Iowa wrestling finished in a distant fourth place at the 2024 Big Ten Championships, the Hawkeyes' worst finish since 2017-18 and only the second time in head coach Tom Brands' 18 seasons in charge that Iowa has failed to finish in the top three. The Hawkeyes ended the tournament with 110.5 points. That left them 7.5 points behind Nebraska in third place, 13 points behind Michigan in second place, and a massive 60 points back of Big Ten champion Penn State. Iowa finished with zero individual champions, one runner-up (Zach Glazier at 197), three third-place finishers, a fourth-place finisher, and four fifth-place finishers.
The semifinal round was where the tournament went deeply awry for the Hawkeyes, although cracks had appeared before then as well. After an 8-1 showing in the first round (Aiden Riggins had Iowa's only loss at 184, while Drake Ayala had a bye at 125), the Hawkeyes went 6-3 in the quarterfinals, with Ayala and Caleb Rathjen getting upset at 125 and 149, respectively.
In Saturday night's semifinals, though, Iowa wrestlers went just 1-5. Zach Glazier's 4-1 overtime win over Maryland's Jaxon Smith was the only result preventing Iowa from getting swept out of the semis. Brody Teske, who had enjoyed a strong start to the tournament with a wild 15-13 win over 3-seed Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State in the first round and an 11-5 win over 11-seed Dustin Norris of Purdue in the quarterfinals, fell 12-6 to 2-seed Dylan Shawver of Rutgers.
Real Woods stumbled in a 6-3 semifinal loss to 2-seed Jesse Mendez of Ohio State at 141 lbs. Iowa then suffered back-to-back-to-back losses in the semis at 157, 165, and 174, as Jared Franek, Michael Caliendo, and Patrick Kennedy all lost to opponents who had beaten them previously this season. Franek fell 5-0 to 1-seed Levi Haines of Penn State, a marginal improvement on the 12-0 thrashing Haines delivered to him in the dual meet.
The gap between Caliendo and 2-seed Mitchell Messenbrink of Penn State has only widened since the dual meet, with Messenbrink turning a 12-6 win at the dual into a 23-7 technical fall victory here. Kennedy managed to narrow the gap against 2-seed Shane Griffith of Michigan, turning an 11-1 major decision loss at the dual into a 4-3 defeat here, but still struggled to score points against his opponent.
As noted, the only solace for Iowa in the semifinals was provided by Zach Glazier, who was able to edge out 2-seed Jaxon Smith with a takedown in sudden victory to earn a 4-1 win. Glazier has been one of the best stories for Iowa all season and making the semifinals at this tournament was another strong showing for him. Still, a 19-3 tech fall loss to 1-seed Aaron Brooks of Penn State in the final definitely stung, especially since Glazier had only lost 5-1 to Brooks at the dual earlier this season.
That match symbolized the wide gap between Iowa and the best wrestlers in the Big Ten, though, and was indicative of the work needed by Tom Brands & Co. to get Iowa back on top again. Penn State crowned five champions at the Big Ten Tournament (and likely would have had six, if not for a balky knee forcing Carter Starocci into a pair of injury defaults at this event) and while two of those champs are seniors (Brooks and Greg Kerkvliet at 285), three are young underclassmen (157 lb champ Levi Haines is a sophomore, 165 lb champ Mitchell Messenbrink is a redshirt freshman, and 125 lb champ Braeden Davis is also a freshman). In other words, Penn State is not going anywhere.
There were a few positives from the weekend. Teske going 3-2 and finishing in 5th place after being seeded 14th was impressive, even if he was only seeded 14th as a technicality. (Iowa submitted Teske as its entrant at 133 lbs after the Big Ten's deadline and by rule all wrestlers submitted after the deadline have to be seeded at the bottom of their respective weights.) Ayala rebounded with four wins after his quarterfinal defeat to Michigan's Michael DeAugustino, including a solid 4-1 win over 1-seed Matt Ramos of Purdue in the 3rd place match, avenging a 4-1 loss to Ramos at the dual meet.
Bradley Hill rewarded the Iowa coaches' decision to start him at 285 in this event with a 4-2 performance, finishing 5th (improving on his 7-seed), and comfortably qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. He's had a solid season this year. And Woods and Caliendo were able to rebound from their disappointing semifinal defeats to obtain the next-best result possible, a 3rd-place finish. (Franek also made it to the 3rd-place match after a semifinal defeat, but did not compete due to a medical forfeit.)
Still, 3rd-place individual finishes and 4th-place team finishes are not the standard at Iowa -- far from it. "Our guys want to be champions,” said Brands after the tournament. “This program wants to be champions. You're talking to guys that are disappointed, but you don't stop pursuing. You don't stop doing the right thing, you're relentless for the things that you want."
Iowa has just 10 days until its next championship opportunity, at the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, MO (March 21-23). Achieving a team championship there looks very unlikely (unless Penn State gets lost on the way to Kansas City) and even attaining a Top 5 finish could be a challenge based on the results from this past weekend. Iowa has finished outside of the Top 5 at the NCAA Tournament just once since Brands took over in 2006.
Winning individual championship(s) looks more plausible, with Ayala and Woods appearing to be the most likely contenders to top the podium for the Hawkeyes (or at least extend Iowa's streak of having at least one NCAA finalist to 34 years). That said, both will need to wrestle much better than they did at the Big Ten Tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament's Saturday night showcase.
