By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Moments after representing their home state, Iowa, well by securing victories over opponents on the Cliff Keen USA Dream Team Classic, Andrew Long and Nate Moore could be seen talking and laughing with each other on the Iowa Elite team bench, April 12, in Iowa City.

“We go way back,” said Moore, the Iowa West senior who defeated Brian Owen of Washington, 9-3, in the 125-pound match. “I can remember Andrew in third or fourth grade.”

“We’ve bumped into each other a lot,” said Long, the Creston (Iowa) High School wrestler, who defeated Thomas Williams of California, 6-2, at 119 pounds. “(While in Iowa City), I’m staying at his house instead of the hotel. We have a lot of things in common and are pretty good friends.”

That friendship should get tested in the next six months when these two wrestlers will most likely be competing at 125 pounds on the college level: Moore with his hometown Iowa Hawkeyes and Long with the Iowa State Cyclones.

Both college programs are coming off strong years: Iowa won both the Big Ten and NCAA championship while Iowa State won the Big 12s for a second consecutive year and finished five points out of the runner-up spot in fifth place at the national tournament in St. Louis, Mo., in March.

Moore and Long and many of the wrestlers who competed at the Dream Team Classic at Iowa City West High School will compete for these colleges next fall.

Other future Hawkeyes will be Matt McDonough (130) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Waverly-Shell Rock’s (Iowa) Mark Ballweg (135), who lost their Dream Team Classic matches, and Grant Gambrall, a teammate of Moore’s at Iowa City West, who upset the nation’s No. 1-rated prep — Quentin Wright of Wingate, Pa. — by a 6-0 margin.

Heavyweight Eric Thompson, the nation’s top-rated wrestler at his weight, won the final bout of the Dream Team Classic, will be enrolling at Iowa State.

And while the state of Iowa is proud of both programs, there is no love shared among the wrestlers and fans of these in-state schools.

“We’ll try not to let the Cy-Hawk differences keep us apart,” said Long, who will graduate from Creston with three state championships, a pair of Cadet Nationals in Greco-Roman and one freestyle title.

“When we are off the mat, we remain friends. When the time comes, we will have the competitive edge against each other. We’re going to be butting heads pretty hard.”

Long is well aware that the Cyclones took a backseat to the Hawkeyes this past year.

“We’re going to try and take it away from them,” said Long, who is expected to compete at a heavier weight in future years, considering his brother Dylan, a former All-American at Northern Iowa, competed at 141. “It will be fun.”

Moore, who won two state championships and both a freestyle and Greco-Roman title at the Cadet Nationals, committed to Iowa after his junior season.

He said he could also see the success of the college programs in the state affecting high school wrestlers within the Iowa borders.

“It definitely sparks interest in general,” Moore said. “We got more crowds in the high school level. I’m real excited about going to Iowa. I can’t wait to get in there.”

Considering Moore, Long and Thompson were rated No. 1 at their weights, this has been a strong year for Iowa preps on the national level and they want the rest of the nation to see that.

“We wanted to make a good showing to show that Iowa is one of the better states,” said Moore.

Of course, the USA Dream team, which featured ten No. 1-rated wrestlers, won the majority of the matches.

That included Jordan Oliver, a three-time state champ from Easton, Pa., who knows plenty about Iowa’s success after signing to wrestle at Oklahoma State; perhaps the state’s biggest rival outside Iowa.

“Hearing the crowd, they knew that I will be an Oklahoma State guy,” said Jordan, a defending Junior National champ in freestyle who put on a takedown clinic in beating McDonough, 16-5 by executing four different takedowns in the first period alone.

“There’s going to be many more times that we meet in the next couple years. There is already a rivalry and tradition between us that has started.

Jordan’s future coach, John Smith, made sure he knew what is at stake.

“He said, ‘We don’t lose to Iowa guys,’ ” said Oliver. “If I would have lost tonight, he would have been pretty mad. He knows that when I get there, I’m going to succeed a lot more. I’ll never lose to an Iowa guy, hopefully.”

As for future Hawkeyes and Cyclones, they feel the same way.

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