First Thoughts: 2024-25 Iowa men's wrestling schedule
At long last our national nightmare is over.
Thankfully, in a pair of announcements over the past few days the Iowa men’s wrestling program has finally released its full schedule for the 2024-25 season.
It may have felt like we’ve waited for an eternity (a la Rose from Titanic), but the road map for the next five months that is college wrestling season now lies firmly within our grasp.
We know the who, we know the where and we know the when – albeit with television/streaming networks and times mostly yet to be determined.
The news also just so happened to coincide with what was the first official day of practice for the Hawkeyes:
With all of that in mind I thought it’d be a great opportunity to both lay out the schedule for fans who haven’t already saved it in their calendars as well as offer up a few of my initial thoughts on what should be a dynamite slate of opponents for the preseason number two team in the country.
Non-Conference
Iowa has seven separate events slated for the non-conference portion of its 2024-25 schedule, all but one of which will take place prior to the New Year.
@ #22 Oregon State (Saturday, Nov. 2nd – 9 p.m. CDT)
A season opening dual in Corvallis will mark the second-consecutive year the Hawkeyes have begun their schedule on the West Coast (defeated Cal Baptist 40-0 last November).
It’ll also mark a return visit after Iowa hosted Oregon State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 2023 – a 25-11 win for the home team.
The Beavers – led by fifth-year head coach (and former two-time national champion athlete at Oklahoma State) Chris Pendleton – finished tied for 23rd at NCAAs this past March and enter the year with a handful of All-American contenders on the roster.
#12 Stanford (Saturday, Nov. 9th)
Iowa faces another enticing West Coast foe for its home opener as the 12th-ranked Cardinal travel to Iowa City.
Stanford finished 16th at NCAAs a year ago on the backs of All-American performances from middleweights Daniel Cardenas (4th at 157) and Hunter Garvin (6th at 165) – both of whom return this year with preseason #3 rankings to their names.
Garvin – a local graduate from Iowa City West – is a high-flying wrestler who could make for a very entertaining bout against Iowa’s #2 Michael Caliendo.
Meanwhile, Cardenas is set to rekindle an old PAC-12 rivalry with Iowa’s #1 Jacori Teemer (an Arizona State transfer this offseason).
@ Bellarmine (Friday, Nov. 15th)
Led by former Hawkeye wrestler Ned Shuck (2000-05), the Knights will bring the Hawkeyes to their campus in Louisville, Kentucky in mid-November for what unquestionably must be the biggest home dual in school history.
Bellarmine will also return to the Iowa City area for December’s Soldier Salute tournament (more on that in a bit) where it has competed in the first two editions of the event from 2022-23.
#15 Iowa State (Saturday, Nov. 23rd)
I’m not sure what more needs to be said about the latest edition of the Cy-Hawk dual.
These two programs do not like each other – a feeling that probably isn’t tempered any given that the Hawkeyes have won 19-consecutive meetings between the two rivals, nor by the fact that the Cyclones edged Iowa for the fourth and final team trophy at NCAAs this past March by a margin of just 1.5 points.
Don’t be fooled by the preseason ranking either – I believe the Cyclones are firmly a top 10 team this season and will be a handful at a number of weights when the two programs clash on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
@ Journeymen Wrestling “Uncivil War” (Friday, Dec. 6th)
A new event on the calendar this year is the Journeymen “Uncivil War” being hosted in St. Charles, Missouri.
There, Iowa will contest a pair of neutral site duals with Princeton (6 p.m. CDT) and Army (8 p.m. CDT).
Both the Tigers and the Black Knights are solid programs from year-to-year who typically produce at least an athlete or two capable of reaching the podium at NCAAs.
Soldier Salute (Sunday/Monday, Dec. 29-30)
Hawk fans will have another opportunity to watch their team(s) in a ‘home’ environment when the third annual Solider Salute tournament takes place at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
Iowa will compete in a 10-team field including athletes from the likes of Bellarmine, Iowa State, Minnesota, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota State and Wyoming.
Of note: Don’t expect Iowa State, Missouri or Nebraska to send full lineups to this event, but rather a collection of young, ‘unattached’ wrestlers. Even so, there should be more than enough high-level competition from the other programs attending.
Not only could we see a couple of spots in the Iowa lineup (125/174) decided by pseudo ‘wrestle-offs’ throughout the tournament, but plenty of former Hawkeyes could be in attendance as well thanks to the quartet of recent transfers now competing for South Dakota State (Zach Glazier, Drake Rhodes, Cade/Cobe Siebrecht).
The men’s tournament will be hosted simultaneously with a 10-team women’s event (also in its third year of existence) – where the returning national champion Hawkeyes will headline the field.
#3 Oklahoma State (Sunday, Feb. 23rd)
The last home dual of the season could very well be its biggest as (hated) historic rival Oklahoma State visits Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
If that wasn’t reason enough to get excited the Cowboys also carry a preseason #3 ranking next to their name.
And if both of those still weren’t reason enough to get excited, how about the fact that one David Taylor has now taken the reigns of the OSU program from legendary coach John Smith?
Oh, and he’s got a former Hawkeye on his staff – Thomas Gilman – whom I’m sure plenty of fans have complicated feelings about after the past few years.
Just as there won’t be a shortage of juicy storylines at play, neither will there be a shortage of high-caliber individual matchups between what should be two of the very best teams in the entire country.
Iowa has won eight of the last 10 meetings between the two schools and now trails the all-time series just 29-26-2.
Big Ten Duals
The eight-dual slate of Big Ten competition commences for Iowa about two weeks after the New Year – including the marquee dual of every wrestling season plus a pair of must-see, top five home matchups for the Black & Gold faithful:
Top 10
- 1Trending
Kirby shoves MSU QB
The UGA coach is going to regret this
- 2
Herbie backs Ducks
Kirk Herbstreit message to Oregon, Ohio State
- 3
Referee hospitalized
Boise State-Hawaii ref taken off field by ambulance
- 4
Spitting ejection
Traeshon Holden spits on Ohio State DB, gets ejected
- 5
Lincoln Riley snaps back
USC head coach takes exception to question
@ Wisconsin (Sunday, Jan. 12th)
The Hawkeyes begin the conference schedule with a trip to Madison, where a frankly decimated Wisconsin roster awaits them.
The Badgers finished 18th at NCAAs last March, but 20.5 of their 24.5 team points are gone via 125-pounder Eric Barnett (graduated) and 165-pounder Dean Hamiti (transferred to Oklahoma State).
Those points don’t appear likely to be made up by key members of the 2024-25 team either.
#23 Illinois (Friday, Jan. 17th)
An underrated dual on the schedule comes in the form of the Fighting Illini.
Iowa’s eastern neighbors only return one point scorer from NCAA’s (7th-place finisher at 174 pounds Edmond Ruth). However, they bring a plethora of quality wrestlers out of redshirt – many of whom are college veterans as opposed to young, unproven performers.
Among the redshirt ‘reinforcements’ are #9 Lucas Byrd (133), #12 Kannon Webster (149), #10 Dan Braunagel (174), #9 Zac Braunagel (197) and #15 Luke Luffman (285).
#5 Ohio State (Saturday, Jan. 25th)
At present, Iowa is projected to dual against each of the other top five teams in the country.
That group includes the Buckeyes, who last traveled to Iowa City back in January of 2020.
OSU has a trio of past NCAA finalists on its roster including reigning national champion Jesse Mendez at 141 pounds.
Possible bouts at 174 between #6 Gabe Arnold and #3 Rocco Welsh and at 285 between #11 Ben Kueter and #3 Nick Feldman already have my mouth watering as a wrestling fan.
@ #1 Penn State (Friday, Jan. 31st)
I’ll spare folks too much in the way of early-October ‘analysis’ of this matchup.
You all know what the deal is.
There is no bigger dual event on the entire wrestling calendar and there hasn’t been for the better part of a decade.
Iowa wants what Penn State has – a recent stranglehold at the top of the NCAA team standings.
A late-January conference dual doesn’t exactly accomplish that goal. However, a competitive showing on the road (much less a win) would likely do wonders for the belief of Iowa fans that these Hawkeyes can make a serious run at this year’s Nittany Lions when March rolls around.
The latest rendition of this incredible rivalry is also a great excuse for me to refer to one of the most electric sports moments/environments I’ve ever had the privilege of experiencing in person – I think you guys may be familiar with it:
@ Maryland (Sunday, Feb. 2nd)
The Hawkeyes return to the site of last season’s Big Ten Championships where the 2023-24 team finished a disappointing fourth.
#4 Nebraska (Friday, Feb. 7th)
The latest in a long line of schools Iowa fans seemingly love to hate (and vice versa), Nebraska will once again roll out a formidable lineup in 2024-25.
The #4 Cornhuskers will rely on a foursome of returning All-Americans from last year’s ninth-place NCAA finishing team plus three more starters ranked 11th or better by Flo entering this year.
With its 22-9 dual victory in Lincoln this past January, Iowa has now gone unblemished in 15-consecutive meetings in the series.
@ #19 Minnesota (Friday, Feb. 14th)
Last season’s Minnesota dual will largely be remembered as the Hawkeye debut for a guy you might know named Ben Kueter.
This go around the Gophers return their top three point scorers from 2024 NCAAs, including a pair of All-Americans. They’ll also add to the mix a couple of talented redshirt freshmen and/or intriguing transfers.
Iowa will be looking to extend a 10-dual winning streak against those pesky varmints.
Northwestern (Sunday, Feb. 16th)
Northwestern concludes Iowa’s 2024-25 Big Ten slate.
A year ago, the Hawkeyes blanked the host Wildcats by a margin of 46-0 inside Welsh-Ryan Arena.
That dual win improved a preposterous advantage in the overall series between the two programs to 76-7-1 in favor of Iowa.
(Yikes.)
Postseason
We’ll talk about March when we get to March.
But for now, here’s where Iowa will be competing for postseason hardware almost exactly six months from today:
@ Big Ten Championships (Saturday/Sunday, Mar. 8-9)
Location: Evanston, Illinois (Northwestern University)
@ NCAA Championships (Thursday-Saturday, Mar. 20-22)
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Wells Fargo Center)
Short Time
With the Iowa men’s wrestling schedule finally out in the world we now await a similar release courtesy of the women’s program.
I’d expect such news to come in relatively short order, especially with Media Day set for early next week (October 15th).
When that does become official you can be sure I’ll have another breakdown coming your way much like this one.
I hope you guys are as excited as I am for both seasons ahead of us and as always thanks for reading.
‘Till next time.
