IOWA WRESTLING

Wrestling mailbag: It’s State Week, plus Iowa-Oklahoma State, and is freestyle the future?

Cody Goodwin
The Des Moines Register

The Iowa state wrestling tournament is always fun for a number of reasons — one of them being the history that tends to resurface every year.

Wrestlers can etch their names into the record books with strong performances this week. They can cement their spots among the best. They can create memories they’ll surely share with their own kids when they start wrestling one day.

One of the things I love about covering wrestling in Iowa is that the history is everywhere. You hear the names and see the faces because they come back. You hear the stories, many of which become bigger with each year, smaller details lost to history and replaced by hyperbole.

For me, the state tournament always comes at a busy time of the year, a cross between the end of the pinnacle of the high school season and the end of the college regular season. Many of the coaches at Iowa’s three Division I programs have all wrestled at the state tournament. 

Many won titles, too.

Iowa head coach Tom Brands won in 1986 for Sheldon. Terry, his twin and Iowa’s associate head coach, won twice, in 1985-86. Assistant coach Ryan Morningstar won three times, 2003-05, for Lisbon.

Iowa State coach Kevin Dresser won twice for Humboldt, in 1980-81. Two of his assistants, Derek St. John and Willie Miklus, won nearly three decades later — St. John went back-to-back for Iowa City West in 2007-08 while Miklus won twice for Southeast Polk in 2011-12.

Northern Iowa’s coaches own a pair of titles. Head coach Doug Schwab won in 1996 for Osage, a decade after his brother, Mark, won four. The year before Doug won, assistant Randy Pugh won for Columbus Columbus Junction.

See what I mean when I say the history is everywhere?

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More Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa recruits will compete inside Wells Fargo Arena this week. Many more will not be attending any of those schools. For some kids, this will be the last time they wrestle.

But they will all attempt to create their own little piece of history, to author their own story that they can share years down the road. We’ll see some special things this week. Here’s to enjoying the ride.

Now, then. Onto the wrestling mailbag. Hope to see some of you at the Well this week. It’s always a good time.

Please give me a follow on Twitter (@codygoodwin) and I’ll keep you guys up to date on all things wrestling in Iowa. Thanks so much for your help here, and for reading.

Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 1

This came in response to Jacob Warner’s 13-4 win over Minnesota’s Hunter Ritter on Saturday night. Warner looked great, scoring five takedowns and a reversal on his way to a major decision. Maybe the best he’s looked all year.

The trick now is to just keep at it. The state of 197 this season is such that you have Ohio State’s Kollin Moore at the top, and then a cluster of guys below him who could finish anywhere from second to eighth depending on draws and performance and all that. 

West Virginia’s Noah Adams is undefeated and ranked second, according to Trackwrestling, but behind him is Princeton’s Pat Brucki, whom Warner has traded with this year; then Warner; then Purdue’s Christian Brunner, who has beaten Brucki and lost to Warner; then Cornell’s Ben Darmstadt, who bumped up from 184; then Nebraska’s Eric Schultz, who’s beaten Warner but has lost to Oklahoma’s Jake Woodley, who’s ranked No. 18; then Virginia’s Jay Aiello, who beat Warner but lost twice to Brunner as well as Northern Colorado’s 20th-ranked Jacob Seely.

Iowa's Jacob Warner wins his match against Iowa State's Joel Shapiro at 197 during the Cy-Hawk dual on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, in Hilton Coliseum.

There are more examples of this as you go down the rankings, but you get the idea, right?

The opportunity for Warner to make a move and finish high on the podium is there. But he could also stumble and even miss the podium if he’s not on in March. It comes down to performing when it matters.

Right now, Warner is 14-3 with a matchup against Oklahoma State’s Dakota Geer coming Sunday. That’ll be big for NCAA seeding. Then the Big Ten tournament will be big for that, too. If he wrestles like he did last Saturday, I can see him making one heck of a run next month.

Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 2

Well, yes. If the NCAA Championships played out exactly like Track’s latest set of rankings, Iowa would finish with 10 All-Americans. It would take an incredible effort to beat 10 All-Americans. 

Only one team in NCAA history has finished with 10 All-Americans: Minnesota in 2001. The Gophers did not have a single finalist that year — did have three guys take third, though — and scored 138.5 points. They scored quite a bit of bonus, but also had the right combination of guys wrestling above their seeds to balance out those who wrestled below.

Iowa had seven All-Americans, including four finalists and two champs, and still finished 13 points behind in second place.

This year’s Iowa team, I think, has a chance to be better than that Minnesota team. As it stands right now, the Hawkeyes would score 115 points before bonus and other advancement based on Track’s latest rankings. Nine of the 10 starters are ranked fourth or better. The one who isn’t, Abe Assad, is ranked No. 8. 

That’s going to set a ridiculously high bar going into March, which probably isn’t fair, but that’s how good they’ve been this season. It’s going to take points from all 10 weights to win, but, like, if Michael Kemerer loses in the finals, for example, or if Alex Marinelli takes third instead of second, or if Pat Lugo takes fifth instead of fourth, that’s not going to shatter Iowa’s chances.

There’s a small margin for error, is the point here. So if Spencer Lee is the only won to win an individual title, I’m sure there will be some disappointment, sure, but they can still win it all.

Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 3

I think I’ll take more Iowa State All-Americans, because I think the Cyclones could end up with four All-Americans, maybe five, next month. If Iowa crowns four, maybe five, national champs, we could be looking at a historic national tournament.

Which isn’t out of the question, by the way, but it sure would be something.

For Iowa State, I’m looking at guys like Ian Parker, Jarrett Degen, David Carr and, after this past weekend, Sam Colbray. I think a fifth could come from either Alex Mackall or Gannon Gremmel. Or maybe they both make the podium and one of the other four miss. Heck, maybe they all get on the podium and Iowa State shocks everybody. Let’s not rule that out just yet.

For Iowa, you start with Lee and Kemerer because they’re both ranked No. 1, and then there’s Alex Marinelli, who’s ranked No. 2, then Austin DeSanto, who’s ranked No. 3 and can absolutely make a finals run. Lugo, who’s ranked No. 4, could make a run, too.

Then there’s Tony Cassioppi, Kaleb Young, Warner, Assad, Max Murin, some of whom will probably require a favorable draw to reach the finals. That’s a tough ask, I think. 

So I’ll take more Iowa State All-Americans, but there’s definitely a world where they go 2-2 and this question results in a push. There’s also a world where Iowa gets three champs and Iowa State gets 1-2 All-Americans. 

Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 4

Everything I’ve read suggests women’s college wrestling will stick with freestyle, and I’m a big fan of that, and the second part of your tweet is the exact reason why.

Let’s start here: The Division I vote to make women’s wrestling an emerging sport is in April, which is significant. If that passes, we’ll see more Division I athletic programs add women’s wrestling.

Hopefully some of them are bigger programs, like Iowa. That new facility that’s expected be on the south side of Carver-Hawkeye Arena will include enough space for the Iowa wrestling team, the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and, yes, even a women’s program in the future. 

So once that gets going, more Iowa wrestling fans — not wrestling nerds, like me and you, just normal Iowa wrestling fans — will be exposed to women’s freestyle, and this is shorthand for the sake of space and moving this along, but I imagine this is how the conversations will go.

Person A: Women wrestle freestyle?

Diehard wrestling nerd person: Yes, they do that in the Olympics.

Person A: Do men wrestle freestyle in the Olympics?

Diehard wrestling nerd person: Yes.

Person A: So why don’t they do that in college, too?

Diehard wrestling nerd person: 🤷🏼‍♂️

There’s a wicked disconnect between the wrestling fans that show up to duals each winter — in Iowa City, Ames, Cedar Falls and around the country — and those who show up to watch the many big freestyle tournaments throughout the year. There’s a lot of theories for why that is. One that I think makes a lot of sense is that there’s built-in fan bases at the collegiate level.

Iowa fans who may not follow wrestling all that closely will get behind the Iowa wrestlers, for example, because it’s Iowa, but they may not know a lot about the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. If you expose that same fan base to a more exciting style of wrestling — because that’s what freestyle is — that’s one way to grow that part of the fan base and expose them to the bigger international stages.

So then you get momentum behind freestyle, and before long, the NCAA will be forced to make a decision: either stick with folkstyle, which has tremendous advantages and is a great product, or switch to freestyle, which the women already do and is the style contested at wrestling’s highest level.

There are more details than what I just ran through, but you get the gist of it. I’d like to think the decision will be easy, but I can’t say that with full and complete confidence. I’m not sure how long it will take to get to that point, either, but I know we will get there.

That’s where part of this women’s wrestling movement is headed, whether we’re ready for it or not, and that will be a crazy interesting discussion once we get there.

Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 5

FINALLY. A STATE TOURNAMENT QUESTION. THANK YOU, GREATDANBINO.

In a dual format, I think Don Bosco vs. Southeast Polk would be crazy entertaining. Look at some of these matchups:

  • 106: Nate Jesuroga vs. Jaiden Moore
  • 126: Ayden Kingery vs. Michael McClelland
  • 132: Joel Jesuroga vs. Easton Larson
  • 145: Carter Martinson vs. Cael Rahnavardi
  • 152: Camden Baarda vs. Cael Frost
  • 182: Justin Brindley vs. Thomas Even
  • 220: Kalob Runyon vs. Jared Thiry

That looks like so much fun. I’d probably give the nod to Southeast Polk six times out of 10.

In a tournament setting, I’ll be honest, I can’t get Waverly-Shell Rock’s performance from last year out of my head. They scored a bunch of bonus points — 38, to be exact — and have brought many of those same pieces back again this year.

Southeast Polk has some crazy depth, with 13 guys qualified. Same with West Delaware, which brought 12. Fort Dodge qualified 11 and the Dons have 10. The Go-Hawks and Lisbon both have some serious firepower, and so does Underwood.

I think I’d probably take whoever comes out of Class 3A, to be honest. If you made this tournament an all-class extravaganza, I think Lisbon becomes a serious factor, too. Underwood has the horses to make things interesting as well. 

Jan 8, 2020; Pleasant Hill, Iowa, USA; At 195 lbs Gabe Christenson (Southeast Polk) over Cole Spyksma (Waukee) (TF 16-1 3:05) at SE Polk High School.  The Rams beat the Warriors 63 to 11. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-for the Herald
Mailbag Feb. 18, Tweet 6

Wait, Iowa has a dual this weekend?

(I kid, I kid.)

I don’t think the Hawkeyes will blank Oklahoma State, but I do think they win eight. I’m most looking forward to 125, obviously, but also 149, between Lugo and Boo Lewallen, and 165, between Marinelli and Travis Wittlake. 

Here’s to a fun week of wrestling.

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

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