Iowa Hawkeyes: 2008 NCAA Wrestling Champions. A Hawk Central Web site.

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Ryan Morningstar

Ryan Morningstar seemed headed on a path for stardom early in his freshman season when he took one of the top wrestlers in the country down to the wire in one match and beat the eventual NCAA champion the next.

But Morningstar dealt with puzzling inconsistencies throughout his sophomore season. He won five straight matches in January and went undefeated at the National Duals. But he followed that by losing six of his final seven matches in the Big Ten dual season.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” Morningstar said in February. “I think I’ve come a long way in terms of moving my feet and mentally, but I need to start winning on a consistent basis. I lost some matches I shouldn’t have lost. I lost some matches I could’ve won.”

Morningstar narrowed the gap between himself and two of the top wrestlers in the country at the Big Ten Championships, but he couldn’t quite get over the top and wound up needing to win the seventh-place match just to get into the NCAA meet.

He nearly knocked off No. 6 seed Matt Kocher of Pitt in the first round of the NCAA meet before losing in overtime. He beat fifth seed C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota before bowing out of the tournament.

— Andy Hamilton