Going into Carver-Hawkeye Arena to wrestle Iowa can be a daunting task for any wrestler. Over the years, many great wrestlers have succumbed to the pressure of the crowd and the opponent.

But not Nebraska’s Lenny Pinto, who drew motivation from losing 6-5 to Abe Assad two years ago in his first trip to Iowa City as a freshman. This time around, Pinto took care of business in what may be a contender for match of the year — an 18-11 decision over then-#6 Patrick Kennedy.

“I remember the last time I was in Carver and I lost by a point — I remember the feeling,” Pinto said. “Coming back this time, I knew I really wanted to leave that place with a win knowing it might be my last time ever in Carver. It is a real special environment for all wrestlers, even the opposing team — with all the cheering and it’s just an amazing opportunity to be down there competing on the mat.”

Pinto has long considered himself a professional, so he takes that mindset and his experience wrestling on big stages with him into matches like this one. He’s a veteran who has wrestled in 84 career matches with a 63-21 career record.

“To be a professional, you have to know how to understand and handle those environments, so for me that was just another match,” Pinto said.

According to Nebraska coach Mark Manning, he didn’t just see that level of professionalism out of Pinto, he saw it up and down the lineup as Nebraska narrowly dropped the dual to #2 Iowa 19-16. The #4 Huskers held a 16-9 lead after 184 pounds and never trailed in the dual until after the final bout when #21 Harley Andrews fell to #11 Ben Kueter 8-0.

“I think Lenny wrestled really well, and that started with the environment. I was proud of how our guys handled the mental stress of wrestling at Carver-Hawkeye. I’ve had teams and I’ve seen millions of teams over the course of the last 30 to 40 years not handle it well,” Manning said. “Our guys handled it really well, and the moment wasn’t too big, and that bodes well for being in the Big Ten finals and being in the national finals. That’s something that we’ve worked on throughout the year, so Lenny handled that well — then he just wrestled.”

In the match, Pinto started things off with an early feet-to-back, earning seven points. He then added another takedown to go up 10-1 early in the first period. Kennedy responded with a takedown and four near-fall of his own on the edge of the mat. Pinto went into the second period up 11-9 when the smoke cleared.

Kennedy then rode Pinto out for the entire second period, locking up a riding-time point. Kennedy scored a third-period escape, cutting the Pinto lead to 11-10, but it was essentially tied 11-all with the riding time. With less than 10 seconds left in a match that looked destined for sudden victory, Pinto dug in one of his patented underhooks, snagged Kennedy’s left leg and drove through for the takedown and a full set of backpoints.

“My next gameplan after it was 10-9 was, ‘Well, I have the ability to put this guy to his back, and I know I can do it again.’ I knew he was tired, and I knew I was tired, so I knew that wasn’t a factor,” Pinto said, recounting the match. “Once I was up on my feet, I know the kid has good discipline in his stance and his hand fight and he keeps walking you down, but I knew if I just stayed in the pocket, kept fighting hands and staying in good position, I knew that when I needed to, I’d get to one that mattered. 

“In the third period on the final takedown, I knew once I got my underhook and I felt him kind of sit there and relax — and that’s been one of my most dominant moves since the beginning of college — if I just send this thing one time as hard as I could, I know I’m gonna get it, and that’s just what I did.”

Pinto has been known for his underhook offense in college, but it hasn’t always been that way.

“It’s weird because in high school, I didn’t use it. It was honestly in college when I kind of figured it out,” Pinto said. “Guys just have more of a disciplined wrestling style coming into college, and I had to find a way to make these explosive moves — I had to come up with something where I could just run through someone. This one worked because of the whole element of surprise —  like a game of playing possum where they never really know when that burst is gonna come.”

Down this season from 184 to 174, Pinto says there’s not much difference — he still doesn’t cut very much weight after trimming his body down in the fall before the season.

“This year at 174, it’s not the same thing, but it’s very maintainable. It’s honestly been easy. Basically, I just trimmed down my body of extra fat I didn’t need and got to a healthier weight. It’s honestly no struggle whatsoever making 174,” Pinto said. “I did it the best way I possibly could, and it ended up working out. Now, I’m at this healthy state where I don’t even really need to worry about my weight.”

After his big win over Kennedy, Pinto shot up and let the crowd know it with his celebration, but he wanted to make clear that the moment may have just gotten the better of him a little bit.

“I hadn’t had a big win in a while and I was just excited about the moment being in Carver, but I’m always grateful for God and all my opportunities — that’s the backbone of everything I do,” Pinto said.

Minto Stacking Up Well In Big Ten

A major boon for the Huskers this season has been the performance of redshirt freshman Christopher Minto, now ranked #13 at 165 pounds, with his 16-2 record on the year.

He’s 4-1 in Big Ten duals this season with his only loss a 5-1 decision against Iowa’s #2 Michael Caliendo, a guy with a nearly 70-percent bonus rate. Minto was in that match, something that gives him confidence, according to Manning.

“I think Christopher did a really good job, and I think there were a couple positions where if he would have wrestled different, we could have gotten the takedown,” Manning said. “I think he can learn from that. He was a guy who stayed in the moment and the moment wasn’t too big.”

When you account for the fact that Minto had to beat out a top-10 guy, Bubba Wilson, for the starting spot, it makes what he’s done this season even more impressive. Once in the lineup, Minto went on to down then-#9 Andrew Sparks 5-4 in a dual and got a 7-2 win over Michigan’s #14 Beau Mantanona.

“It really shows his potential and where he can go, and now we just have to be more attentive to details. We need to know where we need to go and get there a little quicker,” Manning said. “We weren’t surprised as a staff to see he was right in the mix (against Caliendo). We’ve seen this guy compete, and he had to beat out a really tough guy in the room to do it.”

Coming out of Mariner High School in Florida, Minto was not on any of the Big Boards. 

“We knew that Minto is the guy he is, so people are starting to figure it out a little bit, but we saw something in him — particularly coach Manning saw something in him when we recruited him a few years ago,” Nebraska associate head coach Bryan Snyder said in late December. 

When asked about what it was that he saw in Minto that some other programs and coaches maybe didn’t see, here’s what Manning had to say:

“He was a really humble kid, and I could just see the grittiness in him and the desire that ‘I want to wrestle at this level, and I’m going to do anything I need to do to get there.’ I knew he was a hard worker, so he had the characteristics that fit our model for our program — great work ethic, high character. He’s a guy that was willing to put in the work, and some kids aren’t willing to do that. He wanted to be a part of a great team, so he had those qualities that I saw that kids can really rise up, so it’s not really surprising to me to see him be where he is. He has a great potential to finish really high this year.”

According to Pinto, Minto reminds him a lot of his former teammate, four-time All-American Mikey Labriola, now an assistant coach for Rutgers.

“In my opinion, he’s very similar to Labriola. He doesn’t shoot too crazy often, but his leg defense and scrambling abilities are honestly fantastic,” Pinto said. “He’s just starting to get the feel for the college scramble, but once he capitalizes a little more in the scrambles, I think guys are going to be fearful to shoot on him then. I think he’s really dangerous and is going to do some great things.”

Allred Gets Big Win Against Arnold

Other than Pinto taking out Kennedy, Nebraska saw another important upset when #6 Silas Allred beat then-#5 Gabe Arnold of Iowa 4-1 in sudden victory, handing the Hawkeye his first official collegiate loss.

After a brutal January when Allred dropped consecutive matches to #1 Carter Starocci, #2 Parker Keckeisen and #4 Max McEnelly, he’s now won four straight conference matches. He’s 15-3 on the year and 4-2 in Big Ten duals.

“It just shows us what Silas is capable of doing, and we know it’s more believing. He’s been there, and he stepped up in a big moment which is inspiring for his future coming up in the Big Tens in a month and obviously the national tournament,” Manning said. “He wants to win big matches, so he’s going to have to do that three or four more times. That’s something you can keep laying bricks on and keep adding to that mindset and that mental aspect of the sport that you can do it.”