Iowa men’s wrestling was dominant last season, finishing with a 14-1 dual record and only losing to eventual national champion Penn State.
The Hawkeyes defeated multiple highly ranked teams, including No. 4 Ohio State and No. 2 Oklahoma State, and concluded the 2024-25 season as the No. 2-ranked team in the country.
If Iowa wants to replicate its success in 2024, it needs to lean on its transfers. The Hawkeyes brought in multiple high-end wrestlers from across the country, and they all can provide some fireworks this season.
Perhaps the biggest transfers Iowa landed this offseason were Jordan Williams and Nasir Bailey, both from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Williams wrestled at Oklahoma State before transferring to Little Rock last season. Williams was the Big 12 runner-up in 2023-24 with the Cowboys and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Williams followed up that success in 2024-25 at Little Rock, winning the Pac-12 championship at 149 pounds and again qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Bailey finished fourth at the NCAA Championships and was named an All-American in 2023-24 at Little Rock. Last season, Bailey qualified for the NCAA Championships and won his second consecutive Pac-12 championship at 133 pounds.
Bailey and Williams are listed at 141 and 157 pounds, respectively, for the Hawkeyes this season. The former Little Rock duo will likely find themselves in the starting lineup for head coach Tom Brands, and the Hawkeyes’ success will lean heavily on them.
Another big transfer Iowa landed was Massoma Endene, a three-time Division III National Champion at Wartburg College. The sixth-year was also a two-time NJCAA All-American with Iowa Lakes Community College from 2020-2022.
Endene now has a chance to prove himself at the biggest stage of college wrestling and will replace Iowa’s only national champion from last season, Stephen Buchanan, at 197 pounds.
While Endene has big shoes to fill, his experience and success at the DIII level will lead to him becoming one of the best wrestlers in his weight class this season.
The final transfer who should have a big impact this season is Dean Peterson. Peterson, a transfer from Rutgers, finished top-10 in the Big Ten in three consecutive seasons and is a three-time NCAA Championships qualifier.
The 125-pound weight class lacked consistency last season, with third-year Joey Cruz notched as the starter in all but three dual meets in 2024-25. Cruz finished with a 16-14 overall record.
Peterson now brings more consistency at 125 pounds for the Hawkeyes. While he might not be a world-breaker, he will give Iowa a solid chance at the 125-pound weight class in nearly every matchup this season.
All four of these transfers will be the driving force of this Iowa team. Everybody already knows what the Hawkeyes have at the other weight classes, with wrestlers such as Drake Ayala, Michael Caliendo, and Angelo Ferrari already proving themselves last year.
The biggest question for Iowa is how these new transfers perform, because they will certainly impact the outcome of the season.