Midlands Championships, Dec. 29-30
Tom Brands viewed the Midlands Championships as a midterm test for his Iowa wrestling team.
It was a top-notch exam for the top-ranked team, and the Hawkeyes stood at the top of their class at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. Joey Slaton, Dan LeClere, Brent Metcalf and Mark Perry Jr. won individual titles and the Hawkeyes ran away with the team championship, scoring a tournament-record 185 points to finish 46 ahead of second-place Iowa State.
The rest of the field didn’t have four champions. The rest of the field didn’t have nine place-winners. The rest of the field wasn’t close to the Hawkeyes by the end of the tournament’s final day — a day in which Iowa won 20 of its 25 matches.
“Our team is the real deal,” Metcalf said. “The way our team is wrestling, I think that’s the biggest thing here. We’ve got a lot of guys stepping up and wrestling to their potential. These aren’t upsets. These are guys wrestling to their potential.”
But maybe yet not to their maximum potential. The Hawkeyes want straight-A’s for a final grade, and they could find flaws in their Midlands exam.
Jay Borschel lost to top-ranked Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh in the finals at 174. Charlie Falck placed third at 125, Phil Keddy was fourth at 184, Ryan Morningstar fifth at 157 and Matt Fields eighth at heavyweight.
— Andy Hamilton