Iowa men’s wrestlers receive seeds for NCAA Championships
All 10 of the Hawkeyes’ starters qualified for the national tournament, which will be held at Little Cesars Arena in Detroit March 17-19.
Iowa’s 141-pound No. 2 Jaydin Eierman waves to the crowd after a match with Nebraska’s No. 10 Chad Red Jr. during a wrestling dual between No. 2 Iowa and No. 10 Nebraska in Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, NE on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. Eierman defeated Red, 6-3, by decision. The Hawkeyes defeated the Cornhuskers 20-15.
March 9, 2022
Ten Iowa men’s wrestler received their seeds for the 2022 NCAA Championships Wednesday. Five Hawkeyes are seeded in the top five of their respective weight classes.
Iowa finished the 2022 Big Ten Championships in third place, trailing Michigan and Penn State. Four Hawkeyes medically defaulted from the conference tournament: 125-pound Drake Ayala, 141-pound Jaydin Eierman, 174-pound Michael Kemerer, and heavyweight Tony Cassioppi.
Senior 165-pounder Alex Marinelli, who just won his fourth career Big Ten individual title, received a No. 3 seed ahead of the NCAA Championships. He’s seeded behind No. 1 Evan Wick of Cal Poly and No. 2 Keegan O’Toole of Missouri. Marinelli is 5-0 against Wick all-time. “The Bull” has never wrestled O’Toole.
Eierman is seeded No. 2 at his weight, despite registering a medical default in the Big Ten Championship Finals in Lincoln, Nebraska, last weekend. Only Penn State’s Nick Lee has better positioning in the 141-pound bracket than Eierman. “The Riddler” was supposed to face Lee in the Big Ten Championship Finals before he medically forfeited.
Excluding his injury default last Sunday, Eierman is 2-2 against Lee on his career. He beat Lee in last year’s Big Ten Championship Finals. He lost to Lee in the 2021 NCAA Championship Finals.
Lee won the pair’s lone meeting of the 2022 season in a Jan. 28 dual at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 6-4.
Cassioppi is seeded third at heavyweight, behind No. 2 Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State and No. 1 Gable Steveson of Minnesota. Cassioppi defeated Schultz twice at last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Kemerer is the NCAA Tournament’s No. 5 seed at 174 pounds. Kemerer was a 2021 Big Ten Champion and a 2021 NCAA Championship Finalist. “KemDawg” is seeded behind No. 1 Carter Starocci of Penn State, No. 2 Mekhi Lewis of Virgina Tech, No. 3 Logan Massa of Michigan, and No. 4 Hayden Hidlay of North Carolina State.
Kemerer medically forfeited a 2022 Big Ten Championship Semifinal match against Starocci last weekend. Excluding last weekend’s injury default, Kemerer is 1-2 all-time against Starocci. He fell to Starocci in the 2022 Iowa-Penn state dual and the 2021 NCAA Championship Finals and beat him in the 2021 Big Ten Championship Finals.
Kemerer is 1-0 against both Massa and Hidlay. He’s never wrestled Lewis.
The 2022 NCAA Championships will be held March 17-19 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. All national tournament action will air on the ESPN family of networks.
Below is a full breakdown of Iowa’s 2022 NCAA Tournament seeds:
125 POUNDS: No. 13 Drake Ayala
133 POUNDS: No. 5 Austin DeSanto
141 POUNDS: No. 2 Jaydin Eierman
149 POUNDS: No. 8 Max Murin
157 POUNDS: No. 9 Kaleb Young
165 POUNDS: No. 3 Alex Marinelli
174 POUNDS: No. 5 Michael Kemerer
184 POUNDS: No. 18 Abe Assad
197 POUNDS: No. 6 Jacob Warner
HEAVYWEIGHT: No. 3 Tony Cassioppi