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Welcome to the B1G show: Iowa heads to conference tournament

by:Tanner Lafever•03/06/25•

TannerLafever

Kyle Parco
#2 seed Kyle Parco is one of several Hawkeyes with title aspirations at this weekend's Big Ten Championships. (Photo Credit: Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Iowa wrestling fans – welcome to the postseason.

From here on out, every match/moment (and win) on the 2024-25 schedule means increasingly more each time out.

Exhibit A: this weekend’s Big Ten Championships.

On Saturday/Sunday (March 8-9) Welsh-Ryan Arena (capacity 7,309) in Evanston, Illinois plays host to the latest edition of the second-toughest tournament in men’s college wrestling.

There, the #2 Hawkeyes (14-1 dual record) will pursue both conference titles and NCAA qualifications against their Big Ten brethren.

That latter part – NCAA qualifications – is important to note.

Even though a Big Ten individual title is one heck of an accomplishment – worthy of getting a wrestler’s name up on the wall in the Iowa room – Tom Brands is quick to point out that the primary objective this weekend is for each Hawkeye to punch their ticket to NCAAs later this month.

Based on pre-seeds, 9/10 Iowa wrestlers appear primed to do just that. Meanwhile, the lone exception – senior Cullan Schriever (141) – almost certainly needs to pull a few upsets in order to finish his college career at the national tournament.

As for the team title race, a program named ‘Penn State’ will also be in attendance this weekend. And thus, much like everyone else in men’s Division I this season Iowa will presumably be competing for second place.

But don’t let that sour your outlook on two incredible days of wrestling, Hawk fans.

There’ll be plenty to cheer for with the Black & Gold – starting with a pair of number one seeds favored to leave Evanston will Big Ten individual titles.

Ayala/Buchanan lead the way

Aside from one hiccup way back on November 9th, top-ranked Hawkeyes Drake Ayala (133) and Stephen Buchanan (197) are a combined 34-1 this season.

It’s because of that wire-to-wire excellence that the pair earned #1 Big Ten seeds to match their present national rankings.

At 133 pounds, Ayala’s title path is rife with dangerous foes starting with a potential quarterfinal against Ohio State’s Nic Bouzakis – seeded ninth at Big Tens, yet ranked #12 nationally.

Win, and a semifinal likely awaits versus one of two reigning Big Ten champions – Braeden Davis (Penn State) or Dylan Shawver (Rutgers).

The opposite half of the bracket appears more straightforward, with #2 Lucas Byrd expected to reach the final.

Neither Ayala nor Bouzakis wrestled back in January at the Iowa/Ohio State dual, so the jury is still out on how the Fort Dodge native matches up with the big-move Buckeye.

Ayala also has yet to face Shawver, while his only history with Davis was a year ago down at 125 (a 4-2 win).

That same scoreline proved to be the decisive margin when he wrestled Byrd seven weeks back inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Meanwhile, fellow top seed Buchanan continues to inspire nothing but immense confidence each time he steps on the mat.

A perfect 19-0 in his Hawkeye career to date (incl. 15 bonus point wins), the graduate transfer owns the historical edge over each of the other favored semifinalists at 197 pounds.

Buchanan defeated star Penn State freshman Josh Barr 5-1 in Happy Valley, then later bested defending (184-pound) Big Ten champ Isaiah Salazar by the same margin in Minneapolis.

Go back to the third-place match at NCAAs a year ago and it was all Buchanan (then at Oklahoma) in a 9-4 defeat of current Wolverine Daniel Cardenas (then at Cornell).

Three more finalist favorites

Besides Ayala/Buchanan, a trio of other Hawkeyes could very conceivably find their way to Sunday afternoon’s finals.

Chief among them is 165-pounder Michael Caliendo.

We’ve established this previously, but there’s only one wrestler in the country at this weight class whom any reasonable mind who pick to defeat the Iowa junior. That wrestler – Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink – is in this bracket, but on the opposite half.

Other than Mesenbrink, Caliendo (17-1) has dispatched the rest with relative ease. The real question is if he can somehow close the increasingly widening gap with the Nittany Lion – one that showed itself again in a 19-4 loss in late January.

Preceding Caliendo in the Iowa lineup are two more finalist/championship contenders.

At 149, can Kyle Parco run his career record against reigning Big Ten champ Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) to 4-0 if they meet in the semis?

Each of their prior meetings followed the same exact script. Lovett chooses bottom and escapes. Parco chooses neutral and gets the lone/winning takedown.

If history repeats itself again, the first-year Hawkeye (18-1) would presumably get the chance to avenge his only loss of the season.

#1 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) broke open a back-and-forth match between the two at the dual with a seven-point feet-to-back score.

I think the two are far closer than that final scoreline (17-6) indicated. But first, Parco will have to earn his shot at a rematch.

And at 157, how healthy is Jacori Teemer?

His lone competitive loss this season came against another Nittany Lion – #2 seed Tyler Kasak.

If Teemer can navigate the shoulder/hamstring injuries that have hampered him, he still has the talent to become a Big Ten champion.

Maryland’s Ethen Miller (a potential semifinal foe) represents by far and away the tournament’s least formidable #1 seed.

Hungry lions await Kennedy/Arnold

It’s hardly a coincidence that the Big Ten draws become tougher for the more blemished (and therefore lower seeded) Hawkeyes.

At 174/184 pounds, Iowa’s Big Ten representatives have just five losses between them this season.

(The previously mentioned quintet of Ayala/Parco/Teemer/Caliendo/Buchanan has a grand total of six.)

But that’s enough to leave Patrick Kennedy (174) and Gabe Arnold (184) each staring at daunting showdowns with Penn State foes were they to reach the semifinals.

PK’s path to that point likely includes #5 Clayton Whiting (Minnesota). When the two met a few weeks ago in Minneapolis it was all Kennedy as a late Whiting takedown obscured an otherwise dominant 8-4 decision.

And for Arnold, a quarterfinal rematch of his own figures to await versus #5 Jaxon Smith (Maryland).

Last time it took tiebreakers for the Hawkeye to ultimately put away his childhood club teammate:

Quarterfinal wins would likely portend semifinal slugfests.

For Kennedy, it’s another crack at two-time NCAA finalist (2024 champ) Levi Haines. And for Arnold, it’s a long-awaited bout against four-time NCAA champion Carter Starocci.

Haines defeated PK, 10-3 at the dual earlier this year. Meanwhile, it’d be tough to generate more (public) animosity between two guys who’ve never actually wrestled one another than what exists between Arnold and Starocci via long-running trash talk between them.

Funnily enough, I might be the person most curious to see the match for wrestling reasons only.

Cruz/Kueter = consolation conquerors?

Two more Hawkeyes with (potentially) brutal Penn State matchups are Joey Cruz and Ben Kueter.

Seeded fifth, Iowa’s 125-pounder has beaten each of the 7/8/9 seeds. Cruz even lost a narrow 2-1 bout to #2 Caleb Smith (Nebraska).

But against several other highly ranked foes the sophomore has lost and lost big – one of those to his presumed quarterfinal opponent, Luke Lilledahl.

If Cruz (14-9) drops to the consolations early, he’ll run into several of the guys he’s already proven himself eminently capable of beating. And with automatic NCAA bids on the table this weekend for each of the top nine finishers at 125, you’d fully expect him to grab one.

The same premise holds for Kueter – seeded seventh at heavyweight.

After losing to #2 Greg Kerkvliet via 12-2 major decision at the dual it’s tough to envision a reversal of fortunes in this weekend’s quarters. But opportunities await in abundance on the backside of the bracket.

The four heavyweights seeded just above Kueter in the Big Ten field are the same four directly in front of him in the latest national rankings. Wins over any of them this weekend would immediately improve his seeding for NCAAs in two weeks.

And that’s just part of what makes the Big Ten Championships such an awesome tournament each year.

141 – It could happen

I mentioned it during the intro, but Cullan Schriever is the Hawkeye most behind the eight ball when it comes to both Big Ten seeding and NCAA qualification.

With just a 5-8 record this season, the senior needs to nab one of the seven automatic qualifier spots at 141 pounds if he wants to continue his college wrestling career.

The odds certainly aren’t great, but I don’t hate his draw (all things considered) based on the pre-seeds:

Sixth-seeded Joseph Oliveri – ranked #13 nationally at 141 – is a cut below the top five guys, in my opinion.

If Schriever can pull off the first-round upset, a navigable path to a top seven finish emerges.

He’d still have to go 2-1 in the consolations, assuming he lost in the quarters, but it wouldn’t figure to be against a collection of opponents whom I feel he can’t reasonably compete with.

Is this a prediction? No.

But I’d like to hedge my bets and say that if the Mason City native were to qualify for NCAAs you heard it here first…or at least heard about the possibility that it could happen (lol).

How to watch

For those of you who aren’t making the trek/pilgrimage to Evanston this weekend, I’d imagine your most immediate concern is when/where you can tune in to all the action.

Thankfully, the Big Ten put out this handy press release with all of the pertinent TV/streaming information.

But because I’m such a nice guy – and because I also know how to copy/paste – I’m dropping a summary of this weekend’s schedule in here as well:

Saturday, March 8th – Session 1

  • 10:00 a.m. (CT) start
  • Includes First Round, Quarterfinals and Wrestlebacks
  • Televised on Big Ten Network, with individual mat coverage on B1G+

Saturday, March 8th – Session 2

  • 5:00 p.m. (CT) start
  • Begins with consolation matches/wrestlebacks on B1G+
  • Followed by semifinals beginning at 7:00 p.m. (CT) on BTN

Sunday, March 9th – Session 3

  • 12:00 p.m. (CT) start
  • Includes consolation semifinals and 7th place matches
  • Streaming on B1G+

Sunday, March 9th – Session 4

  • 4:30 p.m. (CT) start
  • All championship matches on BTN
  • 3rd/5th place matches streamed simultaneously on B1G+

Meanwhile, if you’d prefer to kick it old school instead, the Hawkeye Radio Network will have you covered throughout the weekend as well.

Steven Grace (play-by-play) and Mark Ironside (color) will be on the mic, as always. And you can catch their broadcast on either AM 800 KXIC or streaming on the Iowa Athletics YouTube channel.

(I’ve attached the link to Saturday’s Session 1 broadcast below.)

As for yours truly, I’ll be trying like heck to provide my typical social media updates on all the action.

That’ll be trickier on Saturday, given my simultaneous (in-person) coverage of the Iowa women’s program at their national tournament – but I promise to give you guys my very best.

Short time

That’ll just about wrap it up for this 2025 Big Ten Championships preview.

I know it won’t thrill folks to acknowledge the Hawkeyes are (probably) fighting/favored to be the ‘best of the rest’ after Penn State this weekend. But as I’ve hopefully outlined, there’s still plenty left to take interest in as an Iowa fan.

It’s not blowing smoke to say that the Big Ten is easily the best conference in the sport. So, whether it’s the Hawkeyes or any of several other powerhouse programs competing in Evanston, you’re certainly not going to be cheated for great wrestling.

Thanks as always to everyone out there for reading. And be sure to check back in throughout the weekend for my nightly Big Ten recaps as well as all of my coverage from the women’s national championships.

It truly does not go lost on me how fortunate I am to do this job, much less write for as passionate of a fanbase as this one.

Here’s hoping you guys enjoy the heck out of this wild wrestling weekend, and I’ll talk to you again real soon.

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