Iowa Wrestling - Hawks fly high at Eagle Madness/Luther Open(s)
The action for Iowa wrestling programs this weekend wasn’t solely reserved to the ‘dual’ format.
Both the second-ranked Hawkeye women and the #2 men’s team won dual competitions on Friday/Saturday respectively. Both would then double up by entering 10-plus athletes into open tournaments on Saturday.
For the women, the Eagle Madness Open marked a second-consecutive day of competition down in Marietta, Georgia at Life University.
A dozen Hawkeyes contested eight different weight classes and all 12 reached at least the semifinals.
In total, Iowa had six champions, four runners up (two of whom lost against teammates) and one third place finisher.
*131-pounder Emmily Patneaud lost her semifinal against a returning national finalist, then injury defaulted mid-way through her consolation semi.
Of the 49 contested matches by Iowa wrestlers, the Hawkeyes won 42 of them (85.7 percent).
Exclude a pair of all-Hawkeye bouts and the cumulative record was 40-5 – with an astounding 85 percent (34/40) of those victories coming via bonus points.
Clarissa Chun’s group was on an absolute tear from whistle to whistle. And all of this took place, mind you, with no fewer than (conservatively) 10 other national title and/or All-American favorites from Iowa’s roster absent on Saturday.
(Yeah, they’re pretty darn good, folks.)
Back in the Hawkeye state, 11 men’s wrestlers donned the Black & Gold singlet for the Luther Open in Decorah – plus two more ‘unattached’ athletes who are expected to join the team next season. The group, comprised largely of (seven) true freshmen, competed across both ‘Elite’ and ‘Silver’ divisions.
Five current/future Hawkeyes won titles, along with a second, a trio of fourths, a fifth, a seventh, and two DNP’s.
It was a busy day for Iowa wrestling, no doubt.
Now let’s get into some of the standout performances/storylines.
Eagle Madness Open – Leng/Estrella impress for different reasons
Cali Leng is without question one of the least heralded recruits on Iowa’s roster – considered ‘only’ the 21st best 122-pounder in the country as a high school senior.
The sophomore went 15-12 in her first year as a Hawkeye, never finishing higher than fourth in any open tournament. But now, a week after taking third at the Luther Hill Open the Ohio native has reached a career-best mark once again.
Leng stood atop the podium at 124 pounds on Saturday, capping a 4-0 tournament with a dominating 10-1 finals victory over NAIA’s #9 Ariana Martinez (Life University).
All told, Leng outscored her opponents 41-1, including two technical falls and a pin.
Another great story for Iowa was the ongoing return for senior Nanea Estrella. The fifth-ranked 138-pounder in the country had been absent from competition for the past 11 months prior to this weekend.
Last December, Estrella suffered a major Lisfranc injury while competing at US Senior Nationals – causing the Hawaii native to miss the back half of Iowa’s 2023-24 season.
Now back on the mat, she’s looking to regain the form that made her one of the national title favorites this time a year ago.
So far so good.
Estrella won all six matches this weekend via bonus, including a 4-0 blitz through the Eagle Madness Open. Her most impressive match of the tournament may have been a 10-0 quarterfinal victory over Jennifer Soto.
Soto – a 2023 NCWWC All-American (4th place) for McKendree – wouldn’t even make it out of the first period thanks to a signature Estrella double-leg to complete the tech. fall.
There’s still four more months until the national tournament in Coralville (IA), but Estrella seems well on her way to regaining her championship form.
All-Iowa finals highlight Hawkeye dominance at 145/207
Any nervousness over an Iowa champion emerging at 145 and 207 pounds was put to bed early when a pair of Hawkeyes reached both finals.
At 145, #1 Reese Larramendy and #6 Ella Schmit each bonus’d their way to the championship bout, where’d they face off for the fourth time this calendar year. Larramendy would continue to hold the edge, winning a 10-1 scrap of a match against her teammate.
207 told a similar story, with #1 Jaycee Foeller – a three-time national runner up – prevailing 2-0 over Katja Osteen.
Osteen, a first-year Hawkeye (and two-time All-American at Simon Fraser University) went unscored upon in three matches (28-0) to reach the final.
Foeller would have a tougher penultimate test after opening her tournament with a pair of tech. falls. The senior won a 4-2 decision in her semifinal against NAIA #4 Naomi Duenas (University of the Cumberlands).
In the end, the all-Iowa championship bout was decided on a first-period go-behind score by Foeller.
I wouldn’t expect Saturday to be the last time we see either of these matchups take place this season.
Freshmen phenoms continue torrid pace
I mentioned yesterday on Twitter that I wouldn’t be surprised if 103-pounder Rianne Murphy was the all-time pins leader in program history by the time her Hawkeye career was over.
I quickly followed that with the caveat that Naomi Simon (180) might be an equally likely candidate for the record.
My own wishy-washy predictions aside, it speaks to the absolute roll both true freshmen continue to be on these past two weeks.
Murphy and Simon each won titles in Georgia on Saturday with neither wrestling a full six minutes. In fact, neither has done so yet this season.
Murphy secured three falls on Saturday – all in fewer than 1:06 – plus a 10-0 opening round tech. fall. Simon went 11-0, fall (5:12), fall (2:16).
The two Iowa roommates have now recorded seven (Murphy) and six (Simon) pins respectively in the span of just eight days.
That sure feels like a record-setting pace of some sort, doesn’t it?
Hawks fall just short at 110/131
The only two weights with a Hawkeye in the bracket that weren’t won by an Iowa wrestler were 110 and 131 pounds.
At 131, the championship aspirations of both Emmily Patneaud and Emily Frost were foiled by the same reigning NCWWC finalist.
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Virginia Foard – redshirting this year at King University (TN) – won by scores of 8-2 (Patneaud) and 10-0 (Frost) to defeat the two Hawkeyes in the semifinals and final respectively.
I mentioned in the open that Paneaud’s tournament would subsequently end with an injury default mid-way through her consi-semi. Hopefully that turns out to just be a precaution for the fifth-year senior.
Meanwhile, the sophomore Frost has yet to see a match go the distance so far this season. She registered four bonus point wins a week ago to take third place, then did it again en route to yesterday’s championship match – outscoring a quartet of opponents 43-0.
Frost’s two losses on the season are to Foard (10-0) and Iowa’s Skye Realin (10-0 last weekend).
And at 110, it was a two-three finish for Hawkeyes Emilie Gonzalez and Val Solorio – both losing to Life University star freshman Anaya Falcon.
Gonzalez made her season debut up a weight from where she won a national title eight months ago – a development we’ll have to see sticks or not going forward. She’d fall in a competitive 10-3 final against the latest U20 World team rep for the United States.
Solorio got her second crack at Falcon in as many days. Less than 24 hours following a 12-2 loss in their dual meeting, Solorio led the rematch on criteria with 0:59 to go before getting taken to her back for the fall.
End result aside, Saturday showed an impressive match-to-match improvement from the Hawkeye true freshman against an elite opponent.
Luther Open – Five young Hawks (or Hawks-to-be) top the podium
The story for Iowa wrestling on the men’s side of Saturday’s open tournament(s) was all about the youngsters.
Keyan Hernandez, Kael Voinovich, Miguel Estrada, Otto Black and Leister Bowling all won individual titles this weekend.
Voinovich – the younger brother of fellow Hawkeye, Victor – probably had the most impressive performance of the bunch. He took first place in the ‘Elite Division’ at 149 pounds, winning all three matches via bonus points. His championship bout was a 12-3 major decision over returning DIII All-American (3rd place) Charlie Dojan from Wartburg.
The other four Hawkeye champs each prevailed in the ‘Silver Division.’
Two of them – Otto Black (141) and Leister Bowling (174) – aren’t technically Hawkeyes just yet.
Black, a 2024 recruit and recent U20 Greco-Roman World silver medalist, has been training in the Iowa room but isn’t listed on the official team roster. Presumably, he’ll join the squad in full next season.
Meanwhile, 2025 commit Bowling – a fellow Colorado native like Black – earned himself a collegiate open title at 174 pounds with no match decided by fewer than five points.
Iowa’s final pair of freshman title winners, Hernandez and Estrada, each secured a trio of bonus point victories to reach their respective finals at 125 and 149. And both would also win their titles via decision – a 4-3 win for Hernandez over fellow Hawkeye frosh Dru Ayala and a 4-1 victory for Estrada over Wartburg’s Ian Crapp.
Estrada, Hernandez and Voinovich are all expected to redshirt this season, but it’ll be interesting to monitor their progress at these smaller open tournaments over the next few months.
They’ll likely get a chance to make a much bigger statement as well at December’s Soldier Salute in Coralville.
Other results from Decorah
I mentioned (Dru) Ayala taking second place at 125 (Silver Division) opposite Keyan Hernandez.
Oklahoma native Brady Benham (165 Silver) also reached the semifinals, where a loss and subsequent forfeit would relegate him to a fourth-place finish.
Iowa’s last two freshmen entries – Anthony Lavezzola (125 Silver) and Brody Sampson (197 Silver) – went a combined 6-3, with Ballard (IA) graduate Sampson taking fifth.
A quartet of ‘upperclassmen’ also made the trek to Decorah, all competing in the Elite Division.
Fourth placers Aidan Harris (141) and Koye Grebel (149) both reached the semis with ease before medically forfeiting back-to-back matches. Sebastian Robles (seventh at 165) and Aidan McCain (DNP at 184) rounded out the Iowa contingent on Saturday.
Short time
Phew. I think that’s just about everything from an incredibly busy weekend of Iowa wrestling.
If any of you are interested in seeing full match-by-match results, those are available either on Track Wrestling or at bottom of the stories linked below:
Also, if you missed either dual recap article from Friday/Saturday, you can read up on #2 Iowa women’s 2-0 showing HERE and #2 Iowa men’s 32-9 victory over Stanford HERE.
Thanks as always for reading. And if you’re enjoying yourself and the coverage here at Hawkeye Report – perhaps consider telling a friend?
We’d love to continue growing the wrestling community here on the site, especially as this season kicks into high gear.
Thanks again, and I’ll see you guys real soon.
