Victor Voinovich announces transfer to Iowa wrestling

Former Oklahoma State wrestler Victor Voinovich announced his transfer to the Iowa Hawkeyes after weighing his options in the transfer portal.

Voinovich entered the Cowboys lineup last season as the starter at 149 pounds. He’s projected to go the same weight at Iowa as of now.

The 2023 NCAA qualifier now goes from one historic program to another and gives the Hawkeyes a replacement for the graduated Max Murin.

“Go Hawks! (Bird emoji),” Voinovich wrote on Twitter.

Voinovich went 17-13 last season and qualified for the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Tulsa. He finished in the Round of 16, going 2-2 in the tournament.

Voinovich fell two wins shy of the All-American podium.

“Victor is gonna be great,” Oklahoma State wrestler Dustin Plott said in November. “He’s one of those guys that I don’t think you’re going to see have very many regrets because as I have said, he lives right, does everything right. If he has a bad match it was probably a fluke.”

Voinovich wrestled behind former 149-pound starter Kaden Gfeller. But he said he learned a lot from the veteran during his time in Stillwater.

“It kind of showed me what it was like to wrestle college guys versus being in high school,” Voinovich said. “Just the grind that college wrestling can be and just making weight and going through it all I guess is (what I learned my first year).”

Oklahoma State head coach mentioned the lessons Voinovich learned as a redshirt wrestler. Voinovich went 16-1 unattached for the Cowboys during the 2021-22 season.

“His exposure last year, I think he learned a lot,” Smith said in December. “He didn’t sit idle. He’s seeing match-by-match where he’s going. I’m real pleased with his effort in the wrestling room. That’s where it starts. You may not see everything you wanna see early on with these young guys, but I sure like what I see in the room with him.”

Voinovich wrestled at Brecksville (Ohio) High where he went 148-16 and won two Ohio state titles. In addition, he won FloWrestling’s Who’s Number One even twice in 2019 and ;20 and also finished second at the Junior Men’s Freestyle National Championships in 2019.

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Iowa moves onto next season without three-time national champion Spencer Lee. But the team returns a bevy of All-Americans, including 2023 runner-up Real Woods (141).