Notes: Iowa Set for B1G Championships

ON THE MAT

The University of Iowa wrestling team travels to College Park, Maryland, for the 2024 Big Ten Championships on Saturday and Sunday at Xfinity Arena.  The two-day event begins Saturday at 9 a.m. (CT) and Session II starts at 4 p.m.  Session III is slated to start at 11 a.m. on Sunday followed by the finals at 3:30 p.m.

• Sessions I, II and IV will be televised by BTN. All four sessions are streamed live via B1G+.

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS

Brackets and team standings will be available throughout the tournament at bigten.org and hawkeyesports.com.

IOWA HAWKEYES POSTSEASON LINEUP

Wt	Pre-seed	Name	Year	Hometown/High School	Record
125	2	Drake Ayala	So.	Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge	19-3
133	14	Brody Teske	Sr.	Duncombe, Iowa/Fort Dodge	11-4
141	3	Real Woods	R-Sr.	Albuquerque, New Mexico/Montini Catholic (Ill.)	14-2
149	3	Caleb Rathjen	So.	Ankeny, Iowa/Ankeny	14-3
157	4	Jared Franek	Grad.	Harwood, North Dakota/West Fargo	20-3
165	3	Michael Caliendo	So.	Geneva, Illinois/Batavia	20-3
174	3	Patrick Kennedy	Jr.	Kasson-Mantorville, Minnesota/Kasson-Mantorville	12-4
184	13	Aiden Riggins	R-Fr.	Janesville, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock	11-11
197	3	Zach Glazier	Sr.	Albert Lea, Minnesota/Albert Lea	21-1
285	7	Bradley Hill	R-Fr.	Bettendorf, Iowa/Bettendorf	16-5

AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS

The Big Ten Championships is one of seven NCAA qualifying tournaments across the country. The NCAA has awarded the conference 85 of the 283 automatic qualifying bids for the national championships in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 21-23.

The Big Ten was allotted more bids than any other conference. The league will have seven automatic qualifiers at 133, 197 and 285, eight at 174 and 184, nine at 125, 149 and 157, 10 at 165 and 11 at 141.

After all of the qualifying events have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 47 at-large qualifiers. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

Coaches’ ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.

BIG TEN COACH OF THE YEAR

Tom Brands has been named Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year five times in his career, more than any other coach in school history. Brands was recognized in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2020 and 2021 following conference titles. Iowa has six Big Ten championships under Brands (2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2021).

Brands’ six Big Ten titles ties for seventh all-time in conference history.

Titles Coach, School

21 Dan Gable, IOWA

9 Cliff Keen, MICH

8 W.H. Thorn, IND

7 Cael Sanderson, PSU

7 Paul Prehn, ILL

7 Grady J. Peninger, MSU

6 Tom Brands, IOWA

6 H.E. Kenney, ILL

6 C.C. Reeck, PUR

6 J. Robinson, MINN

WRESTLER OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Since 1989, the year the Big Ten record book first recognizes the award, 10 different Hawkeyes have been named Wrestler of the Big Ten Championships. Spencer Lee won the award in 2023 winning the 125 pound bracket. Alex Marinelli won the award in 2019 after winning the 165-pound bracket. He shared the award with Penn State’s Jason Nolf. Head coach Tom Brands won the award in 1989 following his 126-pound conference title. Associate head coach Terry Brands won the honor following his 126-pound Big Ten title in 1992. Brent Metcalf is the only Big Ten athlete to win the award twice (2008, 2009).

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS

The Hawkeyes’ 118 Big Ten champions have won a total of 210 conference titles. There have been eight four-time, 20 three-time and 31 two-time winners. The Hawkeyes have won 37 team titles, twice as many as the next closest school (Illinois, 17). Iowa won 25 consecutive conference championships from 1974-1998.

Iowa’s most recent Big Ten Champion by weight:

125: Spencer Lee, 2023

133: Cory Clark, 2016

141: Real Woods, 2023

149: Pat Lugo, 2020

157: Derek St. John, 2012

165: Alex Marinelli, 2022

174: Michael Kemerer, 2021

184: Sammy Brooks, 2017

197:  None since weight was introduced in 1999.

285: Blake Rasing, 2011

TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE

The Hawkeyes return six wrestlers with Big Ten Championship experience in 2024.

• Rathjen, Riggins, Glazier and Hill are all making their postseason debuts, while Franek and Caliendo are making their Big Ten postseason debuts.

• Franek was a Big 12 Champion at North Dakota State (2023).

• Ayala and Kennedy are both making their second apperance at the Big Ten Championships. Ayala finished eighth in 2022 and Kennedy finished second at 165 pounds in 2023.

• Teske and Woods are making their fourth conference championship appearance, and second in the Big Ten.  Teske competed in two Big 12 Championships during his time at Northern Iowa, winning a Big 12 title at 125 in 2021 before finishing as the runner-up in 2022. Woods won a 141 pound Big Ten title in 2023 and two Pac-12 titles at Stanford, winning at 141 pounds in 2020 and 2022 and he was runner-up in 2021.

BIG TEN TEAM RECORDS

• Iowa holds the record for most individual champions in a single conference championships with nine in 1983. The Hawkeyes had eight in 1985, and crowned seven in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1986.

• The conference record for most falls in a tournament belongs to the Hawkeyes, who recorded 12 pins in 1979.  The largest margin of victory by a champion also belongs to Iowa. The 1983 Hawkeyes scored 200 points, 118.5 more than second-place Michigan State (81.5).

A LOOK BACK AT 2023 BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Hawkeyes placed second as a team at the 2023 Big Ten Championships, finishing with 134.5 points. Spencer Lee and Real Woods won Big Ten titles for the Hawkeyes. All 10 Hawkeyes finished in the top seven with Kennedy (165) finishing as runner-up and Max Murin (149) and Tony Cassioppi (285) finishing third.

BIG TEN RELEASES PRE-SEEDS FOR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Seven University of Iowa wrestlers are seeded fifth or better in the pre-seeds for the 2024 Big Ten Championships, it was announced Monday by the league office. The tournament is set to take place Saturday and Sunday in College Park, Maryland.

The Hawkeyes have one No. 2 seed and five No. 3 seeds. Drake Ayala is the No. 2 seed at 125. Real Woods (141), Caleb Rathjen (149), Michael Caliendo (165), Patrick Kennedy (174) and Zach Glazier (197) all enter the postseason seeded third.

Jared Franek is the No. 4 seed at 157 pounds, Bradley Hill is the No. 7 seed at 285, Aiden Riggins is No. 13 seed at 184 and Brody Teske is the No. 14 seed at 133.

The complete tournament brackets and official seeds will be released Friday afternoon following the Big Ten Conference coaches meeting. For more information on the 2024 Big Ten Wrestling Championships visit bigten.org.

FRESHMAN TRACKER

Five Hawkeye freshman have competed as attached competitors during the 2023-24 season.  Under new NCAA guidelines, freshmen can compete in five dates of competition during the student-athlete’s initial year of collegiate enrollment without using a season of competition.

• Here is a list of competitions for Iowa’s freshmen in 2023-24: Gabe Arnold (5), Ben Kueter (4), Isaiah Fenton (2), Koye Grebel (2) and Kale Petersen (1).

SOLD OUT X 3

Iowa wrestling season tickets at Carver-Hawkeye Arena are sold out for a third straight season.  The Hawkeyes have led the nation in attendance every year since 2006-07.  Iowa set an NCAA record, averaging 14,905 fans in 2021-22.

TV TIME

Nine Iowa duals will be televised during the 2023-24 season.  The Hawkeyes will have seven duals televised on BTN, one on FS1 and one on ESPN.

• Iowa’s BTN appearances include home duals against Minnesota (7 p.m., CT), Purdue (7 p.m.), Penn State (8 p.m.) and Wisconsin ( 1 p.m.) and road duals at Nebraska (6 p.m.), Illinois (8 p.m.) and Michigan (7:30 p.m.)

• The Hawkeyes’ away dual against Iowa State will be televised on ESPN and the road dual against Oklahoma State will be televised on FS1.

ALL-AMERICANS

The Hawkeyes have six past All-Americans on the 2023-24 roster in Real Woods (141), Jared Franek (157), Michael Caliendo (165), Nelson Brands (174), Abe Assad (184) and Tony Cassioppi (285).

• Iowa has crowned at least one All-American in 52 consecutive tournaments, dating back to 1972.

HAWKEYE WRESTLING HISTORY

The Hawkeyes have won 24 national titles and 37 Big Ten titles. Iowa’s 55 NCAA Champions have won a total of 85 NCAA individual titles, crowning seven three-time and 16 two-time champions.

• The Hawkeyes’ 118 Big Ten champions have combined for 210 conference titles. There have been nine four-time, 18 three-time and 31 two-time Big Ten champions from Iowa.

• Iowa’s 163 All-Americans have earned All-America status 363 times, including three five-time, 25 four-time, 38 three-time and 41 two-time honorees.

NCAA TROPHIES

The Hawkeyes earned a team trophy at the NCAA Championships for the 14th time in the last 15 championships.  Iowa has won 14 team trophies in head coach Tom Brands’ 16 seasons. (The 2020 season, in which Iowa was favored, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

• Iowa has won 48 team NCAA trophies in program history and have 68 top 10 finishes.  The Hawkeyes have been the NCAA runner-up seven times.

HAWKEYES AND CARVER-HAWKEYE ARENA

Iowa is 132-14 (.907) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena since Tom Brands took over the program prior to 2006-07. The Hawkeyes are 282-27 (.914) all-time at Carver-Hawkeye Arena since moving from the UI Field House in 1983. Iowa went 8-0 in Carver last season.

• Carver-Hawkeye Arena has hosted two United States Olympic Team Trials, four Big Ten Championships (1983, 1994, 2005, 2016) and four NCAA Championships (1986, 1991, 1995, 2001). The Hawkeyes have won five tournament titles on their home mat, including the 1983 and 1994 Big Ten Championships, and the 1986, 1991 and 1995 NCAA Championships.

• In 2018, the University of Iowa hosted the UWW World Cup, an international dual tournament featuring eight of the top countries in the world.

CHASING THE HAWKEYES

Gary Kurdelmeier led Iowa to its first NCAA Championship in 1975, and in the 49 years since, the Hawkeyes have accumulated 24 team titles, more than any other school — Penn State (11), Oklahoma State (7), Minnesota (3), Iowa State (2), Ohio State (1) and Arizona State (1).

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes head to the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 21-23.