With the 2015 wrestling season-opener just a week away, the Iowa wrestling team held its first media availability of the weekendon Thursday afternoon.
Hawks need Gilman to lead team
Iowa 125-pounder junior Thomas Gilman has been a vocal presence on the team for a while, but with the team graduating five seniors that wrestled in a combined 587 matches, there’s an experience void to be filled.
The junior finished second at the Big Ten Championships and fourth nationally last season. He has a 47-9 record in his career and will be critical to any chance the Hawkeyes have at winning any sort of championship this season.
“I consider myself a team leader, more by example,” Gilman said. “I know I do the right things, I know I’m working hard. I know these guys look up to me for that.”
Iowa head coach Tom Brands sang Gilman’s praises during media day and for good reason. Flowrestling has Gilman ranked at No. 3 in the 125-pound rankings and No. 14 in its pound-for-pound rankings.
“Every time you see them, they make you feel good that they’re on your side,” Brands said. “I wouldn’t want to compete against Thomas Gilman or Cory Clark or any of those guys.”
There’s always the danger of expectations, but the wrestler seemed as confident and focused as he starts his second full-time year of being a starter.
“You guys didn’t see me after March, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in here on the mat. I was training like I was competing.,” Gilman said. “I didn’t have to worry about making weight, I didn’t worry about the stress of competition.
“I was able to work on things I wanted to work on and just train hard.”
Brooks working to take the next step
Last year could have ended better for junior Sammy Brooks. He closed out the regular season 24-3, was 8-1 in the Big Ten, third at Midlands, and third at the Big Ten Championships, which earned him his first automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
He won his first two matches there, then lost the next two to the No. 1 and No. 3 wrestlers to finish without placing.
The junior has some regrets looking back on last year, and he plans on leaving it all on the mat in 2015-16. In the most recent Flowrestling rankings, Brooks is No. 11.
He knows how good he is, and, he said, “It’s just about doing it now.”
Grapple at the Gridiron, coming soon
Iowa plans to have record-breaking attendance at the “Grapple on the Gridiron,” set to take place on the field in Kinnick Stadium. As of Thursday afternoon, 31,689 tickets have been sold for the 11 a.m. meet. The wrestling record, set by Penn State in 2013, is 15,996.
“People have been wrestling outside since the beginning of time, and just so happens it’s the first time it’s been done in Division I,” Brands said. “It’s a big deal because it’s about two storied programs and a rivalry that continues.”
Oklahoma State will visit Nov. 14; the two teams have combined for 57 national titles.
Travis Rutt joins coaching staff
After former Iowa strength and conditioning coach Luke Lofthouse left for an assistant-coach position at Utah Valley in July, Travis Rutt was hired as an interim strength and conditioning coach for the wrestling team.
Rutt wrestled at Wisconsin and Oklahoma, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament three times. After he graduated, Rutt worked for Pinnacle Strong, a private business that works with strength training.
Last year he served as an assistant wrestling coach at Augsburg College.
“Travis Rutt, we started that out as kind of a trial thing,” Brands said. “You never know when you don’t know somebody, but he has — you know what, he reminds me of a coach and he’s a strength coach, but he reminds me of a coach who isn’t satisfied with something that’s on paper over a period of time.”
Follow @JordyHansen and @Cbomb12 for Iowa wrestling news, updates, and analysis.
