COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It came down to sudden death. With a Big Ten finals berth on the line, Iowa’s Zach Glazier answered the call.
Glazier, with the home crowd rooting against him, scored a takedown near the edge in overtime to defeat Maryland’s No. 2 Jaxon Smith in the 197-pound semifinals Saturday night.
In his postseason debut, the fourth-year saved the Hawkeyes from rewriting a story that hadn’t happened since 1967 — the last time Iowa had zero wrestlers qualify for the Big Ten finals. The last time Iowa had one wrestler in the finals was in 2018 when Brandon Sorensen fell 2-0 to Penn State’s Zain Retherford.
“He came through for us tonight, and we got tomorrow,” head coach Tom Brands said of Glazier following the semifinals. “Glazier was patient. He was verbalizing walking off the mat, he thinks he probably could have given more. But he wrestled a smart, patient match. Sometimes the guys are slippery like that. You saw what [ did in the quarterfinals.”
Iowa’s Brody Teske, Real Woods, Jared Franek, Michael Caliendo, and Patrick Kennedy all dropped their respective semifinal bouts. Despite their losses, all six automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in Kansas City on March 21-23. Each of them can finish as high as third.
In all, nine Hawkeyes automatically qualified for nationals, including 125-pound Drake Ayala, 149-pound Caleb Rathjen, and heavyweight Bradley Hill. The trio stayed alive in the consolation bracket and could also finish the tournament as high as third.
Aiden Riggins won his quarterfinal match in the 184-pound ninth-place bracket. For the Big Ten Tournament, the top eight place finishers at 184 qualify for nationals, so Riggins’ only hope is an at-large bid. The remaining 47 at-large bids will be announced following each of the conference tournaments.
Session III of the tournament, which consists of consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches, will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow. The first, third, and fifth-place matches are slated for 3:30 p.m.
Penn State sent a school-record seven wrestlers to the finals. Four Michigan grapplers advanced to their respective title matches. Nebraska will have one wrestler suit up in the championship round.
“We got another day. Position yourselves for the future. This is the qualifier, a very important event,” Brands said about his message to the team heading into Sunday. “Position yourselves as best as you can.”
Team scores after Session II
1 Penn State 136.0
2 Michigan 105.5
3 Nebraska 89.0
4 Iowa 88.5
5 Ohio State 78.5
6 Rutgers 71.5
7 Minnesota 66.0
8 Wisconsin 43.0
9 Purdue 36.0
10 Maryland 31.0
11 Indiana 29.0
12 Illinois 28.0
13 Michigan State 19.5
14 Northwestern 14.5
Semifinals results
133 – #2 Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) dec. #14 Brody Teske (Iowa), 12-6
141 – #2 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) dec. #3 Real Woods (Iowa), 6-3
157 – #1 Levi Haines (Penn State) dec. #4 Jared Franek (Iowa), 5-0
165 – Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) #3 Michael Caliendo (Iowa),
174 – #2 Shane Griffith (Michigan) dec. #3 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa), 4-3
197 – #3 Zach Glazier (Iowa) dec. #2 Jaxon Smith (Maryland), 4-1 SV1
Consolation Round 2 results
125 – #2 Drake Ayala (Iowa) pinned #8 Brendan McCrone (Ohio State), 1:46
149 – #3 Caleb Rathjen (Iowa) dec. #12 Braden Stauffenberg (Michigan State), 8-1
184 – #6 Layne Malczewski (Michigan State) dec. #13 Aiden Riggins (Iowa), 10-6
285 – #7 Bradley Hill (Iowa) major dec. #9 Josh Terrill (Michigan State), 11-1
Consolation Round 3 results
125 – #2 Drake Ayala (Iowa) dec. #3 Eric Barnett (Wisconsin), 8-1
149 – #3 Caleb Rathjen dec. #7 Joseph Zargo (Wisconsin), 7-2
285 – #7 Bradley Hill dec. #6 Nick Willham (Indiana), 4-2
184-pound ninth-place bracket results
184 – #13 Aiden Riggins (Iowa) major dec. #12 James Rowley (Purdue), 10-2
