KANSAS CITY, Mo.— The Iowa men’s wrestling team entered day two with four wrestlers still in the running for individual national titles, but that number fell to two on Friday afternoon.
Drake Ayala got the Hawkeyes started at 125 pounds with a 4-1 win in sudden victory against Oklahoma State’s Troy Spratley.
They each scored an escape in regular time, sending the match into overtime, where Ayala would score a takedown for his second sudden victory against the Cowboy wrestler this season.
Ayala clinched All-American status with the win and will face Eric Barnett in the semifinals.
“I’m going to have to go and wrestle like Drake Ayala,” the Hawkeye said on his semifinal matchup. “When I do that, good things happen.”
Michael Caliendo beat Julian Ramirez out of Cornell 9-4 to become the Hawkeyes’ second All-American and semifinalist.
Caliendo placed seventh last year at the NCAA Championships with North Dakota State, and he’s confident and eager to show what he can do against the best wrestlers in his weight class.
“I can feel the improvements that I’ve made,” the 165-pounder said. “I got some of the best coaches in the world behind me, and I can’t ask for anything better than to have those guys by my side.”
Drake 🤝 Mikey#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/aHIyDIRhj3
— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling) March 22, 2024
During Friday’s second session, Caliendo will face Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink in the semifinals. Caliendo has lost to Mesenbrink twice this season, both by large margins.
On the other side of the 165-pound championship bracket, Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole has been on a tear, with three straight pins en route to a semifinal berth against Iowa State’s David Carr.
Brody Teske was the first Iowa wrestler on the consolation side of the bracket to wrestle. It was a back-and-forth first period for the Hawkeye as he got taken down to start, but an escape and a takedown gave him a 4-3 lead to close the first.
From there, the match was all Teske as he would score a near fall, an escape, and another takedown to win the match 14-6.
The Hawkeyes went cold after Teske’s major decision, dropping three straight matches.
Real Woods, an NCAA finalist last year at 141, suffered a close 7-1 loss to Lachlan McNeil after the North Carolina wrestler scored a takedown with just seconds remaining in regular time. Woods moves to the consolation bracket in hopes of a podium finish.
Caleb Rathjen was the second wrestler to lose for Iowa during his match against Dylan D’Emilio from Ohio State in the 149 consolation bracket. After letting up an escape and a takedown in the second, he couldn’t recover and lost 7-2.
Jared Franek was the third Hawkeye to lose, falling in his 157-pound quarterfinal bout to Jacori Teemer from Arizona State. It was an uphill battle for the North Dakota State transfer as Temmer entered as the two seed. Franek managed to keep it close but couldn’t send the match into overtime after Teemer scored a takedown with 30 seconds left and won it 5-2.
Patrick Kennedy wrestled Austin Murphy from Campbell in his first match of the day in the 174-pound consolation bracket and prevailed 5-3. Kennedy won his second consolation match of the evening 5-3 against No. 19 Alex Cramer of Central Michigan, keeping his hopes for a third-place finish alive.
Teske wrestled his second match of the session against Army’s Braden Basile. In the tiebreaker rounds, he won the bout 3-1. He will now face Dylan Shawver from Rutgers.
Penn State’s Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks kept their dreams of being four-time national champions on the table by winning their quarterfinal matches at 174 and 197, respectively. The Nittany Lions advanced five wrestlers to the semifinals.
Zach Glazier at 197 and Bradley Hill at heavyweight both lost in their first consolation matches during the first session of the day. Glazier lost to Stephen Litte out of Little Rock 4-1 in sudden victory, while Hill lost to Hunter Catka from Virginia Tech 11-2.
Team point standings
1 Penn State, 86.5 (six advance to semis)
2 Michigan, 50.5 (four advance to semis)
3 Arizona State, 44.5 (four advance to semis)
4 Iowa State, 42.0 (two advance to semis)
5 Iowa, 41.5 (two advance to semis)
6 Ohio State, 36.0 (two advance to semis)
7 Virginia Tech, 35.5 (two advance to semis)
8 NC State, 33.5 (one advance to semis)
T9 Missouri, 33.0 (one advance to semis)
T9 Oklahoma State, 33.0 (two advance to semis)