Through the murky waters of the transfer portal that rules college athletics today, the No. 2 Iowa men’s wrestling team has pieced together a championship-caliber program.

After a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten championships and fifth-place finish at the NCAA championships last season, something needed to change. No longer able to fall back on the Hawkeyes of times past — Spencer Lee, Jaydin Eierman, or Alex Marinelli — head coach Tom Brands needed more than development of the talent he already recruited. 

He needed experienced additions and tough-minded fighters as he once was in his career — and he needed to adapt or die amid the nature of college wrestling today.

Through the smoke emerged transfers Jacori Teemer, Kyle Parco, and Stephen Buchanan, each top-ranked individual championship contenders in search of something more.

Teemer, a 5-foot-7, 157-pounder from Long Beach, New York, leads the pack as he made the jump from Arizona State after five years of accomplished wrestling there.

The former Sun Devil came out of high school as the No. 1 recruit wrestling at 126 pounds upon winning five high school state championships — his first as an eighth grader. 

During Teemer’s time at ASU, the wrestling phenom red-shirted his first year and added almost 30 pounds of muscle mass during the process, rising to 149 pounds before finding his groove at 157.

There, Teemer established himself as one of the greatest Tempe has ever seen. He compiled a 77-15 record, a 29-13 record against ranked opponents, four All-American nods, and four Pac-12 Championships — one of just seven wrestlers in Pac-12 history to do the latter.

Such success culminated in a runner-up finish at the 2024 NCAA Championships last season, falling to No. 1 Levi Haines of Penn State, 5-0, in the final. But with Haines making the jump to 174 and Teemer to a championship-contending program, Teemer is the top-ranked 157-pounder this season.

Decorated in accolades, Teemer is no stranger to success. He hopes by coming to Iowa, he can contribute to the long-standing tradition of successful Iowa wrestlers. 

“It means a lot — it played a big part of why I came here,” Teemer said at media day. “This is the mecca … I want to go out with a bang, so I was like, ‘Why not Iowa?’”

Teemer is not the only Sun Devil to keep the gold but exchange the maroon for black, joining former teammate Kyle Parco in Iowa City. Parco played a role in the former’s decision to take the leap and keep the energy they built together rolling.

“[We’re] just coming over and being ourselves, man,” Teemer said. “That’s the only thing we could do: being ourselves, keeping a good energy for the team. And we hope everyone carries it.”

Parco, a 5-foot-7 149-pounder from Danville, California, brings just as much experience as Teemer across two seasons at Fresno State and another three at Arizona State.

And likewise, Parco compiled a 94-18 career record with a 37-17 record against ranked opponents, including four All-American nods and three Pac-12 championships in his three seasons in Tempe.

Parco has seen it all, wrestling against the best in the likes of Ridge Lovett and Tariq Wilson. The experience he, now ranked No. 4 in his weight class, brings to Iowa wrestling will surely aid in his favor during a grueling Big Ten wrestling season — his toughest yet.

“They want to be here. There’s energy,” Brands said of Parco and his transfer teammates. “But the thing that those guys have, that super competitive wrestlers or athletes have, is they want to win.”

Rounding out the trio, though arguably the most impressive thus far, is Buchanan by way of Wyoming and then Oklahoma. Buchanan is one of the more physical wrestlers in the Big Ten, aided by his 6-foot and 197-pound stature, and is perfectly positioned to win a national championship this season. 

While it may have been an easier choice for Teemer and Parco to transfer as a duo from Arizona State in pursuit of the biggest accolades of them all, it was not as easy for Buchanan. 

The grappler from Loyal, Wisconsin, highlighted how, because of Iowa’s dominant tradition, the Hawkeyes are often disliked by many schools across the country.

But if you can’t beat the competition, join them.

“Once I got here, meeting Tom and Terry [Brands] and how they just added on to my wrestling and giving me the confidence to wrestle the way that I’m going to wrestle on the mat is something that I’m just grateful for,” Buchanan said.

He produced quite a career over his four years of NCAA wrestling thus far, earning All-American status three times throughout his career — twice at Wyoming and once at Oklahoma. 

Buchanan compiled a 98-26 career record, a 35-19 record against ranked opponents, three All-American nods, a Big 12 championship in 2022, and two third-place finishes at the NCAA championships. 

In a stacked and aggressive weight class, including AJ Ferrari and Jacob Cardenas, Buchanan stands out as the top-ranked wrestler favored to make a run at a national title of his own.

Altogether, coaching staff will look to utilize the talent brought from these transfers to steer Iowa in the direction of winning a NCAA national championship as a collective. 

“The good thing about the transfer portal is if things get stale where you’re at, you can leave, and nobody can keep you out,” Tom Brands said. “Whether or not things were stale where they were or for whatever reason, we’re the benefactor of their decision to want to be an Iowa Hawkeye.”

Upon Parco and Buchanan picking up strong wins against No. 23 Oregon State on Nov. 2, Buchanan hustling out a ranked win over No. 5 Trey Munoz with a late takedown and some riding time, glimpses of hope are there that such an impact can bring some hardware back to Iowa City.

And when Teemer hits the mat to open his season and get into his groove, the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team will be dangerous.