Carr family's Iowa State legacy started with chance encounter at Stephens Auditorium in 1980
KANSAS CITY — The Carr family legacy at Iowa State was cemented even further on Saturday night as 165-pound senior David Carr won his second NCAA title.
Wrestling Penn State freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink, Carr wasted no time in the match by hitting a slick blast double in the opening five seconds. With a single-leg takedown in the second period, an escape in the third off a Mesenbrink takedown and the riding-time advantage, Carr held on to win his first title since 2021 despite some stalling calls late that made it a 9-8 decision at the buzzer.
The Carr family's Iowa State legacy got its start on Sept. 6, 1980. Nate Carr, then a freshman wrestler at Iowa State, walked into Stephens Auditorium for a Minority Student Affairs event on campus.
There, he bumped into an old friend who happened to have brought along someone he never met before, a woman named Linda. After being introduced, Linda turned to Nate.
“You must be a wrestler,” she said.
“How do you know that?” Carr asked.
With her brother being a wrestler at Moline (Ill.) High School, she knew the type. With Carr being the short and muscular guy he was, she had him figured out upon first glance. The two kept talking to each other at school, and eventually began to date shortly after.
More than 40 years later, Linda and Nate Carr are happily married with seven children. The Carrs, beginning with Nate Sr., are enshrined in wrestling lore at Iowa State. Nate Carr won three NCAA titles and recorded an 122-17 ledger with the Cyclones. He competed for the United States and won a bronze medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Wrestling remained a big part of the Carr family. Nate coached as sons Nate Carr Jr. and David Carr picked up the wrestling bug.
In David's junior year of high school in Ohio, then becoming a highly acclaimed recruit, he was struggling to make the weight cut at 145 pounds. Linda Carr, once a nutrition coach, took it upon herself to make that same weight of 145 pounds with her son. She wanted to show her son that he didn't have to starve himself to make weight, but just had to make the healthy decisions with his diet.
David Carr recalled a time when his mother was stressing when she was two pounds over the night before the weigh-in.
“I have a lot of respect for these wrestlers because it takes a lot of tenacity,” Linda Carr said. “It takes consistency. You have to trust the process to do all that stuff. I learned (that) I hate the scale like I know the wrestlers do, but I made it.”
That support meant the world to David Carr.
"It was a special moment, just another moment to share with her," David Carr said. "I love her so much."
David ended his high school career with four Ohio State titles and became one of the top recruits in the nation in 2018. Schools from across the nation wanted to get Carr in their singlet. Iowa State coach Kevin Dresser had a persuasive message.
"Come here and let's carry on your father's legacy."
The rest is history, and on Saturday night he finished his Iowa State career as a two-time NCAA champion.
Carr and his father combined for eight All-American awards and five national titles at Iowa State. David Carr, a five-time All-American, finished his college career with an 120-5 ledger.
The Carrs are one of six father-son duos to secure NCAA wrestling titles, and they are the second to do so at the same program. The Carrs are also among four duos to win multiple titles. They are one of three father-son tandems to earn All-American honors at Iowa State, joining Willie and Kyven Gadson and Mike and Michael Moreno.
That historic family legacy could not have been on display any more than it was on Friday night during the NCAA semifinals. As Carr wrestled Missouri's Keegan O'Toole for a fifth time in two years, Nate Carr Sr. and Nate Carr Jr. (also a Cyclone wrestler for two seasons) sat in angst on the outskirts of the mat.
Carr and O'Toole had split the previous four matches they wrestled, with the Cyclone winning the first two and O'Toole winning the following pair. After losing the national title match at 165 pounds to O'Toole last season, Carr battled him for the first time this year at the Big 12 Championships. O'Toole won in an 8-2 decision. It was after that match that Nate Carr Sr. reminded David that he was once pinned in the Big 12 finals and then rallied for a NCAA title in the same season.
David Carr followed suit by eviscerating his demons with an electric 8-6 decision over O'Toole on Friday in Kansas City. As Carr shot for a single-leg takedown and drove O'Toole down for the win as time expired, his father and brother erupted with joy, running across the side of the mat, jumping and hollering as David flexed to the crowd. As David came off the mat, his dad and brother tackled him in celebration.
"We knew you could do it!" they yelled.
"I'll never forget that moment," David Carr said. "It was amazing to have that moment with them."
In the post-match press conference following his second NCAA title, a reporter asked whether David Carr believed he was a better wrestler than his dad now with this win. David, and his father in the back of the room, laughed. David said he still had some ground to make up in that regard, but ultimately viewed the biggest part of his legacy at Iowa State being much more than his titles.
It was the team he helped build through his leadership and prowess on the mat.
He joined this program shortly after Dresser took over. Then, the Cyclones weren't even finishing in the top 40. Saturday, the Cyclones ended the season with four All-Americans (Carr, Evan Frost, Anthony Echemendia and Casey Swiderski), the most the program has had since 2009. With team trophies handed only to the top three programs instead of the long-standing four, the Cyclones fell short of their ultimate goal of getting that piece of hardware. However, this was the first time since 2007 that the Cyclones finished ahead of rival Iowa in the final standings at the NCAAs.
That right there is what Nate Carr Sr. wanted to instill in his son, referring to a quote he once heard that has stuck with him though the years.
“Legacy is not what you leave for someone, it’s what you leave in someone,” Nate Carr Sr. said.
What David Carr leaves in Iowa State is a program that is on track for future success. Next year, the Cyclones will return Frost, Echemendia and Swiderski as All-Americans. MJ Gaitan and Yonger Bastida each finished with a loss in the blood round despite solid seasons, particularly from Bastida whose only two losses came at the NCAAs. Highly ranked prospect Cody Chittum will be back for more, and Paniro Johnson, a Big 12 champion last season, can make his return to the lineup as well after serving a season-long suspension related to the state's gambling probe.
Linda Carr never would have expected the family to end up back in the state of Iowa despite the Carr legacy beginning here in the 1980s. After seeing the way the weekend and past six years played out, she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
“It just became a full-circle moment where we’re back here helping build the program,” Linda Carr said.
Iowa State NCAA Championships team results
Kysen Terukina - DNP at 125 pounds (1-2)
Evan Frost - Sixth at 133 pounds
Anthony Echemendia - Fifth at 141 pounds
Casey Swiderski - Seventh at 149 pounds
Cody Chittum - DNP at 157 pounds (102)
David Carr - NCAA champion at 165 pounds
MJ Gaitan - DNP at 174 pounds (3-2, fell in blood round)
Will Feldkamp - DNP at 184 pounds (2-2)
Yonger Bastida - DNP at 285 pounds (2-2, fell in blood round)
Final team scores from the NCAA Championships
1st - Penn State (172.5 points)
2nd - Cornell (72.5)
3rd - Michigan (71)
4th - Iowa State (68.5)
5th - Iowa (67)
6th - Arizona State (64.5)
7th - Virginia tech (64)
8th - Ohio State (62)
9th - Nebraska (60.5)
10th - Oklahoma State (56)
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.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State wrestling's David Carr becomes NCAA champion in Kansas City
