Iowa’s Matt McDonough celebrates after his semifinal win at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Larry Slater photo.

Spend a few minutes talking to Iowa junior Matt McDonough and you can’t help but be fired up about the sport of wrestling.

The high-energy McDonough is one of the leaders and sparkplugs for the second-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes.

A two-time NCAA finalist who won a national title as a freshman in 2010, McDonough is off to another blazing start this season.

He is 19-1 this season at 125 pounds and 83-4 in his career. He has scored bonus points in 15 of his 19 victories.

“I want to go out there and wrestle seven minutes with a flurry and a fire,” McDonough said. “That’s the driving factor for me, wanting to be the best.”

McDonough, ranked No. 1 nationally by Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine, is on a roll again after suffering an early season loss to Illinois’ Jesse Delgado.

Delgado downed McDonough 11-7 in overtime on Dec. 2 at Iowa City’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena. McDonough led 6-2 in the match before suffering the only home loss of his career.

“I was giving up points that didn’t need to be given up like end-of-the-period scores,” McDonough said. “I need to be physically, mentally and emotionally ready. Any match like that opens your eyes up to that. You have to wrestle your match and do what you are capable of doing. You don’t ever want to lose, but you want to learn from your mistakes earlier than later.”

Since that setback, McDonough has been on a tear with a string of dominating victories. He will lead the Hawkeyes into a pair of key Big Ten dual meets this weekend.

Iowa wrestles at No. 7 Ohio State on Friday before traveling to third-ranked and returning NCAA team champion Penn State on Sunday.

“It’s what you live for,” McDonough said. “Matches like this are what you train for. You train to wrestle the best schools and the best wrestlers. I love wrestling at home, but I love going on the road and the challenge of doing that.”

The Hawkeyes won a dual meet at Penn State last year before the Nittany Lions bounced back to win Big Ten and NCAA team titles under Coach Cael Sanderson.

“We are going into a hostile environment with a chip on our shoulder and wanting to do some damage,” McDonough said. “There are 10 guys on the other bench that want to take something away from you and you’ve got to take it from them. There is an excitement to that. You want to rise to the occasion and show people you are the best.”

Tall and lanky for college wrestling’s lightest weight class, the 5-foot-7 McDonough’s trademark has become an aggressive, relentless attack where he breaks his opponents with his superior conditioning.

McDonough battles in practice with 133-pounder Tony Ramos, who knocked off returning national champion Jordan Oliver of Oklahoma State earlier this month.

“Ramos is a tough, tough wrestler,” McDonough said. “I wrestle him all the time. He has the mentality that he wants to be the best. He is ready for a fight every time he goes out there. You have to be ready to scrap out there when you wrestle him.”

McDonough stormed to the NCAA title as a freshman in 2010 in Omaha before placing second at the 2011 NCAA tournament in Philadelphia.

There was an abundance of hype surrounding his 2011 finals match with Arizona State’s Anthony Robles, who was born without a right leg. The two wrestlers had never met previously, and Robles emerged with a 7-1 win.

The match received extensive coverage on ESPN’s SportsCenter and Robles later won an ESPY for his performance.

“I understand that people saw that match as something different because I wrestled someone very unorthodox,” he said. “We are both competitors and we both wanted to win. There was an extreme amount of hurt and remorse for having it end that way. I don’t want to feel that way again. You need to make things go your way.”

McDonough has another big match coming up against All-American Zach Sanders of Minnesota on Jan. 29 in Iowa City.

Sanders, a senior, is ranked No. 1 by InterMat. McDonough is 4-0 against Sanders in the two previous seasons. They haven’t met this season.

“He’s a competitor and I’m a competitor,” McDonough said. “He’s coming to win the match and win the NCAA tournament. You have to be aware of that and be ready for that. That’s what you train for.”

McDonough is considered a top prospect in freestyle wrestling. He made the U.S. Junior World Team in 2010.

“I love watching McDonough,” said U.S. Assistant National Coach Bill Zadick, a past NCAA champion for Iowa. “He brings an intensity and excitement to every match he wrestles in. His results speak for themselves. His work ethic and passion have driven him to the top. I am really excited about his future internationally when he enters that full speed.”

McDonough will look to win his second national title when the NCAA Championships return to St. Louis in March.

“It’s a new year and a new situation,” he said. “It’s not going to be any easier. You have to train just as hard as you always have and you have to be ready for everything. I need to go out and just have fun. For me, having fun is going out there and putting on a show by dominating and giving absolutely nothing away.”