Iowa Hawkeyes Wrestling - A Look At The First Half

Iowa enters the second half of their season as the number one ranked team in the nation. It’s been a decade, but Iowa seems setup to end their National Title drought this year. Penn State was their greatest, and basically only, challenger, and they just lost the #1 ranked heavyweight in the nation for the rest of the season. You can never count out Penn State, because they still have plenty of guys that could win national titles and carry them to a team title, but right now, everything looks rosy for the black and gold. 

So let’s look back on the first half of the season and rank who has been the most impressive so far this year. Preseason expectations are factored into this so guys that may be ranked higher than their teammates can still be lower on this list.

10. Jacob Warner

Outside of Kollin Moore, this weight class is incredibly weak. Maybe you can get excited about Ben Darmstadt now that he’s moved back up to 197, but this weight class is open for a guy to elevate himself and score big points at the NCAA Tournament. Jacob Warner was a blue-chip recruit a few years ago, and entering his sophomore year, I thought he was primed to make that jump. Things looked fairly good early on this year, getting a big win over Patrick Bruck at Princeton. Then he lost twice at Midlands, including Brucki getting his win back in a far more dominant fashion, and Warner is just hanging around again. He just does not get to his offense and makes every match far more comfortable than it should be. The skills are there, but he just doesn’t pull the trigger on things. On talent, he could be in the NCAA Finals, but by performance, he might not even All-American. He’s still ranked fifth in the nation, but he just hasn’t given Iowa fans much to get excited about.

9. Cash Wilcke 

I’m sure most expected Cash Wilcke to be tenth on the list since he’s the only guy who doesn’t even have his starting spot guaranteed yet, but I feel pretty confident that Wilcke is going to be the guy moving forward. Yes, Nelson Brands has a couple impressive wins, but he’s just too small for 184 as he would have to grind out every win in close matches. And yes, true freshman, Abe Assad, did finish higher at the Midlands, but he did it while winning by the skin of his teeth in nearly every match. Wilcke lost early at the Midlands to now-nemesis, Johnny Sebastian, who has beaten him twice this year, but he battled all the way back to take third place. It wasn’t overwhelming, but he got the job done, and he’s exactly the guy we thought he was going into the season. He’s either a low-placing All-American or blood round guy. There’s no wow in his game, but he’ll always grind, and it’s just a matter of how much grind he has in him when the tournament in March rolls around.

8. Kaleb Young

Kaleb Young is who we thought he was. He’s an All-American, and I think he’ll repeat that feat again, but I don’t see him rising above and becoming a National Title contender. He was exposed by David Carr, Hayden Hidlay is still tough, and Ryan Deakin has taken a huge step forward, so I don’t see Young repeating his feat of beating Deakin or either of those other two guys this season. He could basically beat anyone else, but he’s not so dominant that he couldn’t get upset like he did by Quincy Monday earlier this season. He’s still ranked sixth, and that’s a good approximation of where he’ll end up in March.

Now it’s time to take a massive step forward in how people have performed, because you could rank the next seven guys in any order, and it would be tough to make a strong argument against it. I’ll start with a controversial pick for my seventh spot. 

7. Pat Lugo - 1st

Lugo is one of only two Iowa wrestlers ranked first in the nation (you can probably guess the other one), and still, he’s all the way down here. He’s currently 10-0 and beat the former #1 ranked guy in the nation, and yet I just can’t shake the feeling that it could all easily come crashing down. He did pull off the Jarrett Degen win, but that was due to a reversed call by review so that’s about as close as it can come to not winning a match. This weight is one of the weakest out there, and Lugo could beat anybody, he could also get beat by some lower ranked guys (I’m especially worried about Freshmen Brayton Lee and Sammy Sasso) and finish again as a low-tier All-American. He’s definitely looking better this year, but he doesn’t steamroll guys, and it’s going to take more before I can fully buy in on Lugo. I hope he makes me look stupid.

6. Michael Kemerer 

I wanted to put Kemerer higher than this. He’s looked incredible this year, but he’s only wrestled four matches. Only one of those went the distance, and that was still a major decision. But he just hasn’t wrestled the talent to be put up any higher. I think he’s the clear #2 guy at 174, and I am so excited to see him square off against Mark Hall, because Kemerer looks like a monster, and that’s the only guy standing in his way.

5. Max Murin

How can the second lowest ranked Hawkeye be this high on the list? Easy, it’s my list, and I can do what I want. And if you just look at the results, it’s been good but not great. He has three bonus point wins, but only one of those was over a DI wrestler, and that was just a major decision. But damn, Murin just looks so much better this year. He’s hitting his attacks and being aggressive each and every period. Last year, there were so many times where he just didn’t take shots, and now he looks to be more aggressive and more effective. He hasn’t faced elite talent, but he has two quality wins over Tristan Moran and Josh Heil, two fringe All-Americans, and he has just brought it every match. He’s not a National Title contender as both Nick Lee and Mitch McKee have given him trouble in the past and have taken their own steps forward this year, but he’s always had the defense to keep matches close, so it wouldn’t shock me to see him take out anybody else in that weight class. If that’s not enough, then just watch some Good Murin America, and thank me later.

Chicken and Rice Casserole? Yes, please! Wake up with Good Murin America! hosted by Max Murin and Tony Cassioppi. pic.twitter.com/joC4INHyIz

— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling) December 26, 2019

4. Alex Marinelli

Before the Midlands, Marinelli likely would have been a couple spots lower, but this man decided to destroy everything in his path, getting four pins and finished it off with a controlling decision of the third best guy in the nation, David McFadden to win the Midlands Championship. Before that, he looked good but just didn’t seem to be putting top level pressure on guys. He had another impressive win over Evan Wick, but it was more controlling than domination. Now he’s dominating, and this very well could be his year to win a Title as he’s shown he can beat anyone at this weight, including top-ranked Vincenzo Joseph. He probably should be higher, but after a couple disappointing runs at the NCAA Tournament, I have to temper my expectations. Still, there is no logical reason to believe he can’t be wrestling for the title on that Saturday night in March.

3. Tony Cassioppi

Hot damn, Cassioppi. I knew he had the potential to be great, but I can’t believe how much better he has gotten since last season. He has two high-level wins over Trent Hilger and Matt Stencel, and he’s basically dominated everyone else. With Cassar apparently out for the year, the only two guys ahead of him are Michigan’s Mason Parris and Minnesota’s Gable Steveson. Although Parris has looked to take a massive step forward starting this past summer, Cassioppi has beaten him before so it’s not hard to imagine him doing it again. Beating Gable is another matter, but the freshman heavyweight is at least going to be in the mix to be wrestling in the finals. 

2. Austin DeSanto

The last five guys I have listed are all undefeated, and still, I rank DeSanto higher. Is this personal bias for his wrestling style? Maybe, but he looks SOOOOOO much better than last season. He’s gone 1-1 against top-ranked Seth Gross, and the way he’s been wrestling so far this season, he should be able to beat anybody else in the nation. There are some strong competitors in Sebastian Rivera and Roman Bravo-Young, but DeSanto should be able to topple either one of them. DeSanto is all over people on his feet and has gotten significantly better from the bottom, a position that has plagued him throughout his college career. He convincingly beat Gross the first time before Gross held on to beat him in their second matchup. They might wrestle two more times this year, and those are definitely must-see matches.

1. Spencer Lee

If I was judging Lee strictly based off his performance as a Hawkeye, he might be five spots lower than this. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been amazing as he’s 6-0 with only one match going seven minutes, and even that was an 11-point major decision. But that’s pretty ho-hum for Lee at this point. What wasn’t ho-hum was his performance at the US Olympic Trial Qualifiers for Freestyle. He beat his first two opponents in under a minute combined. Then he got two more tech falls, followed by an 8-2 win over former NCAA Champion, Nathan Tomasello in the finals. Nobody came close to causing him problems, and it’s moments like this that remind me that at any point, Spencer Lee can turn on the jets and destroy everything in his path. There is no reason to expect he won’t do the same this coming year at the NCAA Finals and maybe even in Tokyo at the Olympics.