The Iowa men’s wrestling program does not rebuild — it reloads. 

The Hawkeyes enter the 2022-23 season without some of the mainstays from its 2021-22 lineup like 165-pound Alex Marinelli, 157-pound Kaleb Young, 133-pound Austin DeSanto, and 141-pound Jaydin Eierman.

Rather than relying solely on wrestlers already on its roster, Iowa turned to the transfer portal to give itself options at both 133 pounds and 141 pounds. Former All-American Real Woods and 2021 Big 12 Champion Brody Teske transferred to Iowa in April and August, respectively.

“The portal is the world we live in,” Iowa head coach Tom Brands said during media day Thursday. “We operate in that framework. I mean, that’s how we operate. When the portal wasn’t there, you had to wait to get a written whatever.

“You can talk to them, but they’re not released to come to your school. So, we’d talk to them, and then maybe after enough gamesmanship, then they would be released to come to your school. We operated in that framework. Here we are with the portal, and we operate in the framework of those rules.”

Woods and Teske transferred to Iowa from Stanford and Northern Iowa, respectively. 

Woods is the second 141-pounder Iowa has added to its roster via transfer in recent years. Eierman moved from Missouri to Iowa after the 2018-19 season. He was a two-time All-American and three-time conference champion when he transferred to Iowa. He finished his career a four-time All-American and 2021 Big Ten Champion.

Woods joins the Hawkeyes with similar credentials. He earned his first All-America honor at the 2022 NCAA Championships at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. He’s also a two-time Pac-12 champion.

“He is a very confident man,” Brands said. “He marches to the beat of a little bit different drummer, which is awesome and OK with us. We love it. He has great energy. The other thing is, he’s a direct guy. That’s a great, refreshing thing. Student-athletes have all the power nowadays, and he doesn’t act like it. 

“So, as a transfer especially, you can come in like that, and he’s not like that. He wants to win, and that’s a broad definition, winning. That’s team and himself.  He wants to develop and get better — he has his eye on the future. That’s what he’s about. He’s about all the same things that we’re about.”

Woods said he came to Iowa because of the culture Brands and his brother, associate head coach Terry Brands, have built. He added the passion of Hawkeye fans, the wrestling tradition in Iowa, and the quality of Big Ten competition also helped him make his decision.

“I bring a lot of energy,” Woods said. “I bring excitement. I’m just really excited to put on a show. I’ve never experienced something like Iowa wrestling, in terms of, like, the culture. So, this is really exciting for me.”

Teske is a two-time NCAA qualifier at 125 pounds. With three-time national champion Spencer Lee returning to the mat for Iowa at 125 pounds, Teske is trying to crack Iowa’s lineup as a 133-pounder. He’s listed at 133 pounds on the Hawkeyes’ preseason roster.

Brands said Teske, a former Big 12 champion and runner-up, is competing with sophomores Jesse Ybarra and Cullan Schriever for a starting spot at 133 pounds. During their collegiate careers, Schriever and Ybarra have gone 18-6 and 5-5, respectively.

Ybarra has gone 2-5 in regular season duals. He’s gone 0-3 in duals against Big Ten opponents.

Schriever has only wrestled in two career duals, going 0-2.

Teske went 39-15 through his first four seasons of collegiate wrestling. He posted his best record, 14-3, in 2021.

Teske said Iowa recruited him out of high school, but he decided to go to Penn State because Lee was already the Hawkeyes’ established 125-pounder. 

“I was young, I was 18,” Teske said. “It was a heck of an opportunity to leave my hometown — something that a lot of people might think is the thing to do … I took that opportunity and never looked back or regretted anything or that decision. It’s made me into who I am, very appreciative of it and grateful for all of it.”

Teske wrestled at Penn State from 2018-20. He then transferred to Northern Iowa, where he would compete from 2020-22.

“I thought that was the best thing for me at that point in time,” he said of his decision to go to Penn State. “Again, coming home and going to UNI and now here, same thing. I thought, at those moments in time, those were the best things for my life and where I was at.”

Counting Woods and Teske, Iowa’s roster currently features three league champions, five All-Americans, and seven NCAA qualifiers.

The Hawkeyes finished third in the 2022 NCAA Championships. Iowa is second in Intermat’s preseason top 25 rankings.

The Hawkeyes will kick off their 2022-23 campaign against the Cal Baptist Lancers on Nov. 13 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa announced a sellout of men’s wrestling season tickets on Wednesday.