A strong semifinal round for Iowa wrestling at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Tournament helped turn around a tournament that seemed to be heading toward being postseason disappointment. Instead, Iowa went 3-0 in semifinal matches, placing three wrestlers in the championship finals for the first time since 2021, and going 3-1 in consolation round action as well.
Obviously, the ultimate result is still far from the hopes and expectations of the Iowa program (and fanbase). Iowa sits in fourth place in the team race, some 62 points behind first-place Penn State. The Nittany Lions are cruising toward their fourth consecutive national championship; the goal for Iowa is not a fourth-place finish and five All-Americans.
Still -- Iowa's total of 73.5 points through two days this year is already an improvement on last year's total of 67 points, which resulted in a fifth-place finish. The three individual finalists is the most Iowa has had in a single year since 2021, when the Hawkeyes also put three in the finals.
Iowa's scoring in this tournament is coming almost entirely from five wrestlers as well; the Hawkeyes did not qualify a wrestler at 141 and a combination of poor performance (125 and 184) and injuries (149 and 157) resulted in the Hawkeyes scoring just 2.5 points from those four weights. The other five wrestlers have accounted for 71 of Iowa's 73.5 team points to date.
The successful semifinal round started at 133, where 2-seed Drake Ayala dispatched 14-seed Zan Fugitt, 6-1. Ayala dominated Fugitt in a 21-6 technical fall at the Iowa-Wisconsin dual meet earlier this season, but this match was far different than that one. Fugitt caught fire at this year's NCAA Tournament (he upset the 3- and 6-seeds to get to Friday night's semifinal match) and gave Ayala fits through most of two periods in this match; finally, Ayala got a takedown on the edge in the final seconds of the second period.
It wasn't initially ruled a takedown -- the Iowa coaches challenged and video review ruled that Ayala had just barely managed to secure a takedown on the edge of the mat. It was a tight decision; had the video review left it as no takedown, it would have been hard to argue. Ayala managed to add two more quick near fall points off a turn right before the end of the period, which gave him a solid lead heading into the third period.
Ayala went on the defensive for most of the third period, but kept Fugitt at bay to lock up his 6-1 win and a second-straight trip to the NCAA finals. Last year, Ayala made the NCAA final at 125, only to lose to Arizona State's Richard Figueroa in that match, 7-2. Ayala will try to avenge that loss on Saturday night against Illinois' Lucas Byrd, the top seed at 133. Ayala and Byrd split two matches earlier this season, with Ayala defeating Byrd 4-2 at the dual meet and Byrd winning via pin (in 3:16) in the Big Ten Tournament final.
The second leg of Iowa's semifinal trifecta came at 165, where 3-seed Mike Caliendo earned his first NCAA finals trip with a 14-10 win over 2-seed Peyton Hall of West Virginia. Caliendo started the match hot, scoring a takedown and three near fall points shortly after the opening whistle to open up a quick 6-1 lead. He made it 9-1 later in the period with another takedown and seemed to be cruising before Hall responded with a takedown of his own.
Caliendo's attacking tempo slowed down in the second and third periods (which did lead to a few stall calls against him in the third period), but he was able to add another takedown in the third period to give himself a bit more breathing room. Hall made things closer with another takedown of his own, as well as a pair of escape points and the aforementioned stall calls, but Caliendo still had more than enough to hold him off in the third period.
This wasn't Caliendo's sharpest match in terms of offense or defense -- at least after his gangbusters start in the first few minutes -- but he didn't completely shut things down after his big start and was able to hold on for the win in the third period. His toughest test is up next as he gets another showdown with Penn State's top-ranked Mitchell Mesenbrink in the final.
Mesenbrink is 5-0 all-time against Caliendo (including three lopsided bonus point wins), but Caliendo did show excellent defense against Mesenbrink in their last meeting (a 4-1 Mesenbrink win in the Big Ten final). Can Caliendo duplicate that superb defensive effort and find a bit more offense to try and complete the upset bid? It's a tall ask, but it at least seems within the realm of possibility after the way the Big Ten final match played out.
Iowa's third and final semifinal win came at 197, where 2-seed Stephen Buchanan was able to grind out a 3-0 win over 3-seed AJ Ferrari of Cal State Bakersfield. Ferrari, a former national champion, provocateur, and one-time rumored Hawkeye-to-be, is a polarizing figure in many ways -- but he's also a superbly skilled wrestler.
Friday's match didn't feature much in the way of offensive fireworks -- it featured zero takedowns and only a few strong attacks -- but Buchanan showed his ability to grind out a win even when he's not able to get his neutral offense flowing or dominate on the mat. After a scoreless first period, Ferrari chose down in the second period -- only to get ridden out by Buchanan in a relentless ride.
Buchanan went down to start the third period and quickly got a locked hands penalty against Ferrari which gave him a 1-0 lead. He was able to add an escape later in the period to give himself a 2-0 lead (effectively 3-0 with the riding time advantage). Buchanan fended off Ferrari's attacks for the remainder of the match and was nearly able to ice the match with a takedown of his own, though he wasn't quite able to finish.
Still, a 3-0 win was enough for Buchanan to book his ticket to the NCAA finals, where he'll face Penn State's Josh Barr, the 4-seed. Buchanan edged him 4-1 in the Iowa-Penn State dual earlier this season.
The victory was a bit of a full circle moment for Buchanan and Iowa; in 2022, Jacob Warner's semifinal win over Buchanan (then at Wyoming) kept alive Iowa's streak of placing at least one wrestler in the NCAA finals since 1990. On Friday night, Buchanan helped Iowa continue that streak himself with a semifinal win. Technically, the wins earlier in the night by Ayala and Caliendo had ensured that Iowa's streak would hit 35 straight NCAA Tournaments, but Buchanan's win still counts toward the streak as well.
Even the action in the consolation rounds mostly went Iowa's way on Friday night, as Patrick Kennedy and Ben Kueter combined to go 3-1 in their consolation matches. The most important wins for both men were their first wins of the night, in the round of 12/blood round; those are the wins that locked up All-America status for both men.
Kennedy earned a 7-6 comeback win over Pitt's Luca Augustine in his round of 12 bout, using a third-period takedown and riding time point to come from behind and grind out the win. He added another win later in the night, 7-3 over Navy's Danny Wask, which ensures that he'll finish no worse than sixth on the podium this year. This is Kennedy's first All-America finish in three tries and a very welcome accomplishment.
Kueter got a 5-1 win over Pitt's Dayton Pitzer in his round of 12 match, using an escape and takedown in the second period to build his lead and then putting a hard ride on in the third period to lock up the victory. Kueter lost his second match of the night, to Arizona State's Cohlton Schultz, 10-2, and will wrestle for 7th place on Saturday morning. Still, Kueter earning All-America honors continues his strong finish to the season and is an impressive accomplishment in his first full season on the mat.
FINALS
133: (2) Drake Ayala (20-2) vs (1) Lucas Byrd (Illinois, 22-1)
165: (3) Mike Caliendo (24-2) vs (1) Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State, 26-0)
197: (2) Stephen Buchanan (25-1) vs (4) Josh Barr (Penn State, 20-3
The 2025 NCAA Wrestling Tournament finals will get underway at 6 PM CT on Saturday, March 22. ESPN will televise the finals.
