The Hawkeyes crown two champions.

By Courtney Baumann
[email protected]

One of the mantras for the Iowa wrestling team is that “It’s easier to move forward with success,” and two Hawkeyes will do just that as the team gears up for the NCAA Championships.

Cory Clark and Sammy Brooks placed first at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday in Carver-Hawkeye.

The team took second in the tournament with 127.0 points, trailing Penn State, first with 150.5 points. Ohio State put up a close fight and rounded out the top three at 126.0.

Bonus points were the theme of the weekend. All five of the top teams — Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Rutgers — scored more than 100 points. That many teams had scored in triple digits only once before in the history of the Big Ten Championships.

Although they did not win the team trophy, Clark’s and Brooks’ names will be added onto the long list of wrestlers who have their monikers hung up in Iowa’s wrestling room.

“I’m in that wrestling room so darn much, and every time I walk in, I see those names,” Brooks said. “How can you not want to be on that wall?”

Both came back from unsavory matches over the past couple of weeks. Brooks’ occurred at the National Duals, where he lost a 7-3 decision to Pete Renda, and Clark in his semifinal, and although he won, Clark was displeased with his performance during the first day of the tournament.

[youtube id=”YNJt9yws8_8″ mode=”normal”]

Brooks said he needed to “check himself mentally” after the match, and he became one of the many wrestlers who have said that it is easier to move forward with success.

Clark released a statement after his semifinal match, saying he was not satisfied and did not want to make a big deal about making it to the finals, because that was not his goal.

The next step for the Hawks is nationals at Madison Square Garden in two weeks, so Clark and Brooks won’t celebrate their titles for long.

“The season’s not over. I still have improvement, and my focus has to be at a prime,” Clark said. “This isn’t how I want to define my season, the NCAAs is. It’s just kind of moving in the right direction. It’s easier to move forward with a Big Ten championship.”

Seven other Hawkeyes made the podium on Sunday. Brandon Sorensen and Nathan Burak both lost their championship matches to take second, Thomas Gilman earned a bronze, Edwin Cooper Jr. took fourth, Alex Meyer took fifth, Patrick Rhoads took seventh, and Sam Stoll placed eighth because of a medical forfeit in the seventh-place match.

Of those who placed, seven earned automatic bids to the nationals. Rhoads and Stoll are the only ones who did not, but head coach Tom Brands will make a case to the committee for the two to get at-large bids.

Brands, while happy that two of his athletes nabbed Big Ten titles, was not content with second place.

“I feel like I feel every other time that we’ve gotten beat,” Brands said. “But there’s a lot of things to be said for positives, and it’s an individual sport, and so that’s how you go forward going into nationals.”