Iowa State wrestling sends David Carr out with win in his final match in the Hilton

AMES − David Carr, signing off.

In David Carr's final competition inside Hilton Coliseum, he and the Iowa State wrestling team rolled to a 41-3 win over the Missouri Tigers on Sunday. Carr ended his Hilton career with a win by fall in the first period (2:11) over Jeremy Jakowitsch.

Before he came off the mat, Carr opened his arms wide and blew kisses to the 7,013 fans in attendance. As he took his final step off, he crouched down and gave a fake signature to the mat to leave his symbolic mark on the floor of a place he dominated throughout his career.

His record at home improved to 67-0 with that victory. In addition to that, he capped his ledger in dual meets at 66-0, his regular-season matches with a 83-2 and now sits at 112-4 all-time.

Even before the signature, Carr left a heck of a mark at Iowa State. With just one postseason ride left with the former national champion and four-time All-American, coach Kevin Dresser reflected on what he's meant to the program that was in the cellar of the college wrestling world when he took over and jetted back to the top with Carr's leadership.

"To have the trust in this staff and the vision we have ... it meant a lot to not just our staff, but Cyclone nation," Dresser said. "You never know how good a kid is going to be when he gets to college. You can speculate all you want. We knew he was really talented, but how would he make that transition? How would he handle the toughness of being a Division I wrestler? He obviously made it really, really well. He's a guy that's going to go down as a Cyclone great. That's pretty cool."

What he's brought to the Cyclone program reflected on the podium after, as Yonger Bastida sat to his right to answer questions from the media. Bastida was someone Carr helped recruit to Ames, all the way from Cuba after the two met at the 2019 World Championships. On Sunday, Bastida defeated No. 5 Zach Elam to cap off the 41-3 victory for Iowa State and is currently an undefeated 20-0 heading into the postseason. He's one of the favorites to potentially bring home an individual title for the Cyclones.

Bastida pointed to Carr as the reason he came to Iowa State as well as how the program has gotten back to relevancy.

"His legacy at Iowa State is something incredible," Bastida said. "His father too. He's (David Carr) the man."

Not only was he instrumental in helping shape this team and bring the Cyclones back to legitimacy on the mat, but what surrounds the mat as well. The fans roared and gave Carr his flowers for what he's brought to this program.

"I remember my first dual here, it was not that packed and that loud," Carr said. "For my last dual, for how packed, how loud, everyone wearing the white ... it was just something special. It's hard to put into words, but it's just something really special."

It was one thing short of a storybook ending to Carr's career, as he missed a chance to wrestle longtime rival Keegan O'Toole in the Sunday dual, with O'Toole and several key starters out with illness and injury, per Missouri coach Brian Smith. Dresser expressed disappointment following the dual that Missouri didn't being its starters to Iowa this weekend, citing that it's likely a strategy to protect seeding for the postseason.

"Obviously, disappointed in that we didn't get to wrestle the guys that we thought we were gonna wrestle," Dresser said. "That is what it is, it's probably a strategy. Coach Smith has been around for a long time, so it's not needed for my place to challenge his strategy, but it's obviously a strategy. We'll see if the strategy pays off."

So with that, the Cyclones dominated the Tigers thoroughly by winning nine of 10 bouts. Iowa State's lone loss came at 184 pounds, with Will Feldkamp dropping his bout with unranked Colton Hawks.

The lone spots of ranked matchups came at 141 and 285 pounds. Before Bastida won his at 285 pounds, junior No. 9 Anthony Echmenedia faced No. 24 Josh Edmond at 141 pounds,. Echemendia got himself in a hole early, conceding a takedown into a four-point near fall to go down 7-0. However, off of two takedowns, two stalling points and two escapes, Echemendia rallied to take a win over Edmond to loud applause from the Cyclone crowd.

All in all, Carr got what he felt was the send-offs of all send-offs with his and the team's performance in the regular season finale.

• 125: Ethan Perryman (ISU) over (MIZZ) (For.)

• 133: Evan Frost (ISU) over Drew Stanfield (MIZZ) (TF 19-3 5:31)

• 141: Anthony Echemendia (ISU) over Josh Edmond (MIZZ) (Dec 10-9)

• 149: Casey Swiderski (ISU) over Joel Mylin (MIZZ) (TF 20-4 6:41)

• 157: Cody Chittum (ISU) over James Conway (MIZZ) (Dec 11-4)

• 165: David Carr (ISU) over Jeremy Jakowitsch (MIZZ) (Fall 2:11)

• 174: MJ Gaitan (ISU) over Ellis Pfleger (MIZZ) (Fall 5:35)

• 184: Colton Hawks (MIZZ) over Will Feldkamp (ISU) (Dec 12-8)

• 197: Julien Broderson (ISU) over Jesse Cassatt (MIZZ) (Dec 7-2)

• 285: Yonger Bastida (ISU) over Zach Elam (MIZZ) (MD 13-4)

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 vs. Missouri: recap David Carr's final match