MYSTIC, Ia. — DeMichael Franklin, a former Iowa State wrestler, used a two-on-one to score a takedown on Saturday, like he’s done so many times before — except this time, he stood up and wiped sand off his shorts. That was different.

A few minutes later, Kyven Gadson, another former Cyclone, used an underhook to take his opponent to his back. The crowd collectively ooohh’d at Gadson’s takedown… then laughed when his opponent, Archie Williams, stood up with sand all over his face.

“It felt good,” Gadson said afterward. “It’s just different. It’s totally different.”

This is beach wrestling. This was Saturday at Rathbun Lake.

USA Wrestling’s Beach Wrestling Tour of America came to Iowa this past weekend, the fifth of as many as 11 stops around the country to promote beach wrestling, a newer style of wrestling gaining in popularity.

Beach wrestling is a simpler form of wrestling. Matches take place on sand in a ring that’s seven meters (roughly 23 feet) in diameter. Matches are three minutes long, and the first wrestler to score three points wins. If the match is tied after three minutes, whoever scored the last point wins. If the match ends 0-0, the lighter wrestler wins. Seriously.

Points are scored via takedowns, step-outs or forcing your opponent to touch a supporting point (knee, elbow, head; hands can touch) to the sand. If you take your opponent feet-to-back, that’s worth three points and can end the match.

United World Wrestling, the sport’s international governing body, formally introduced the sport in 2018, with the Beach Wrestling World Series. Four Senior-level weights are available for men and women — 70, 80, 90 and 90+ kilograms for men; 50, 60, 70 and 70+ kilos for women.

UWW scheduled five competitions between May and September for the 2022 Beach Wrestling World Series, in Turkey, Spain, France, Greece and Romania. Wrestlers earn points with their individual finishes at each competition, and whoever has the most points at the end wins the world title for their respective weight class.

Not many U.S. wrestlers are currently in the UWW Beach Wrestling World Series rankings — Anthony Raupp is ranked No. 6 at 80 kilos in men’s; Tiaira Scott is 9th at 70+ kilos for women — but both UWW and USA Wrestling say there’s a legitimate push to get women’s breach wrestling into the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

UWW and USA Wrestling are pushing women's beach wrestling as an Olympic sport, in part, because of gender equity. Men currently have twice as many Olympic wrestling opportunities as women (12 combined weights in men's freestyle and Greco-Roman vs. just six weights in women's freestyle).

Women's beach wrestling, according to UWW and USA Wrestling, would not only give women another Olympic wrestling opportunity, but also offers another avenue for the sport to capitalize on the rapid growth in women's wrestling in the United States and around the world.

The highest levels of beach wrestling matches look part-freestyle, part-greco, part-judo. A couple of Iowa high-school wrestlers have recently dabbled, successfully, in beach wrestling.

Last year, Charles City’s Lily Luft took fourth at the Cadet beach wrestling world championships in Romania. In May, Martensdale-St. Marys’ Josephine Wearmouth took second at USA Wrestling’s national beach wrestling championships in North Carolina.

“It’s a lot greco, a lot of upper-body and throws and positioning,” Luft, a two-time state champion and women’s freestyle All-American, told the Register last fall. She added that she focused on her “foot-positioning and throws” when preparing for competition.

► MORE: Listen to Charles City's Lily Luft talk more about beach wrestling

With the formation of the Beach Wrestling Tour of America, USA Wrestling is trying to grow the sport domestically. That led to Saturday’s event at Rathbun Lake, where 85 wrestlers of all ages and sizes competed at the Island View Beach.

“Raise your hand if you’re new to beach wrestling?” the announcer said over a loud speaker — to which most everybody responded by raising their hands.

The event, dubbed the Kraken Beach Wrestling Championships, was hosted by Jamie Cochran, the director of the Chariton Wrestling Club. He used a modified ruleset for younger wrestlers, but the Senior-level wrestlers competed using the UWW rules.

The 85 participating wrestlers made the Kraken Beach Wrestling Championships the third-largest beach wrestling event of the fifth evens thus far on USA Wrestling’s Beach Wrestling Tour of America calendar. Only the Beach national championships (201) and the Fargo Summer Showcase (105) had more.

The prevailing thought from those who participated on Saturday: beach wrestling is pretty fun.

Franklin won both of his matches on Saturday. He competed at 90 kilos (198 pounds) at the Senior level, and scored a 3-point takedown in both of his matches.

“I think it’s a good way to get more fans into the sport,” Franklin said. “I like it. We should grow it.”

He added: “I’m a little out of shape these days, but that was fun.”

Cody Swim, the head coach at Interstate 35, also won two matches. Two of his athletes, the Steinlage twins, Nick and Ryan, also competed. Nick beat Ryan twice — on a three-point throw in the first match, then in a back-and-forth 3-2 decision in the second match.

“It was fun,” Swim said. “It’s more relaxed.”

Would you do it again?

Gadson went 2-0 in the Senior 90+ kilos competition, winning his first match with three one-point scores, then winning his second by using that underhook and taking Williams to his back. He enjoyed the simplicity of beach wrestling.

“There’s a lot of positives about it,” Gadson said. “It’s simple for the fans, and it’s simple for the wrestlers.”

Gadson, a 2015 NCAA champion for Iowa State and a regular on USA Wrestling’s Senior men’s freestyle ladder ever since, also pointed out that he beat the top-ranked wrestler in UWW’s Beach Wrestling World Series rankings at 90+ kilos, Georgia's Mamuka, at the 2019 World Cup in Russia.

Maybe the 30-year-old has a future in beach wrestling?

“That’d be amazing,” he said.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.