Iowa added another top recruit for the Recruiting Class of 2023 when Haley Ward committed to the Hawks last December. Ward is a four-time state champion from Fort Osage HS/Buckner, Missouri. She had an impressive 172-1 career record.

Ward captured the Gold at the U20 Pan American Championships in Santiago, Chile in July. Ward dominated the competition at 72 KG with three falls and an 8-1 decision. Ward has also won Gold at the 2019 U15 Pan American Championships.

In April Ward placed second at 72 KG at U20 Nationals and seventh at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

In the final National Girls High School Rankings Ward was listed at #3 at 164 lbs.

The new roster has Ward listed at 155 lbs.

Welcome aboard Haley Ward.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Willie Saylor of MatScouts released new high school rankings. Results from Who’s #1 were factored in.

Incoming Hawks in the Recruiting Class of 2024 are well represented. Angelo Ferrari of Melissa, Texas is ranked #1 at 175 and #4 in the P4P (pound for pound) rankings. Ferrari looked real good defeating #2 ranked Ty Eise at Who’s #1, 5-1.

Miguel Estrada, a three-time state champion from California is ranked #3 at 144. Keyan Hernandez, a three-time state champion from Montana is not ranked.

Iowa Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024

Angelo Ferrari  #1 – 175 and #4 P4P

Miguel Estrada  #3 – 144

Keyan Hernandez – not ranked

Recruiting season is here and I look for the Hawks to add to their list of incoming recruits in the upcoming weeks. I will keep you posted.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Alivia White committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes last November. Her resume is impressive.

White was a three-time state champion for Marysville Pilchuck HS in Marysville, Washington. This past season she was 33-0 with 33 pins and had a career record of 113-2. The state tournament was canceled in 2021 to prevent a possible fourth state title.  

White was named as the Marysville Pilchuck Outstanding Wrestler all four years of high school and received the NWCA/USMC High School Scholar All-American award.

At Junior Nationals in Fargo White was a three-time All American placing fourth in 2021, second in 2022, and seventh in 2023 as well as placing twice at U20 World Team Trials.

White was named for the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award for the state of Washington and also the West Region of Washington, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.

In the final National Girls High School Rankings White was listed at #2 in the country at 180 lbs. and #24 in the overall Pound-For-Pound ranking.

On the new roster for Iowa Women’s Wrestling, White is listed at 191 lbs.

With the background that Alivia White is bringing to the program you have to believe she will have a successful career as an Iowa Hawkeye. 

Welcome aboard Alivia White.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

The 2023 Riverside Trap Shoot for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club will be on Saturday, October 14. Highland Hideaway Hunting in Riverside, Iowa will once again host a great event as a fundraiser for the HWC.

Registration begins at 8 AM followed by a safety meeting at 9. The Event Kickoff is at 9:15. Lunch and awards will be at Noon.

Wrestlers, coaches, and staff of the HWC will be in attendance.

The trap shoot is one of several fundraisers throughout the year for the HWC.

To register:

2023 Sporting Clays Shoot Tickets (hawkeyewrestlingclub.com)

Highland Hideaway Hunting

3127 160th St. Riverside, Iowa 52327

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

The Iowa Women’s Wrestling program welcomes in Lilly Luft of Charles City, Iowa in the Recruiting Class of 2023. Luft is the third Iowan to join the program. 

Luft had a great career at Charles City where she won three state titles and finished her career with a 125-6 record. This past season she was 40-0 and won a state title at 130 lbs.

In the final National High School Rankings Luft was #2 at 138 lbs. and #18 overall in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Luft placed second at 132 lbs. at Junior Nationals in Fargo and placed fourth at 62 KG/136 lbs. at U20 Nationals in April. Luft placed fourth at the 2021 Cadet Beach Wrestling World Championships in Romania.

Luft was named for several honors including being named the Iowa High School Female Wrestler of the Year and the Dan Gable Ms. Wrestler of the Year. She was also awarded the state of Iowa winner of the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award. Luft was also the Midwest Region winner of the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award for the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Ohio.

Lily Luft is listed at 130 on the new roster and has a great career ahead of her as an Iowa Hawkeye.

Welcome aboard Lilly Luft.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Caitlin Clark and Spencer Lee have been named as the Homecoming parade grand marshals. The University of Iowa will celebrate Homecoming with a parade on Friday night, October 6 and the football game against Purdue on Saturday, October 7. Kickoff time has not yet been announced. I have no doubt that Iowa City will be a great place to be over Homecoming weekend.

Clark and Lee are legends in Iowa sports history. Clark was just named the winner of the AAU James E. Sullivan Award yesterday as the most outstanding athlete at the collegiate or Olympic level in the country. Lee won the Sullivan Award in 2020.

Clark was the leader of the NCAA finalist Iowa women’s basketball team last season and has won every award possible. Lee was a three-time NCAA champion and won the Hodge Trophy twice as the best college wrestler in the country. 

How fortunate we are to have two such great athletes representing the University of Iowa at the same time.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Members of the University of Iowa Wrestling program earned recognition at halftime of the Iowa-Western Michigan football game Saturday. The Iowa wrestlers earned PCA Academic Recognition.

PCA is the Presidential Committee on Athletics. A student-athlete must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA for this honor.

I do not know if additional wrestlers were named for this honor and not present for the game.

Iowa Wrestling is always well represented in academic honors that included eleven wrestlers on the Dean’s List last year (minimum 3.5 GPA).

Zach Glazier – Sports and Recreation Management

Will Carano – Open major

Kolby Franklin – Sports and Recreation Management

Cullan Schriever – Sports and Recreation Management

Charles Matthews – Business

Brad Hill – Open major

Jace Rhodes – Biology

Drake Rhodes – Business

Aiden Riggins – Business

Leif Schroeder – Social Studies History and Education

Carter Martinson – Open major

Easton Fleshman – Open major

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

The University of Iowa has released the official roster for the 2023-24 Iowa Women’s Wrestling team. Iowa will begin their first year of competition this season as the first women’s wrestling program in a Power 5 Conference.

Last season the Iowa roster had 15 wrestlers when they all took a redshirt as the program built its foundation. The new roster has a total of 28 wrestlers from 14 states including 3 from Iowa. 

Transfers were added to the program that should have an immediate impact on the program. Marleen Deede was a national champion for Augsburg at 155 and Jaycee Foeller was an NAIA Runner-Up at 191 for Central Methodist University last year.

The Recruiting Class of 2023 was impressive with Rose Cassioppi (165), Lilly Luft (130), Alivia White (191), Haley Ward (155), Bella Ngo (130), Cali Leng (123), Emily Frost (130), Ava Rose (116) and Danni Swihart (138).

The competition for a starting spot on the team will be a battle and the Hawks will have real good depth at every weight.

The schedule has not been released. I did have a blog that East Stroudsburg had a press release that they were hosting Iowa on November 4.

Iowa Women’s Wrestling at ESU on Nov 4 – Iowa Wrestling Fan (iowawrestlingblog.com)

I will keep you up to date when the schedule is released.

I have already started highlighting our new wrestlers with a blog on Rose Cassioppi. I will continue to go through all of our incoming recruits and transfers in future blogs.

I am looking forward to that first home dual meet in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. I do not know what the attendance records are for women’s college wrestling but I am confident Hawkeye fans will set the standard.

I am hoping that Iowa has at least one double dual with both of our wrestling programs. That would get a full house of fans and hopefully TV and internet coverage.

I will be covering the women’s program right here on my blog all season.

2023-24 Iowa Women’s Wrestling Roster

Women’s Wrestling – University of Iowa Athletics (hawkeyesports.com)

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

It is now time to take a look at the incoming recruits and transfers for the Iowa Women’s Wrestling program. The Hawks will have their first year of competition this season as the first women’s wrestling program from a Power 5 Conference

First up is Rose Cassioppi of Roscoe, Illinois. The last name sounds familiar because her older brother Tony has been our Hwt for the last four years. Rose committed to the Hawks on March 20 to be a member of the Recruiting Class of 2023. 

Rose certainly has the credentials of an elite recruit. As a junior in 2022 she won a state title for Hononegah High School in Illinois and was a U20 World Team Trials Runner-Up. Last year Rose was at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs as a member of the Elite Accelerator Program. 

Cassioppi had a very good freestyle season competing at 72 KG. In April she placed third at U20 Nationals followed by placing second at the U.S. Women’s Open. 

In July Cassioppi won Bronze representing Team USA at the Grand Prix of Spain in Madrid. This was an impressive showing at an elite International open tournament with wrestlers from around the world especially considering her age.

You have to believe that Rose Cassioppi will have a real good if not a great career for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Welcome aboard Rose Cassioppi.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

The college wrestling recruiting season is here. College wrestling programs have already been hosting recruits for home football games. The combination of recruiting and anticipation for the upcoming season make this a great time of year to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

I want to take a look at some upcoming dates in the college wrestling recruiting world. 

There are two real big competitions for recruiting every fall in Who’s #1 and Super 32. Who’s #1 was early this year when they had it over Labor Day weekend. Incoming Iowa Hawkeye recruit Angelo Ferrari was impressive for the second year in a row at Who’s #1 to win his match and solidify his place as #1 in the country at 170 lbs.

Super 32 is the biggest tournament of the year for recruiting in my opinion. Even over Fargo. Topflight wrestlers from around the country will be competing at Super 32 Challenge in Greensboro, North Carolina on October 21-22. Wrestlers will be competing in folkstyle and at a high level.

Qualifying tournaments have already begun across the country for Super 32. I have been covering incoming Iowa recruits competing at Super 32 for years. 

Verbal commitments are nice but nothing is official until the recruit signs on the dotted line so to speak. The National Letter of Intent Signing Day for the Recruiting Class of 2024 is on Wednesday, November 8. That is always a big day for me.

No doubt Iowa will host recruits over the upcoming weekends. There is always one weekend that has the big numbers of recruits that result in verbal commitments. 

As I have done for years, once a recruit commits to the Hawks I will post all of their matches in the high school and freestyle season right here on my blog.

Let the recruiting games begin.

Super 32 – October 21-22

National Letter of Intent Signing Day for the Class of 2024 – Wednesday, November 8

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!