The Big Ten Championships has come and gone for the Iowa wrestling team, bringing some things to be excited about and question marks at the same time.
The Hawkeyes finished fourth at this year’s tournament with 87 team points. Penn State won the conference title with 184 points, followed by Ohio State with 148.5 and Nebraska with 116.5. Iowa narrowly edged out Michigan for a fourth-place finish, but didn’t have a single individual Big Ten champion.
Some guys ended the weekend with strong performances and unlikely finishes, while others saw their tournament end with a dud. With only the national duel remaining on the schedule before one of the most pivotal offseasons in the history of the program commences, what did we learn from the Big Ten Championships? Here are the biggest takeaways from the weekend.
Some decent individual success
While the Hawkeyes didn’t have an individual Big Ten champion this year, there were a couple of guys who had a strong tournament. Mikey Caliendo finished as the runner-up at 165 pounds. Drake Ayala and Nasir Bailey potted third-place finishes at 133 and 141 pounds, respectively. Patrick Kennedy and Ben Kueter ended up with fourth-place finishes at 174 pounds and heavyweight. And Dean Peterson rounded things out with a fifth-place finish at 125 pounds…