Hawkeyes eye national title
Ryan Young - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Sports
Finishing high in the NCAA championships has not been a trait of the Hawkeyes in the past few postseasons.
The Iowa wrestling program has not won a national championship since 2000, when it went 18-0 under former coach Jim Zalesky. The Hawkeyes came close to titles in 2001 and 2004, when Zalesky's squads finished second.
That could change, though, when the top-ranked Iowa wrestlers vie for NCAA team title No. 21 in St. Louis on March 20.
"We've done a good job all year, and we need to pick it up," coach Tom Brands said after confessing he didn't even know the last time Iowa won the NCAA title. "That's it. You're not getting ready for the 21st title. You're getting ready for 2008 in St. Louis."
At the national tournament a year ago, Iowa was trounced by rivals Minnesota and Iowa State, ending with 57 points, which meant an eighth-place finish - the worst since the 1972 11th-place Hawkeyes.
Iowa has nine qualifiers going to the Gateway City for this year's NCAAs. Only makeshift 197-pounder Chad Beatty failed to place seventh or better last weekend in Minneapolis during the Big Ten championships.
Top-ranked 149-pound sophomore Brent Metcalf and defending 165-pound national champion Mark Perry headline the Hawkeye qualifiers.
Metcalf ended as Iowa's only champion in the conference tournament, defeating Minnesota rival Dustin Schlatter. He has recently collected numerous accolades for the Hawkeyes.
In the post-tournament award ceremony on Sunday, the Big Ten honored Metcalf as the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler and Wrestler of the Year.
Perry's latest performance in the Big Ten tourney, however, was a disappointment in comparison with his success a year ago during the postseason, when he was the sole champion for Iowa at both the NCAA and conference championships.
Coming into his first match since undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in mid-January, Perry pinned Michigan State's Rex Kendel before winning an uncharacteristic sudden-victory decision in the semifinals and losing a 3-2 championship bout with Michigan's Eric Tannenbaum on Sunday.
The Iowa wrestling program has not won a national championship since 2000, when it went 18-0 under former coach Jim Zalesky. The Hawkeyes came close to titles in 2001 and 2004, when Zalesky's squads finished second.
That could change, though, when the top-ranked Iowa wrestlers vie for NCAA team title No. 21 in St. Louis on March 20.
"We've done a good job all year, and we need to pick it up," coach Tom Brands said after confessing he didn't even know the last time Iowa won the NCAA title. "That's it. You're not getting ready for the 21st title. You're getting ready for 2008 in St. Louis."
At the national tournament a year ago, Iowa was trounced by rivals Minnesota and Iowa State, ending with 57 points, which meant an eighth-place finish - the worst since the 1972 11th-place Hawkeyes.
Iowa has nine qualifiers going to the Gateway City for this year's NCAAs. Only makeshift 197-pounder Chad Beatty failed to place seventh or better last weekend in Minneapolis during the Big Ten championships.
Top-ranked 149-pound sophomore Brent Metcalf and defending 165-pound national champion Mark Perry headline the Hawkeye qualifiers.
Metcalf ended as Iowa's only champion in the conference tournament, defeating Minnesota rival Dustin Schlatter. He has recently collected numerous accolades for the Hawkeyes.
In the post-tournament award ceremony on Sunday, the Big Ten honored Metcalf as the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler and Wrestler of the Year.
Perry's latest performance in the Big Ten tourney, however, was a disappointment in comparison with his success a year ago during the postseason, when he was the sole champion for Iowa at both the NCAA and conference championships.
Coming into his first match since undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in mid-January, Perry pinned Michigan State's Rex Kendel before winning an uncharacteristic sudden-victory decision in the semifinals and losing a 3-2 championship bout with Michigan's Eric Tannenbaum on Sunday.
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