Iowa women's wrestling starts 2025 class with elite California prep

You couldn’t start off much better than this if you’re the University of Iowa women’s wrestling program putting together its latest star-studded recruiting class.

That’s how perfectly Isabella Marie Gonzales fits in with the Hawkeyes – having announced her commitment on Instagram late Friday evening.

Look, the talent is obvious. Gonzales (who attends Clovis East High School in California) is one of the very best young wrestlers in America. And the 17-year-old has a whole host of accolades to prove it.

She’s competed at the toughest domestic events – winning the likes of a Super 32 title (2023) and twice emerging victorious at FloWrestling’s Who’s Number One (2023/24). Gonzales is also a two-time California (single-class) state champion – unquestionably the most challenging girls state tournament in the country.

Earlier this year she bolstered her international credentials as well.

In April, Gonzales made the first World Championship team of her young career. Four months later she was in Amman, Jordan, where she’d lose a competitive semifinal to the eventual Under-17 World Champion – ultimately finishing fifth at 53 kilograms.

All those efforts led to her being considered the #3 pound-for-pound high school wrestler in America according to Flo/USA Wrestling.

*Pound-for-pound (P4P) is a distinction used to rank all eligible athletes regardless of age/weight class.

Gonzales is also ranked #1 nationally at 120 pounds, and projects to compete at either 117/124 when she arrives in Iowa City next fall.

She’s fast. She’s dynamic. And she scores lots of points in lots of different ways.

In other words, Hawkeye fans (and her future head coach, Clarissa Chun) are going to absolutely love her.

High School ‘rivals’ turned teammates in Black & Gold

A year ago, Karlee Brooks was the recent U17 World teamer, committing her incredibly bright future to the Hawkeyes. In fact, she’d made that very U17 World team by defeating one Isabella Marie Gonzales in the best-of-three trials final.

Now a true freshman at Iowa, Brooks shared an amazing (competitive) rivalry with Gonzales over the span of about six months in 2023 as the two entered their senior and junior years of high school respectively.

Besides the best-of-three World team trials final (won 2-1 by Brooks), the pair met another three times that same spring/fall. All the matches took place at prestigious events, and all were equally compelling.

Brooks backed up her trials victory a few weeks later with a 10-0 tech. fall in the final of the National Girls High School Recruiting Showcase. Then, in a 50-day span later that fall Gonzales won a pair of down-to-the-wire matches at Who’s Number One and Super 32.

All told, Brooks/Gonzales split six high stakes bouts over the course of six months. Now they’ll become teammates at Iowa – potentially forming a dynamic future duo at 117/124 pounds.

Funny how the world works, huh?

It also just so happens that those two weight classes might be the only spots in the lineup where Iowa doesn’t currently have two or more bona fide All-American/championship contenders.

To be clear, you’d still recruit an ‘Isabella Marie Gonzales’ even if you already had seven more just like her on your roster. She’s that talented. But the fact that she also addresses one of the only (relative) needs for Iowa makes the pairing somehow even more perfect.

Just the beginning?

Gonzales not only represents an elite wrestling talent in her own right, but she could also be the start of a historic 2025 recruiting class – even by astronomical Iowa women’s wrestling standards.

She was one of five official visitors on campus together in mid-September – all of whom are rated among the nation’s best.

Joining Gonzales that weekend were the following 2025 prospects:

• Piper Fowler, TN (#4 P4P, #1 at 170 pounds)
• Bella Williams, OK (#7 P4P, #1 at 140 pounds)
• Samantha Sachs, CA (#11 P4P, #2 at 130 pounds)
• Tirza Twoteeth, MT (#22 P4P, #1 at 235 pounds)

The group consists of Fargo runners up (Twoteeth) and champions (Sachs), U17 World team members (Williams) and World Champions (Fowler).

Any of their singular additions to Iowa’s 2025 class would be a major coup for Clarissa Chun. But if somehow most/all of them wound up committing to the Hawkeyes…it could be something truly special.

But enough of the hypothetical big-picture scenarios. The immediate story is that Isabella Marie Gonzales has committed to be a part of the Iowa women’s wrestling program.

And with that commitment should come a whole bunch of excitement from Hawkeye fans.

They don’t get much better than this California native. And now she’ll be sporting the Tiger Hawk logo on her singlet for the next four years.