IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa men’s wrestling team secured five top-10 bids heading into the NCAA Championships, the governing body announced on Wednesday. The Hawkeyes send nine total wrestlers to the national tournament.
Sophomore Drake Ayala at 125 and redshirt senior Real Woods at 141 earned the top bids for Iowa, each receiving No. 3 seeds.
Ayala (23-4) owns a win over No. 1 seed Braeden Davis (19-2) of Penn State. Their lone meeting came during the dual meet between two programs on Feb. 11.
Ayala is also 1-1 against No. 4 seed Matt Ramos (25-5) of Purdue after avenging a dual loss to the Boilermaker this weekend in the third-place match at the Big Ten Championships. Ayala has never faced No. 2 seed Luke Stanich (19-3) of Lehigh.
Woods has posted an 18-3 record this season. The top seed at 141 is Jesse Mendez of Ohio State, who carried a 6-3 decision against Woods in the Big Ten Championships last weekend.
Woods was the No. 1 seed at 141 at the NCAA Championships a year ago. He has been a top-four seed at the tournament on four occasions.
Senior Michael Caliendo and Patrick Kennedy were the next-highest seeds for Iowa. Caliendo checks in at the No. 6 seed at 165, while Kennedy was given the No. 7 seed.
The NCAA Championships are set to take place March 21-24 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Morning sessions will broadcast on ESPNU, with evening sessions airing on ESPN. All sessions may be streamed on ESPN+ (subscription required).
All seeds for Iowa wrestlers can be found below.
Hawkeye Seeds
125 #3 Drake Ayala
133 #15 Brody Teske
141 #3 Real Woods
149 #13 Caleb Rathjen
157 #10 Jared Franek
165 #6 Michael Caliendo
174 #12 Patrick Kennedy
197 #7 Zach Glazier
285 #25 Bradley Hill