We are a middleweight away from having a very good RTC. I think Caliendo can fill that void and hopefully we see a Buchanan/Desanto level progression when he starts focusing on FS after this season.
PREVIEW: Iowa sending half-dozen men's/women's stars to Zagreb Open
- Thread starter Tanner Lafever
- Start date
70kg would be his best shot at the team. 74kg is stacked with talent right now with Carr, MM, Dee and likely Duke.
Holy crap. Just watched the Buchanan match. Dominated Yazdani. Let’s gooooooooo
No doubt! Zagreb was a hell of a tournament for the HWC. Let’s keep that momentum going the rest of 2026
Just for clarification: the Iowa women (sans Kennedy Blades) all train out of the IWWC as opposed to the HWC.
That's not to detract from this latest performance by Lee/DeSanto/Buchanan - whom I was high on going into the week, and obviously even more so after seeing what the trio did in Croatia.
Can someone please tell me how Buchanan’s wrestling improved so much since going to Iowa? I am pretty sure the current regime doesn’t develop talent. At least that is what many on here yell at me with over and over again…
Whole state of Iowa is dominating this tournament. Lee, Desanto, Carr, Keck, Buchanan.
So one guy improving is evidence that iowa is great at developing wrestlers? Lol.
Way to ignore the point and move the goal posts. Plenty of guys get BETTER while wrestling at Iowa.
Now, if you wanted to say nearly all of the top guys’ bodies fall apart by the end of their careers, THAT is fair. I hate blaming coaches for injuries, but it has happened so much at Iowa. The Brands are either the most snakebit coaches in that regard or they have been doing something that makes them more susceptible to injuries.
That is why I am solely focused on March this year and already disgruntled with the Mo situation. They HAVE TO find a way to get their guys to March as healthy as possible…
Agreed and I'm not saying that we didn't need to make some changes to the HWC, but it sure looks to me like we are making the necessary adjustments and that should start paying dividends in the college recruiting scene for us as well. Would love to have MC join after this college season. It would give us some serious contenders at multiple different weights and give the folkstyle wrestlers some great guys to roll with in the future. On a side note, I would love to see Iowa move Terry to the HWC and replace him with a Kem type guy to roll with the college folkstyle guys. Terry is a freestyle wizard imo and would be great in that role.
Last edited:
This thread has nothing at all to do with the challenges of the current COLLEGE TEAM, but you just can't help yourself can you?
Great job Buch and great job with this tournament to the HWC team.
He looks really strong at 97kg, definitely put on quality weight. I almost didn't recognize him at the start of the match.
Macey Kilty (62kg) and Kennedy Blades (68kg) will both wrestle for bronze later today.
Kilty dropped a 5-2 semifinal against 2x World champion Nonoka Osaki of Japan - during which she came on like an absolute banshee in the 2nd period.
That was after Kilty scored a pair of 1st period falls - one over a returning 5th place finisher at Worlds, and the other against 3x World medalist Grace Bullen of Norway.
Blades won 11-2 and 5-3 in her first two matches - the latter against a 2024 U17 World champ from India.
Her semifinal loss was a 2-1 decision vs Nesrin Bas (Türkiye) - a reigning World silver medalist at 72kg.
Kilty dropped a 5-2 semifinal against 2x World champion Nonoka Osaki of Japan - during which she came on like an absolute banshee in the 2nd period.
That was after Kilty scored a pair of 1st period falls - one over a returning 5th place finisher at Worlds, and the other against 3x World medalist Grace Bullen of Norway.
Blades won 11-2 and 5-3 in her first two matches - the latter against a 2024 U17 World champ from India.
Her semifinal loss was a 2-1 decision vs Nesrin Bas (Türkiye) - a reigning World silver medalist at 72kg.
I'm eating crow no doubt about that. Hopefully we capitalize off this and keep building. Got to give the staff credit. THe guys looked top notch
Her third first-period pin of the day - this latest one against a 2x age level world champ.
Pretty good way to start the 2026 international season.
Also were is Flo on this @Corby2 . Lack of coverage on this from them is baffling and not just for HWC, David Carr beat the 70kg world champ for instance. But wait we have a U17 every or something that is the next greatest event ever.
Have they not covered it? If they haven't not sure why. Imagine Kozak will write up something about it
The question becomes why our collegiate team can't wrestle like Lee, Desanto, or Buchanan?
Outside of Caliendo and "sometimes" Ayala, we rarely shoot, even when down--hell, last week Cruz was down 8-0 and never took a shot. We have very little offense against good opponents. We rarely get back points, and we dont get many pins.
Unless something changes fast, if I'm Beth, I ask Tom what changes he intends to make to get Iowa wrestling back on top-- and I hope he simply doesn't say-- we like our team!
Outside of Caliendo and "sometimes" Ayala, we rarely shoot, even when down--hell, last week Cruz was down 8-0 and never took a shot. We have very little offense against good opponents. We rarely get back points, and we dont get many pins.
Unless something changes fast, if I'm Beth, I ask Tom what changes he intends to make to get Iowa wrestling back on top-- and I hope he simply doesn't say-- we like our team!
And Leydecker adds to the Iowa champs
Yep, she was fantastic today - so technically advanced for an 18-year-old.
In her semifinal, she defeated 2023/25 World bronze medalist (and 2024 Olympian) Antim Antim of India - scoring the lone takedown and controlling the vast majority of the action in a 2-2 criteria win.
And in the finals, she thoroughly outclassed a 14x World teamer from Poland, 7-0.
It was already trending this way...but I'm about ready to officially stamp her as the next Welker/Blades level recruit for the Hawkeyes.
Leydecker isn't the explosive, athletic dynamo that those other two are - but she dominates in her own ruthlessly efficient way and is racking up world-class wins long before her high school days are over.
That's all very Welker/Blades-esque.
And she's only been wrestling for about four years or something, she was jui-jitsu I think before that.