 after six bouts.

The Hawkeyes scored just one first-period takedown in the dual – it came at 184 during Sam Brooks' 3-2 win against Kenny Courts – yet still did enough late to offset their slow starts.

Heavyweight Bobby Telford capped Iowa's comeback with a 4-0 win against Nick Tavanello.

"This team better score some first-period takedowns," Iowa coach Tom Brands said. "You look at where we're at and what our ability is and what I know it is and what 6,000 people out there saw, they're not seeing a team that can attack very well in that first period. We need to do that. Otherwise, it's too tight."

Thomas Gilman rode out eighth-ranked Nathan Tomasello in a tiebreaker to win a 2-1 decision at 125. Mike Evans spotted an early lead to Mark Martin before rallying for a 5-2 win at 174.

Nathan Burak ditched a redshirt and pulled out a bizarre 2-1 victory against prized freshman Kyle Snyder in the Iowa junior's season dual debut.

After a scoreless first period, Snyder asked for an injury timeout, which enabled Burak to have his choice at the beginning of the second and third periods. He scored both of his points on escapes.

"I'm not super happy with how I wrestled," Burak said. "I'm glad I got the victory … but I've got to go a lot more. … I didn't wrestle how I know I can wrestle."