Iowa had seven matches during session IV. The first was at 125 lbs where junior Thomas Gilman showcased his dominance over Nebraska’s Tim Lambert by posting five takedowns and a 12-4 final score. The major decision performance earned Gilman a 3rd place finish.

Next at 133 lbs, junior Cory Clark took Illinois’ Zane Richards into double overtime where he avenged his only loss of the season so far by riding Richards out to claim the gold. Then at 149 lbs, sophomore Brandon Sorensen gave up a first period takedown and got ridden out in the third period which resulted in him dropping the title match by decision to Penn State’s Zain Retherford 4-0.

Edwin Cooper Jr., the 157 lb Iowa grappler, lost in much the same way that Clark won. Cooper was ridden out in double overtime by Brian Murphy from Michigan causing Cooper to have to settle for a fourth place finish in the tournament. The Hawks found success again though at 174 lbs where junior Alex Meyer got a third period takedown and point for riding time to beat the Huskers’ Micah Barnes and take 5th place in his bracket.

The final two matches of the afternoon for the Hawkeyes were back on the middle, title mat. At 184 lbs, Iowa found success with junior Sammy Brooks as he revenged TJ Dudley, the Husker whom Brooks was pinned by during the regular season. Brooks won the match by decision, 6-4. Lastly, senior grappler, Nathan Burak gave up a first period takedown to Penn State’s Morgan McIntosh which he could not come back from. Burak’s perfromance during the tournament earned him 2nd place at 197 lbs.

Next for Hawkeyes is the NCAA national tournament which will begin on the 17th in New York City and will take place in Madison Square Garden.

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In the 125 lb consolation semifinal, junior #2 seed Thomas Gilman threw #5 Elijah Oliver of Indiana to his back after Oliver tried a costly trip. The throw resulted in a second period pin for Gilman who will now advance on to face #4 Tim Lambert from Nebraska in the 3rd place match.

Edwin Cooper Jr., the 157 lb #5 seed, rode #3 Richie Lewis of Rutgers the entire second period and then added an escape of his own to win the match 2-0. The Hawkeye junior will now wrestle Michigan’s Brian Murphy, the #6 seed, in the consolation final.

The last consolation semifinal that the Hawks competed in was at 174 lbs where junior #2 seed Alex Meyer seemed to suffer from a bad case of lethargy as he dropped his match 11-7 to Indiana’s #5 seed, Nate Jackson. Meyer got deep on several different shots, but each time he wound up stuck under Jackson, unable to turn the corner and finish.

The other two matches for Iowa’s grapplers were 7th place matches at 165 lbs and 285 lbs. Senior #8 seed Patrick Rhoads pulled out an exciting overtime victory that led to a standing ovation from the Hawkeye fan-filled Carver. Rhoads beat #7 Geno Morelli of Penn State by a score of 4-2 to take 7th place.

Finally at heavyweight, freshman standout #3 seed for the Hawkeyes, who has been hampered by a knee injury ever since facing two-time NCAA national champion Nick Gwiazdowski two weeks ago, was forced to give up a medical forfeit to unseeded Brock Horwath of Wisconsin. Stoll will probably still receive an at-large bid to attend the NCAA national tournament in a week and a half.

The team standings at the end of session III had Penn State leading with 136.5 points, Iowa trailing with 116, Nebraska close behind with 115, and Ohio State easily still in the mix with 114. The Hawks will have an uphill battle to beat Penn State as the Nittany Lions have six wrestlers competing in the finals. Of those six, two are head-to-head matches with Iowa: Sorensen will face Zain Retherford at 149 lbs and Burak will have Morgan McIntosh at 197 lbs.

Session IV will start at 3 p.m. and feature Clark, Sorensen, Brooks, and Burak wrestling for 1st place, Gilman and Cooper wrestling for 3rd place, and Meyer wrestling for 5th place.

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The other three wrestlers who made it to the semifinals will now have the chance to wrestle their way back to third place. Junior #2 seed at 133 lbs Thomas Gilman lost to #3 Nico Megaludis of Penn State after failing to score off of a single leg that Gilman fought over for the last thirty seconds of the third period which sent the match into overtime. Gilman then blundered in the second overtime when he tried a risky roll and was reversed.

At 157 lbs, senior #5 seed Edwin Cooper Jr. suffered a technical fall to the still undefeated #1 Jason Nolf of Penn State. At 174 lbs, #2 Alex Meyer did not seem to wrestle with much urgencey, as usual, and wound up getting taken down, cradled, and pinned in only 2:00 by #3 Zach Brunson of Illinios.

The other major let down of the tournament for the hawkeyes was freshman heavyweight #3 seed Sam Stoll disappointed again in the consolation bracket by losing 3-0 to the #7 seed Brooks Black of Illinois, and this was coming after a quarterfinal round loss to the #6 seed Collin Jensen of Nebraska. Stoll will now face the unseeded Brock Horwath of Wisconsin for 7th place.

In the 165 lb bracket, senior #8 seed Patrick Rhoads picked up a major decision in the consolation bracket over unseeded Brandon Krone of Minnesota 15-7. He then dropped his next match to the #5 seed from Purdue, Chad Welch, 2-0. Rhoads will join Stoll in session III in competing for 7th place. He will face the #7 seed Geno Morelli of Penn State.

The final hawkeye wrestler who competed in session II was the unseeded senior, Brody Grothus, at 141 lbs. Grothus lost his very first match to the #1 seed Micah Jordan of Ohio State 5-3, which sent him to the consolation bracket. His very next match pitted him against the #2 seed Tommy Thorn of Minnesota, who had lost out in the quarterfinal. Grothus once again came up short against top seeded competition losing by decision 7-5, which effectively knocked Grothus out of the tournament.

The final team standings at the completion of session II had Penn State in the lead with 133 points, followed by Iowa with 106, then Ohio State with 100, and in fourth was Nebraska with 98.5. Penn State has six wrestlers in the finals, two of which will face Iowa wrestlers: at 149 lbs and 197 lbs. Also worth mentioning in the Iowa-Penn State competition is 165 lbs where the two teams will compete for 7th place. There are no other possible meetings between the two teams other than at these three weight classes.

The wrestlers who made it to the finals will not compete until session IV, which begins at 3 p.m. Sunday. For Iowa, Cory Clark will face Zane Richards of Illinois at 133 lbs, Brandon Sorensen will face Zain Retherford of Penn State at 149 lbs, Sammy Brooks will face T. J. Dudley of Nebraska at 184 lbs, and Nathan Burak will face Morgan McIntosh of Penn State at 197 lbs.

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Starting with the bad news, Iowa’s #3 seeded freshman, Sam Stoll lost 14-5 in the 285 lb quarterfinals to Nebraska’s #6 seed Collin Jensen. Stoll looked sluggish all match and just seemed to get out-hustled by Jensen as he got turned to his back twice during the match. Stoll recently suffered a knee injury during the National Duels while wrestling against the #1 ranked wrestler in the nation, Nick Gwiazdowski, and did not look quite back at 100%.

Other good news for Iowa from the tournament has been the abundance of bonus point victory, which are going to be crucial if Iowa hopes to win a conference title. Cooper and Brooks both had pins in the first round, Burak had a tech fall, and Stoll had a major decision. Gilman, Clark, Sorensen, and Meyer all received the #2 seed in their brackets, but were unable to contribute any points in the first round due to byes.

Also in the first round, the unseeded senior at 141 lbs, Brody Grothus, took on the #1 seed from Ohio State, Micah Jordan. After tying the match up at two in the third period, Grothus gave up another takedown and ended up losing 4-3. Jordan went on to underperform in the next round getting upset by the #8 seed Jimmy Gulibon from Penn State.

The only other match Iowa had in the first round was at 165 where senior #8 seed Patrick Rhoads won in overtime on a stalling call over Indiana’s unseeded Bryce Martin.

In the second round of wrestling, Iowa mostly performed according to the seeding, but worthy of noting were the bonus point victories: junior Thomas Gilman and sophomore Brandon Sorensen won by major decisions, and junior Alex Meyer had a tech fall.

What did not go according to the seeding was senior #5 seed Edwin Cooper Jr.’s 2-1 upset decision over #4 Jake Ryan of Ohio State. The match ended tied 1-1, but Cooper got the win due to his nearly two minutes of accumulated riding time. Stoll, unfortunatley for the Hawkeyes, was upset during the second round too however. Finally, Patrick Rhoads nearly held the #1 seed Isaac Jordan of Wisconsin to a decision but then suddenly gave up a fall with twenty-four seconds left in the match.

The only Hawkeye wrestlers in the consolation side of the bracket now are Grothus, who had a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket, Rhoads, and Stoll. The other seven Hawkeyes will all be competing in the semifinal round during session II.

Session II will start at 6 p.m. tonight and will begin with the second round of the consolation bracket followed by the semifinals and then finally the third round of the consolation bracket.

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Iowa started off hot as ususal at 125 with Thomas Gilman who pinned Gopher Skyler Petry in ony the first period. Cory Clark also kept the energy up at 133 as he also ended his match by fall over Samuel Brancale in 4:58.

Then at 141 it was Brody Grothus’ turn again to get the start as he took on #7 Thomas Thorn. Grothus gave up points early in the match and fought his back by the third, but the deficit proved too much to be overcome as Grothus lost 6-4.

At 149 one of the premier matchups of the night was Iowa’s #1 Brandon Sorensen vs. Minnesota’s #10 Jake Short. While it was not complete domination, Sorensen’s offense proved to be too much for short and that lead to his victory by decision, 6-2.

Edwin Cooper Jr. then continued Iowa’s dominance with a 4-2 decision over Brandon Kingsley at 157. At 165, Hawkeye Patrick Rhoads pulled off a pretty decisive win over Dylan Urbach, who barely was able to keep Rhoads from a tech. fall in the 3rd period and limiting the score to only a 21-7 victory.

Afterwards, Iowa’s Alex Meyer added yet another major decision to the Hawkeye’s team score in the 174 lb match with a decisive 10-1 win over Nicholas Wanzek.

Sammy Brooks pumped some more excitement back into Carver with a thrilling first period tech. fall win over Christopher Pfarr. Brooks wowed the crowd by throwing Pfarr to his back three different times on his way to a 18-2 victory.

Perhaps the most anticipated match of the night came at 197 between Iowa’s #3 Nathan Burak and Minnesota’s #4 Brett Pfarr. After trading takedowns throughout the three periods the match finally came down to a last second takedown by Burak in the final seconds that was ruled as having come just after regulation time ended. Even after video review, the ruling stood and Pfarr pulled off the upset to win 6-5. Barring any further upsets, Pfarr will now most likely receive the two seed and Burak the three at the Big Ten Tournament.

In an almost equally drummed up match at 285, Minnesota native and current Hawkeye wrestler, #7 Sam Stoll took on an old high school rival from his homestate, #9 Michael Kroells. Stoll’s quick feet and excellent sprawling carried the day, leading him to a 7-3 victory over his old foe.

After Stoll’s decision went in the books, the final score was a lopsided 34-6 win for the Hawks, an impressive answer to the loss that Minnesota delivered to Iowa the last time they were in Iowa City, two years ago. The next action for the Iowa grapplers will be Friday the 5th as Iowa concludes its Big Ten schedule with a duel against Indianna on senior night.

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Senior 141 lb wrestler, Brody Grothus, was injured in the 2014 Midlands tournament and had not wrestled in Carver since that time. Tonight though Grothus stepped out onto the mat to the fitting “I’m Back” by Eminem and pulled out a 6-0 decision of Purdue’s #17 Danny Sabatello.

Grothus wrestled a very “mature” match in the words of Head Coach Tom Brands. Brands added, “I think patience equals maturity… When you can do that, move forward through the adversity, then still be patient, and know that your time is coming that is why he was able to do what he did tonight.” Brands also commented on his maturity in the way he was constantly looking for points. “He got the last takedown; That’s big… He took pride that he was going to have the last takedown there too. He didn’t need it, and that means something.”

Grothus’ win over a ranked opponent could mean the beginning of the end of the flip-flopping in the line up at 141, but Grothus’ ticket isn’t punched just yet. Brands stated that Carton would get another chance on Sunday as he takes on Nebraska’s #20 Anthony Abidin. He further clarified, “It’s not going to come down to a wrestle-off… this is not about being in the line-up. This is about, doggone, we need ten weight classes, and we need to quit talking about it and start doing it.”

Fellow senior Edwin Cooper Jr. further proved himself to be Iowa’s guy at 157 lbs with an impressive first period pin over a ranked opponent, this time #15 Doug Welch. “He is going to get better everytime out, especially with the way his attitude is,” said Brands of Cooper after the match.

Cooper himself added afterwards, “I need to be more consistent towards this time of the year… It’s going well, but I have got to keep scoring points and getting better for the most part. So that’s what I’m going to do… It’s time to step up and get the job done.”

The rest of the matches basically went as planned: Gilman won by tech. fall 23-8, Clark by maj. dec. 12-0, Sorensen by dec. 8-2, Meyer by dec. 8-4, Brooks by maj. dec. 14-4, Burak by a suprisingly agressive for him tech. fall 22-7 (he had 9 takedowns!), and finally Stoll by fall in 4:04.

Also in what has somewhat become the usual, redshirt freshman Burke Paddock wrestled somewhat close but then lost to another ranked opponent, #7 Chad Welch, by maj. dec. 15-4 in the 165 lb match.

The final score of the meet was 39-4. The next action for the Hawkeyes will be this Sunday as they head to Lincoln to take on the #11 Cornhuskers.

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Not that everyone looked sluggish though. Far from it, #2 Thomas Gilman started off the night at 122 absolutely dominating the Jackrabbits’ Kahlen Morris. Gilman was quick to set his fast paced, high-scoring tempo. After taking a 10-2 lead in only about a minute and a half, Gilman found an underhook while cutting Morris and put him to his back for a fall at the 1:34 mark.

Iowa’s #2 Cory Clark continued Gilman enthusiasm as he wrestled out a tough match against a talented #15 Bryce Simms. Clark found a takedown in the first period with one of the most agressive russian holds I have ever seen and then held on to his lead to win the match 4-1.

Then at 141 is where the Hawkeyes began to hit some rough water as redshirt freshman Logan Ryan lost to former teammate at current SDSU redshirt freshman Seth Gross. Despite leading for most of the match after a first period takedown, Ryan could not manage an escape in the third period and ended up losing 2-3.

At 149 #1 Brandon Sorensen wrestled a good match finding an ankle early on and then a reversal in the second. He was very even-keeled and in control the whole time winning the match 8-0 over Alex Kocer.

Then at 157 Edwin Cooper Jr. showed promise against another ranked opponent, #6 Cody Pack, yet still only managed to come up short. After giving up a double leg in the second period Cooper was quick to catch Pack trying to work a leg in and reversed him. Then Cooper had one last glimmer of brilliance when he scored a late takedown with only 35 seconds left in the 3rd period to take a one point lead, but he then immediately gave up a reversal while looking for a pin and lost the match 5-6.

The last dissapointment of the night came at 165 where redshirt freshman Burke Paddock excited the crowd by escaping three deep shots in the first period but then finally falling prey to one of #20 Luke Zilverberg’s double legs in the second period. Burke kept it close, but lost 2-4.

The remaining matches were then pretty much Iowa just doing what they do best: winning wrestling matches. Alex Meyer had a bit of a scare when he gave up a first period takedown, but then he got back into gear and pulled out a 5-2 win over David Kocer.

Maybe the most exciting match of the night was the Hawks’ #8 Sammy Brooks who somehow managed to pin the Jackrabbits’ Brady Ayers out of tilt. Needless to say he received a standing ovation after his 43 second fall.

At 197 Iowa’s #4 Nathan Burak was strangely absent so SDSU got a free six point forfeit, but the meet had already been sealed by Brooks’ previous pin which put the win out of reach for the Jackrabbits. Then redshirt freshman Sam Stoll ended the night with a real crazy win by disqualification. Stoll was completely in control of his match repeatedly tying up with SDSU’s Alex Macki, but Macki wanted none of the Greco standout’s tie-ups and backed off of the mat five time for five stalling calls which is enough to forfeit a match. Hawks won 28-15.

At the end of the night though, head wrestling coach Tom Brands was still hungry and looking for improvement from the middle of the lineup more importantly from the team in general, especially when it comes to controlling the tempo of the match and wrestling the Iowa way. “I would say if you are going to grade us based on how we imposed our style against their style… we probably don’t get a very good grade.” He then added, “We have got to be ready to go when Rutgers comes in.”

Junior Sammy Brooks added, “There’s always more you can do… There’s positive and negative. I think some guys just need to pick it up a little bit.” Even in his own wrestling he mentioned, “There’s definitely more for me to work on. I can pick up the pace of my wrestling, I can score more points, or when I’m scoring points my positioning could be better. There’s always ways to improve wrestling.”

When questioned about the disappointments at the middle weights on the day Brands said, “You have got to be good at all positions. It’s something that when you talk about those midweights that’s what we need to do… We need to be able to continue to wrestle the entire seven minutes.”

As far as news on Burak goes Brands said left it very vague saying, “We expect him to be back when we need him the most.”

Although it is unclear when Burak will make his return, the rest of the Hawkeye grapplers will see their next action this coming Thursday the 10th at home in Carver-Hawkeye arena.

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All three losses for the Hawks on the day came at the hands of Iowa’s first Big Ten opponent of the season, Maryland. One of the biggest questions for Iowa since March has been how they were going to fill the shoes of their five graduating senior. The 174 lb vacancy and 285 lb vacancy both seem to have found fairly dominant fill-ins in Alex Meyer and Sam Stoll, however, 141, 157, and 165 still seem to lack a standout.

The Iowa City Duals today were supposed to be a way of sorting that out, but none of the three Hawks vying for a spot were able to have standout victories over their conference opponent, let alone victories at all. First, redshirt freshman Logan Ryan lost an 8-5 decision to Maryland’s Alfred Bannister after giving up three takedowns and a reversal. Then senior Edwin Cooper dropped a close 8-6 decision to #20 Lou Mascola, and finally, redshirt freshman Burke Paddock lost a 9-5 decision to true freshman Brendan Burnham.

The next three duals Iowa rotated its lineup around taking looks at different guys at those weight classes with Jake Kadel at 141, Skyler St. John at 157, and Patrick Rhodes at 165 against Grand Canyon in the next dual. Then against Iowa Central they returned to the line-up that was used against Maryland, and finally against Cornell College the Hawks switched back to the roster that faced Grand Canyon but with Ryan wrestling in place of Kadel.

Despite the couple of hiccups the Hawkeyes saw in their first dual, against Maryland, the remaining three went very smoothly and without blemish. Grand Canyon, a school in its third year transitioning to division I wrestling, put up the largest fight with the Hawks limiting them to only a 44 point shut-out.

The junir college #5 Iowa Central and division III #19 Cornell College were not maybe as competitive as they could have been either as the #1 ranked 141 and 2015 junior college national champion Jason Alfau did not wrestle for Iowa Central and neither did their other #1 ranked former champion at 184, Tyler Hoffman. Cornell also did not wrestle their division III #4 ranked Trevor Engle at 149.

The two other wrestlers ranked by Intermat in their line-ups did not last long though against Iowa’s division I All-Americans. Iowa Central’s #5 Ryne Cokeley lost by tech fall to Iowa #3 Brandon Sorensen at 149, and Cornell’s #7 Phillip Opelt was pinned in the first period by Iowa #2 Cory Clark at 133.

Even though there are a couple spots still in the Hawkeye line-up that do not have a clearly distinguised starter, the rest of the roster looked incredibly solid. In fact all of Iowa’s wrestlers looked solid when going against opponents other than Maryland as almost every single Hawkeye won all the rest of their matches with bonus points rather than by simple decision. This was highlighted when Iowa pinned all but one opponent against Cornell with all of the majority of those falls coming in the first period.

The Iowa Wrestling Team will see its next action on the 29th when it takes on in-state rival Iowa State in the latest installment of the CyHawk series.

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One of the first unknowns is where exactly the team stands in terms of winning a national title. The first USA Today/NWCA Coaches poll, which was released on Oct. 27, has the Hawks ranked #4. Head Coach Tom Brands stills feels confident in his teams’ ability to bring home a title though, “We’re in the conversation… So nothing has changed. We’re after winning a national title, and we’re after winning individual titles.”

Iowa does of course have four All-Americans returning to lead the charge for the title. They are junior Thomas Gilman at 125 pounds, junior Cory Clark at 133, sophomore Brandon Sorensen at 149, and senior Nathan Burak at 197. However, the team did lose two All-Americans to graduation last year in Mike Evans at 174 and Bobby Telford at Heavyweight.

Questions still persist about who is going to step us at certain weightclasses and be a leader. Three places without question, beyond the four All-Americans, are 174, 184, and 285.

Wrestling as Mike Evans’ backup last year, junior Alex Meyer built quite an impressive resume by beating two ranked opponents, Blaise Butler and Zac Brunson, and placing 3rd at the midlands tournament. The #6 ranked Meyer (according to Intermat) says, “I’m excited. It’s a big first week coming up right away.”

Also looking to shine at the Hawkeyes’ soon-to-be historic record breaking first meet, Grapple on the Gridiron, is #11 junior Sammy Brooks at 184. Brooks went 29-7 in 2014-2015 losing out in the national tournament to the number 1 and 3 seeds.

The Hawks are also pretty sure at Heavyweight with redshirt freshman Sam Stoll. According to Brands, “Sam Stoll is doing a good job… The biggest thing that he has to realize is that it is about being at your best every time out, and if he can do that, he has a chance to be a real good heavyweight.” Stoll himself added, “It’s going to be a grind, you know, and I’m excited for it. That’s why you come to the big ten. You know you’re going to have the best competition… I’m excited for it.”

Senior #2 ranked Cory Clark when talking about what has been his focus said, “A lot of it was what I did in the offseason, and just being ready from the beginning of the year and not taking half of the year to get where I want to be.”

As far as leadership on this year’s team goes Clark said, “Gilman comes to mind. Gilman, he gets on guys a little bit sometimes, and he’s not afraid to say something to someone.” Brands on the other hand said senior #4 ranked Nathan Burak “is a two-time All-American. He’s a senior; he’s a 3.8 student. He’s everything you want your program to be looked upon as… when you talk about leadership, you talk about an example of what to look for in a student athlete, he’s a wrestler that embodies that and represents our program very well.

Iowa’s last ranked wrestler, according to Intermat, is sophomore #3 at 149 Brandon Sorensen. This offseason Sorensen says he has worked on consistency and “just going out there and hammering people everytime.” Sorensen added, “We all have the same high level mindset. So it makes it easy for all of us to be close.”

Unknowns still exist at 141, 157, and 165 though. At 141 Topher Carton, Logan Ryan, and Vince Turk were some of the names mentioned. “We’re going to wrestle those guys this weekend, and we’re looking for someone to emerge,” said Brands.

At 157 and 165 Brands says, “you have a couple names there that can do a good job for us… but you want someone to emerge and be the world beater.” To further complicate things is an injured Brody Grothus. “He’s good enough to go 41, 49, 57. So we have a lot of options there, and we’ll see how things shake out as we get forward and he gets closer to when he’s going to step on the mat. That time frame is late December, early January.”

Even with those three weightclasses being uncertain at the moment, the Hawks are working fast to find a man to step us and take a leadership role in those spots. With their first meet of the season only a little over a week away, necessity ought to drive that starter race to fruition.

Regardless of the impending home meet, Tom Brands said, “We’ve got to be at our best every time out, but there’s no better place to win than Iowa City.”

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Individually, the Iowa wrestling team did not produce any champions, but they did produce six All-Americans, the most of any team at the NCAA tournament. Seniors Mike Evans and Bobby Telford both received All-American honors for the third time in their careers, junior Nathan Burak and sophomore Cory Clark became All-Americans for their second time each, and sophomore Thomas Gilman and redshirt freshman Brandon Sorensen became All-Americans for the first time.

Some of the team achievements that the team had during the season were winning the B1G tournament (tied with Ohio State), winning the B1G regular season dual title, winning the Midlands Tournament (and setting a new record for points there), finishing second at the national duals, and of course placing second at the NCAA tournament. Iowa finished the regular season 17-1.

Other notable accomplishments for the Hawkeyes include sending all 10 wrestlers to the NCAA tournament (the 19th time in school history), sending a wrestler to the finals of the NCAA tournament (for the 26th consecutive year), and receiving B1G wrestler of the week honors five times (2 for Sorensen, 2 for Telford, and 1 for Evans). Iowa also had 9 academic All-Big Ten in Nathan Burak, Josh Dziewa, Jeremy Fahler, Brody Grothus, Jake Kadel, Michael Kelly, Kris Klapprodt, Phillip Laux, and Alex Meyer.

Some indidual career milestones were passed when both seniors Mike Evans and Bobby Telford passed the 100 win mark this season. Head Coach Tom Brands passed a milestone of his own this season as he became the coach with the second most duals wins in school history (he is now 163-16-1) behind only Dan Gable of course.

The fans set worked just as hard as the wrestlers to get in the history books too. Iowa led the nation in attendance for the ninth straight year by averaging 8,358 fans in its six home duals. Iowa also led the nation in total attendance with 55,390 fans. The three dual meets with the highest attendance this season also featured Iowa. These were the dual meets agains Penn State, Minnesota, and Iowa State.

The Hawkeyes will graduate five starting seniors from this season, but the future is still bright for Iowa next season as the Hawks will return four All-Americans. The team also showed its depth this year with standout performances on the varsity level from Alex Meyer and Kris Klapprodt. One thing is for sure looking ahead to next year: with depth like Iowa showcased this year, no spot is safe for next year. Iowa looks to be competitive as always and exciting to watch next season.

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