Pondering Iowa on the mat

March 8, 2016

Iowa’s 133-pounder Cory Clark isolates the arm of Ohio State’s Johnni DiJulius during the first round of the Big Ten Championships at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Iowa’s Clark defeated Dijulius in a decision 7-3. (The Daily Iowan/Anthony Vazquez)

With the Big Ten Championships now done and in the books, there’s quite a lot to take away from the tournament.
Iowa picked up two individual titles from 133-pounder Cory Clark and 184-pounder Sammy Brooks and finished second in the team race. Penn State won the meet with 150.5 points, winning three individual championships and placing three others as runner-ups.

The meet — along with other conference duals around the country — now give a very clear picture of what to expect at the national championships March 17-19.

More bonus points

While Iowa finished with a respectable 11 bonus-point victories throughout the tournament, it still wasn’t quite enough to seriously threaten the Nittany Lions.

Thomas Gilman, unsurprisingly, led the way for Iowa with three bonus-point wins. As a team, the Hawkeyes tallied four pins, five major decisions, and two technical falls.

“As I’ve said all year, we like these guys, they’re good guys, and they go about their business the right way,” Brands said. “There’s going to be steps forward, but in a match where it’s one man against another, it’s not always automatic, so it’s good when you see it.”

It’s not a bad mark, but Penn State had more — six falls, eight major decisions, and two technical falls. Those points add up and certainly gave Penn State the upper hand throughout the tournament.

The Hawkeyes pushed four wrestlers through to the finals, but it wasn’t enough to offset the six Nittany Lion wrestlers who also made the championship finals. While Penn State likely won’t have that many in the NCAA finals, Iowa needs to figure out how to scrape together some more points.

Even more importantly, wrestlers who fall to consolation matches will also need to pull extra weight if the Hawkeyes are to threaten at nationals.

Nebraska, Ohio State close in

The Buckeyes finished with 126 team points, just 1 behind Iowa’s 127.

The Big Ten Championships proved just how close Ohio State is behind the Hawkeyes; each school had two Big Ten champions.

Meanwhile, Nebraska finished in fourth place with a solid 117 points. While the Cornhuskers had no champions and just one finalist, the team did a lot of work in the consolation matches to hang with Iowa and Ohio State.

Nebraska might not quite be on the list of elite teams in Big Ten wrestling, but it is moving in the right direction.

Brooks is legit

While 184 is far from the strongest weight the Big Ten has to offer, Brooks winning a title at the tournament puts him in the title conversations once the national championships begin.

For Brooks, it was also the next step of progression on what’s rapidly becoming a successful career. While the junior has yet to place at nationals, the first-place finish in the conference is improvement over his bronze medal last year.

One of Iowa’s more explosive wrestlers, Brooks noted at the beginning of the season that he wanted to finish the season stronger. So far, he’s been able to do so.

“It haven’t been doing the work physically, but it was time to check myself mentally,” Brooks said. “You just can’t think too much into it.”