Iowa Women's Wrestling: Breaking down the 2025 recruiting targets

Yesterday, I broke down the current state of recruiting for the Hawkeye men, and today it’s time to do the very same for the Iowa women’s wrestling program.

Unlike men’s college wrestling – and plenty of other NCAA sports for that matter – the women’s side of this sport takes much longer to ‘rev up’ its recruiting ‘engine’ for the majority of its top high school prospects.

Rarely will you see notable athletes announce their college commitments prior to their senior year. Not only that, but when the process of visits, decision making, etc. does finally kick into high gear you’ll seldom observe those same athletes making the sorts of grand publicity over their recruitment that we’ve grown so accustomed to in sports like football and basketball.

All of this makes it a challenge to track which prospects are even considering which schools, much less predict with any sort of confidence/accuracy where they’re most likely to end up.

Having said that I’ve done some digging to come up with a list of recruits Hawkeye fans would do well to keep an eye on in the Class of 2025.

A theme you’ll notice among the following names – the reigning national champions continue to go after the very best of the best just as they’ve done with the three prior classes brought in by head coach Clarissa Chun.

We’ll begin our breakdown with five elite prospects whom I reported on Wednesday all took their official visits to Iowa City this past weekend:   

*all rankings courtesy of FloWrestling/USA Wrestling

Isabella Marie Gonzales – Clovis East (CA) *visited 9/20

• #4 pound-for-pound high school prospect in America (regardless of class/weight)
• Ranked #2 at 115 pounds

A native of the talent-rich state of California, Gonzales is arguably the top target on the board (in my opinion) given both her credentials and fit within the Iowa lineup.

Look, I don’t believe the Hawkeyes have a single ‘hole’ anywhere on this year’s roster nor will they next year even if not a single wrestler were added in the coming offseason.

But if there is the slightest flaw it’s that there may not be a ‘natural’ fit currently filling the 117-pound weight class.

Instead, the Hawkeyes are forced to ‘settle’ with returning NCWWC runner up Brianna Gonzalez – who also just represented Team USA at the U20 World Championships at an equivalent weight class of 53 kilograms.

(Like I said, we’re really stretching to find a flaw here.)

Gonzales (Isabella Marie) – a two-time state champion – nearly made the U17 World final last month before ultimately finishing fifth.

She still might have to sit behind Gonzalez (Brianna) for a year or two before breaking into the starting lineup, but she’s an excellent wrestler at an ideal weight for the Hawkeyes.

Piper Fowler – Cleveland HS (TN) *visited 9/20

• #5 pound-for-pound HS prospect in America
• Ranked #1 at 170 pounds

I can’t in good conscience describe Iowa potentially adding Fowler to its roster as anything other than a total luxury move.

That feels incredibly dismissive of a U17 World champion (2023), but Iowa is already loaded with five other wrestlers in the 160/180-pound weight classes whom I believe to be pretty darn elite themselves – and each of whom will have at least two years of eligibility remaining after this season.

Then again, the Hawkeyes also added 2024 Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades this July without any real pressing need to do so either.

So, I guess it wouldn’t shock me to see Piper Fowler elect to throw her hat in the ring as well. She’s certainly talented enough to compete in any room in the country – even one as stacked as Iowa’s.

Bella Williams – Edmond North (OK) *visited 9/20

• #9 pound-for-pound HS prospect in America
• Ranked #1 at 140 pounds

Given the amount of talent Iowa figures to return at both 138 and 145 pounds next season Williams is another (excellent) prospect who wouldn’t seem to be an immediate ‘need’ for the Hawkeyes.

That said, it’s hardly a reason to not recruit the Oklahoman – who is one of the more dangerous wrestlers you’ll find when an opponent gets to her legs.

Williams is both a 2023 16U Fargo champ and a 2024 U17 World teamer (though she was unable to compete at the latter event back in August).

And perhaps just as notable, last year as a high school junior she took fourth place at the prestigious Missouri Valley Open, defeating a whole host of collegians in the process – including a pair of current Hawkeyes, All-Americans Lilly Luft and Skye Realin.

Samantha Sachs – Glendora HS (CA) *visited 9/20

• #13 pound-for-pound HS prospect in America
• Ranked #2 at 130 pounds

Sachs is a bit of a late bloomer in the sport. She didn’t pick up wrestling until her freshman year of high school and had yet to top the podium at a major tournament prior to this summer.

That all changed when she won a Junior Fargo title a few months ago, and now the Californian (who goes by ‘Sam’) is ranked as one of the top pound-for-pound prospects in the entire country.

She lists a top three schools of Iowa, Lehigh (club team) and Colorado Mesa, and is hoping to have a decision made before the start of her senior season – perhaps as soon as October.

Tirza Twoteeth – Ronan HS (MT) *visited 9/20

• #23 pound-for-pound HS prospect in America
• Ranked #1 at 235 pounds

Besides Gonzales at 117 pounds, Tirza Twoteeth (207) might be the most prudent addition of Iowa’s recent visitors given the current composition of the room.

The Montana native is a two-time Junior Fargo runner up (2023-24) and profiles to step into a weight class where the Hawkeyes will lose a pair of established athletes over the next two offseasons.

Three-time national finalist Jaycee Foeller has one year of eligibility remaining and recent transfer Katja Osteen (a two-time All-American at Simon Fraser University) has two.

After that Iowa would be left with Alivia White (19-5 last year as a true freshman) and Sam Calkins (just nine total matches since arriving in Iowa City back in 2022) as its only natural fits at the uppermost weight class.

At minimum, Twoteeth could have a great opportunity to sit and develop for a year before making a run at the starting job at 207 pounds come fall/winter of 2026.

Given her prep credentials to this point I certainly wouldn’t put it past her.

In-state names to know

Another place for fans to keep an eye on in the Class of 2025 is whomever has emerged as the top in-state prospect this cycle.

In each of its three recruiting classes since the program’s inception the Hawkeyes have signed the consensus top-ranked recruit from the state of Iowa.

• 2022 = Ella Schmit – ranked #3 at 132 pounds
• 2023 = Lilly Luft – ranked #18 pound-for-pound and #2 at 138 pounds
• 2024 = Naomi Simon – ranked #13 pound-for-pound and #2 at 170 pounds

I’d surmise that’s a trend Coach Chun would like to continue – so long as the athlete(s) in question are of sufficient talent in any given year.

The top candidates in 2025 are the following trio:

Molly Allen – Riverside-Oakdale HS (IA)

• Ranked #7 at 125 pounds
• 2022 16U Fargo champ, 2023 Super 32 champ, 3x Iowa state champ (2022-24)

Libby Dix – Mount Vernon (IA)

• Ranked #7 at 190 pounds
• 2024 Iowa state champ

Reanah Utterback – Sigourney-Keota HS (IA)

• Ranked #14 at 110 pounds
• 2x Iowa girls state champ (2022/2024), 1x placer (8^th) at Iowa boys state tournament (2023)

Among the group, Molly Allen stands out above the others, especially given her freestyle credentials from the likes of Fargo and Super 32 individual titles.

She also wrestles around a weight class (124 pounds) at which Iowa is relatively thin compared to almost every other spot in its loaded lineup.

Short Time

As I wrap things up today the bottom line is this:

The Iowa women’s wrestling program has no plans to slow down its efforts to recruit as much top talent to Iowa City as it can possibly hold.

If the past three recruiting classes weren’t a sufficient reflection of that approach, then last weekend’s preposterous batch of visitors should’ve left no doubt – especially with the current roster being more talented and much deeper than ever before.

Continued results still need to be produced in the wake of Iowa’s red-hot start as a program. However, as a fanbase that expects dominance in the sport of wrestling I’m not sure it could’ve asked for much more than the trajectory both the current and future Hawkeye women appear to be headed in.

As always, thank you so much for reading.

Be sure to check out my preliminary thoughts on this year’s team from earlier today and keep an eye out for more and more wrestling coverage in the coming weeks as Media Day approaches fast (October 15^th).

I’ll talk to you guys again soon!