Two NCAA National championship Iowa Wrestling teams will be honored on Friday, November 29th in Kinnick Stadium.

The 1975 and 2000 national champion Iowa Wrestling teams will be recognized as part of the Milestone Teams to Celebrate during the Iowa-Nebraska football game. Kickoff time is listed at 6:30 PM CST.

Letterwinner’s Day will be celebrated with an All Letterwinner Tailgate, Tunnel of Honor, and Milestone Celebrations.

1975 was the first national team title in school history and the beginning of a dynasty. Head Coach Gary Kurdelmeier led Iowa to the first of two straight team titles.

The 2000 title was the 20th in school history as Jimmy Zalesky won his third straight title as head coach.

From HawkeyeSports.com:

1975:

Iowa posted an undefeated dual season (17-0-1), set a school mark for wins and won its first NCAA title. The team had a school-record five All-Americans, national champs in Chuck Yagla and Dan Holm, and four dual shutouts.

2000

The Hawkeyes won seven consecutive matches, scoring 23 1/2 points, in the consolation round to come from behind and win their sixth consecutive NCAA Championship in St. Louis, MO. 

Iowa crowned one individual national champion in junior 133-pounder Eric Juergens, while juniors Jody Strittmatter, Doug Schwab and T.J. Williams, sophomore Mike Zadick and senior Wes Hand earned All-America honors. 

The Hawkeyes went 18-0 in duals, and recaptured the conference team title. Big Ten individual champs were Strittmatter, Juergens, Schwab and Williams.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Season tickets are now available to renew for the 2024-25 Iowa Wrestling season. Iowa has sold out with season tickets sales in early November the last three seasons.

Fans can go online to the link below to renew or be put on a waiting list.

The full Iowa Wrestling schedule for the 2023-24 season was released on October 17 last year. I will keep you up to date when the 2024-25 schedule is released.

The University of Iowa led the nation in attendance in 2023-24 for a record 17th straight year. The Hawks had 89,082 fans attend a dual meet in legendary Carver-Hawkeye Arena for an average of 14,847 fans per dual meet.

This marked the 25th straight year that Iowa has averaged more than 8,000 fans per dual meet.

Iowa has led the nation in home attendance in 21 of the 22 seasons it has been tracked.

Iowa has led the nation in attendance in every season that Tom Brands has been the head coach starting with the 2006-07 season.

Hawk fans will be looking forward to seeing the Hawks make their entrance from the new state of the art wrestling facility through a tunnel and onto the floor of Carver Hawkeye Arena. 

To renew your season tickets or to be added to the wait list:

https://hawkeyesports.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventList?groupCode=WSEA&linkID=uiowa&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode=

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Incoming Iowa Wrestling recruit Leo DeLuca is ranked #1 in the country at 120 lbs. DeLuca is ranked #1 in the most recent rankings by both MatScouts and FloWrestling.

DeLuca is from Morristown, New Jersey and competes for national powerhouse Blair Academy. He is a member of the Iowa Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2025.

DeLuca won a Junior National title in 2023 at 120 lbs. and a Cadet National title at 113 in 2021.

He committed to Iowa on December 4, 2023 and is projected to compete at 125 for the Hawks.

Since the weight was changed to 57kg/125 lbs. in 2014 an Iowa Hawkeye has represented Team USA at 57kg in six of the eight World Championships and in all three Olympics. DeLuca is the next elite incoming recruit at that weight.

As I do for all of our incoming recruits I will continue to follow DeLuca in competition on this blog with a preview and follow up with results.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Iowa Assistant Coach Tonya Verbeek has been selected to the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Verbeek is the most decorated wrestler in Canadian history with three Olympic medals at 55 kg. She won Silver in 2004, Bronze in 2008 and Silver in 2012. Her Silver in 2004 was the first Olympic medal in Canadian women’s wrestling history.

Verbeek won bronze in 2005 and 2009 and silver in 2011 at the World Wrestling Championships and was an eleven time Canadian National Champion.

Verbeek was named as an assistant coach for the Iowa Women’s Wrestling program in July of 2022.

Verbeek was the women’s and men’s National Team coach for Canada from 2019-2021 and an assistant coach from 2013-2019. 

She was awarded the Petro Canada Coaching Excellence Award in 2019.

Originally from Grimsby, Ontario Canada, Verbeek was named Ontario Athlete of the Year in 2005. 

She has an undergraduate and masters degree from Brock University.

Congratulations Coach Verbeek for being named for the prestigious honor of being inducted into the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame. 

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Iowa Wrestling fans have a lot to follow in the coming months. We will now have two wrestlers in the Summer Olympics, five competing in the U20 World Championships and four in the U23 World Championships.

The pinnacle of our sport is the Olympics. Spencer Lee will represent the United States at 57kg in Paris at the Summer Olympics on August 8-9. Lee looks to be at his peak and I really like his chances of bringing home the Olympic Gold.

Kennedy Blades announced yesterday that she had signed a Letter of Intent to compete for Iowa this season. Blades will represent Team USA at the Summer Olympics at 76kg. Blades defeated six-time world champion and two-time Olympian Adeline Gray to make the Olympic team.  She will compete on August 10-11.

Brianna Gonzalez(50kg), Cadence Diduch(62kg), Reese Larramendy(65kg) and Naomi Simon(76kg) won U20 Nationals in April. They will represent Team USA at the 2024 U20 World Freestyle Championships in Pontevedra, Spain on September 4-6.  

Diduch and Simon are members of the incoming Recruiting Class of 2024.

Ben Kueter will be at 125kg for Team USA at the U20 World Freestyle Championships in Pontevedra, Spain on September 7-8. Kueter won the U20 World Team Trials in Geneva, Ohio in June. Keuter was a 2022 U20 World Champion at 97kg/213 lbs.  

Patrick Kennedy won the 79kg title at U23 Nationals in Geneva, Ohio last month. Kennedy will now represent Team USA at the U23 World Freestyle Championships in Tirana, Albania on October 26-27.

Kylie Welker placed fourth at the Olympic Team Trials at 76 kg and made the Senior National Team. As a result she was able to challenge for and win the 72kg spot on the U23 World Team in a best of three wrestle-off. Welker will compete at the U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania on October 23-25.

Welker will be joined by new teammates Skye Realin(59kg) and Macey Kilty(62kg) at U23 Worlds. Realin and Kilty announced last week that they are transferring to compete at Iowa for the upcoming season.

Realin won Gold at 59 kg at the U23 Pan American Championships. Kilty won Silver at 65kg at the 2023 Senior World Championships and was a 2018 Cadet World champion. She has won five age-level World medals for Team USA.

I will keep you up to date with a preview and results for all of our wrestlers competing in the Olympics and World Championships.

Olympics in Paris, France 

August 8-9.

57k: Spencer Lee

August 10-11

76kg: Kennedy Blades

U20 World Freestyle Championships in Pontevedra, Spain

September 4-6. 

50kg: Brianna Gonzalez

62kg: Cadence Diduch 

65kg: Reese Larramendy 

76kg: Naomi Simon 

September 7-8. 

125kg: Ben Kueter

U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania on October 23-27. 

59kg: Skye Realin

62kg: Macey Kilty

72kg: Kylie Welker 

79kg: Patrick Kennedy

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Kennedy Blades announced on Instagram that she has signed a Letter of Intent to join the Iowa Women’s Wrestling team. Blades is preparing to represent Team USA at the upcoming Olympics in Paris at 76kg/167 lbs.

Blades defeated six-time world champion and two-time Olympian Adeline Gray to make the Olympic team. 

Blades also placed second at the 2020 Olympic Team Trials as a seventeen year old in high school.

Blades is a 2021 U20 world champion and 2023 U20 bronze medalist. She was also a 2023 U23 silver medalist.

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Blades was the first girl to win an Illinois state title and also competed for Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania. She had Iowa in her final three choices coming out of high school. Blades chose Arizona State that does not offer women’s wrestling and has competed for Sunkist Kids that is being discontinued.

The new weight classes for the 2024-25 season are 160 and 180. It will be interesting to see where Blades and defending 170 lbs. NCWWC national champion Kylie Welker compete at. In women’s competition 15 wrestlers can compete at nationals.

Iowa is the defending national champion and Kennedy is the fourth transfer including 2024 U23 World Team members Skye Realin and Macey Kilty. The 2024 recruiting class has seven incoming freshman recruits. 

The Iowa room may be so loaded with talent that the best matches in women’s college wrestling will be the wrestle offs or a regular practice.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Records were broken at the 2024 Junior and 16U Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. The largest wrestling tournament in the world continues to grow each year.

Let’s take a look at some impressive statistics.

For starters, over 8,000 wrestlers competed in the FargoDome from July 12-20. That is an amazing stat in its own right. For the first time ever all 50 states were represented as well as Guam and U.S. Territories.

The growth of women’s wrestling continues to break records at Fargo. A record 1,137 women competed in Juniors and 838 in 16U.

39 states scored points in at least one of the six tournaments: Junior and 16U women’s freestyle, Junior and 16U men’s freestyle, and Junior and 16U men’s Greco-Roman.

When combining the six tournaments, Pennsylvania crushed the rest of the country in the overall team standings. PA had 933 total team points followed by California in second at 709 and Illinois at 681. Iowa was fourth with 478 and Ohio was fifth at 435.

To see that PA scored more points than Iowa and Ohio combined puts the team point totals into perspective. PA had five champs in men’s 16U and four champs in Junior freestyle.

My home state of Iowa finished fourth overall when combining the six tournaments. What stands out is that Iowa did not score a single point in the Junior Women’s division. The highest place winner in 16U was fourth place. For having such a great tradition for wrestling Iowa has some catching up to do in women’s wrestling at the high school level.

In 16U men’s freestyle Iowa finished third in the team race with nine All Americans and a state record three champs. In Junior Freestyle Iowa placed ninth in the team race.

Iowa easily won the 16U GR team title with 212 points followed by California at 150 and Pennsylvania with 149 points. Iowa placed 15th in Junior GR.

So once again 16U in Iowa did great by placing first in GR and third in freestyle. The Juniors were 9th in freestyle and 15th in GR. That is quite a drop off at the Junior level.

I remember back in the 80’s when Iowa owned Junior Nationals. That was before a 16U/Cadet division. A lot more of the top ranked wrestlers with the best of the best competing in one tournament. Iowa would have as many as four national champions, one or two runner-ups and it was not uncommon to have two Iowans place at the same weight. Not so any more.

Final team results from the 2024 Junior and 16U Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota

Women’s 16U

1. Pennsylvania
2. New Jersey
3. California

Women’s Junior

1. Illinois
2. Oklahoma
3. Minnesota

Men’s 16U FS

1. Pennsylvania
2. Illinois
3. Iowa

Men’s Junior FS

1. Pennsylvania
2. New Jersey
3. California

16U GR

1. Iowa
2. California
3. Illinois

Junior GR

1. Illinois
2. Oklahoma
3. Minnesota

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Macey Kilty announced on Instagram that she will be attending the University of Iowa. Kilty won Silver at 65kg at the 2023 Senior World Championships and was a 2018 Cadet World champion. She has won five age-level World medals for Team USA.

Kilty placed second at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Team Trials and recently won Gold at the Pan-Am Championships in Rionegro, Colombia.

Kilty is projected to compete at 138 or 145 at Iowa for her final year of college eligibility.

Originally from Stratford, Wisconsin, Kilty did not attend college and has been competing in International wrestling based out of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Kilty(62kg) will join Hawkeye teammate Skye Realin(59kg) and Kylie Welker(72kg) representing Team USA at the 2024 U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, on October 23-25.

Kilty joins Skye Realin and Katja Osteen as transfers into the program for the 2024-25 season where Iowa will be the defending NCWWC national champions. 

The Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024 has seven wrestlers that will be joining the program when classes begin next month.

Career highlights from USA Wrestling: 

Senior World Championships silver medalist

U.S. World Team member

U23 World Championships silver medalist

Two-time Junior World Championships medalist

Two-time Cadet World Championships medalist

Pan American Championships gold medalist

Two-time U.S. Olympic Team Trials runner-up

U.S. Open champion

Final X champion

Wisconsin high school state runner-up in the boys division

Transfers

Skye Realin (Central Methodist University) – 131 lbs.

Macey Kilty (U.S. Olympic Training Center/Stratford, Wisconsin) – 138/145

Katja Osteen (U.S.Olympic Training Center/Simon Frasier) – 207 lbs.

Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024

Val Solorio (Canon-McMillan HS, Pennsylvania) – 100 lbs.

Rianne Murphy (Crown Point, IN – Wyoming Seminary) – 105 lbs.

Mia Goodwin (Virginia Beach, VA – Kellam HS) – 110 lbs.

Karlee Brooks  (Valiant College Prep, Phoenix, AZ) – 120 lbs.

Cadence Diduch (Freeport, Illinois) – 135 lbs.

Kiara Djoumessi (Waverly-Shell Rock HS, Iowa) – 140 lbs.

Naomi Simon (Decorah, Iowa) – 170 lbs.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Macey Kilty announced on Instagram that she will be attending the University of Iowa. Kilty won Silver at 65kg at the 2023 Senior World Championships and was a 2018 Cadet World champion. She has won five age-level World medals for Team USA.

Kilty placed second at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Team Trials and recently won Gold at the Pan-Am Championships in Rionegro, Colombia.

Kilty is projected to compete at 138 or 145 at Iowa for her final year of college eligibility.

Originally from Stratford, Wisconsin, Kilty did not attend college and has been competing in International wrestling based out of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Kilty(62kg) will join Hawkeye teammate Skye Realin(59kg) and Kylie Welker(72kg) representing Team USA at the 2024 U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, on October 23-25.

Kilty joins Skye Realin and Katja Osteen as transfers into the program for the 2024-25 season where Iowa will be the defending NCWWC national champions. 

The Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024 has seven wrestlers that will be joining the program when classes begin next month.

Career highlights from USA Wrestling: 

Senior World Championships silver medalist

U.S. World Team member

U23 World Championships silver medalist

Two-time Junior World Championships medalist

Two-time Cadet World Championships medalist

Pan American Championships gold medalist

Two-time U.S. Olympic Team Trials runner-up

U.S. Open champion

Final X champion

Wisconsin high school state runner-up in the boys division

Transfers

Skye Realin (Central Methodist University) – 131 lbs.

Macey Kilty (U.S. Olympic Training Center/Stratford, Wisconsin) – 138/145

Katja Osteen (U.S.Olympic Training Center/Simon Frasier) – 207 lbs.

Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024

Val Solorio (Canon-McMillan HS, Pennsylvania) – 100 lbs.

Rianne Murphy (Crown Point, IN – Wyoming Seminary) – 105 lbs.

Mia Goodwin (Virginia Beach, VA – Kellam HS) – 110 lbs.

Karlee Brooks  (Valiant College Prep, Phoenix, AZ) – 120 lbs.

Cadence Diduch (Freeport, Illinois) – 135 lbs.

Kiara Djoumessi (Waverly-Shell Rock HS, Iowa) – 140 lbs.

Naomi Simon (Decorah, Iowa) – 170 lbs.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Skye Realin announced that she is transferring to the University of Iowa. Realin will transfer in from Central Methodist University in Missouri where she placed fifth in NAIA at 130 lbs. in 2023. Realin is projected to compete at 131 lbs. for the Hawks.

Realin won the U23 World Team Trials at 59kg in April. She recently won Gold at 59 kg at the U23 Pan American Championships in Rionegro, Colombia with two pins and a tech fall.

Originally from Mililani, Hawaii, Realin attended McKendree University before transferring to Central Methodist.

Realin(59kg) will join Hawkeye teammate Kylie Welker(72kg) to represent Team USA at the 2024 U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, on October 23-25.

Realin joins Katja Osteen as a transfer into the program for the 2024-25 season where Iowa will be the defending NCWWC national champions. 

The Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024 has seven wrestlers that will be joining the program when classes begin next month.

Transfers

Skye Realin (Central Methodist University/McKendree University) – 131 lbs.

Katja Osteen (U.S. Olympic Training Center/Simon Frasier) – 207 lbs.

Iowa Women’s Wrestling Recruiting Class of 2024

Val Solorio (Canon-McMillan HS, Pennsylvania) – 100 lbs.

Rianne Murphy (Crown Point, IN – Wyoming Seminary) – 105 lbs.

Mia Goodwin (Virginia Beach, VA – Kellam HS) – 110 lbs.

Karlee Brooks  (Valiant College Prep, Phoenix, AZ) – 120 lbs.

Cadence Diduch (Freeport, Illinois) – 135 lbs.

Kiara Djoumessi (Waverly-Shell Rock HS, Iowa) – 140 lbs.

Naomi Simon (Decorah, Iowa) – 170 lbs.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!