IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa junior center Tyler Linderbaum has been named to the Big Ten Conference preseason honors list. The announcement was made by the league office Thursday.  

Ten members were selected by a media panel, with five representatives from the East and West divisions.

Linderbaum (6-foot-3, 289-pounds) was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy a year ago and earned first-team All-America honors from The Athletic and Pro Football Focus. He was named second-team All-America by the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Phil Steele and the Walter Camp Foundation. He was a first-team All-Big Ten selection by league media.

The Solon, Iowa, native was named a preseason first-team All-Big Ten selection and preseason first-team All-America selection by Athlon Sports.

The Hawkeyes have had eight players named to the Big Ten Preseason Honors List in the last eight seasons. They include Linderbaum (2021), defensive end AJ Epenesa (2019), tight end Noah Fant (2018), linebacker Josey Jewell (2017), quarterback C.J. Beathard (2016), defensive back Desmond King (2016), defensive end Drew Ott (2015), and offensive tackle Brandon Scherff (2014). Epenesa, Fant, Jewell, Beathard, King, and Scherff were selected in the NFL Draft after making the list. 

The other Big Ten players on the 2021 list include Michael Penix Jr. (Jr., QB, IND), Thayer Munford (Sr., LT, OSU), Chris Olave (Sr., WR, OSU), Garrett Wilson (Jr., WR, OSU), and Jahan Dotson (Sr., WR, PSU) in the East Division. The West Division includes Linderbaum, Mohamed Ibrahim (Sr., RB, MINN), Brandon Joseph (So., S, NU), David Bell (Jr., WR, PUR), and Jack Sanborn (Sr., LB, WIS).  

The Hawkeyes open the 2021 season Sep. 4, hosting Indiana. For ticket information, visit hawkeyesports.com/footballgameday.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State softball head coach Jamie Pinkerton has announced the promotion of assistant coaches Courtney Herron-Martinez and Kate Sinnott. Both will now be associate head coaches.

“In their four years together, they’ve done a great job with their positions,” Pinkerton said. “It was important to me to keep the continuity of our program together. This keeps our program going in the direction we want and keeps our staff together. Both are very deserving of the promotion.”

The contributions of both coaches led to the greatest season in Iowa State history in 2021, as the Cyclones went 34-23 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

Sinnott’s 2021 pitching staff was a critical piece to the greatest season in program history. Behind the arms of Karlie Charles and Ellie Spelhaug, Iowa State advanced to the NCAA Columbia Regional Final for the first regional final in school history. Sinnott’s work with one of the youngest pitching staffs in the entire country was no small feat. With a bullpen that featured just one player with Big 12 experience, 86 percent of all innings during the 2021 season were thrown by underclassmen. Iowa State’s 3.25 and 3.18 ERA’s in 2019 and 2020 were the two lowest totals in over 10 years for the Cyclones.

Martinez’s work with the Cyclone offense has led to an incredible turnaround for the program. The Cyclones have set a new single-season program home run record in each of the three full season she has been on staff. The work culminated in 2021’s offense that hit 64 home runs in just 57 games. Iowa State also set school records in runs, RBI and walks in 2021. Martinez’s work with Cyclone phenom Sami Williams was instrumental in bringing the ISU program to new heights. With Martinez as a guide, Williams became the first NFCA First Team All-American in program history and was selected number eight overall in the Athletes Unlimited collegiate draft. Under Martinez’s tutelage, Williams put together a staggering statistical season in 2021. Williams broke single-season program records for batting average (.446) and home runs (21) on the year with 54 RBI and an incredible .902 slugging percentage.

ROSEMONT, Ill. — University of Iowa men’s basketball center Luka Garza has been named the 2020-21 Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, the conference announced on Wednesday.

Garza is the first Hawkeye men’s basketball player to earn the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year award, which was introduced in 1992. He is one of five Iowa student-athletes, and first in 13 years, to be presented with the Big Ten’s most prestigious annual honor. Other previous Hawkeyes selected include wrestlers Brent Metcalf (2008), Barry Davis (1985) and Ed Banach (1983), and football’s Chuck Long (1986).

Garza is the first basketball player to earn the distinction since Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine in 2016, and only the seventh all-time.

Garza swept all major postseason men’s basketball awards in 2021 (Wooden, Naismith, Associated Press, Oscar Robertson, NABC, Lute Olson, Sporting News) to become the program’s first consensus National Player of the Year. Iowa’s first two-time unanimous consensus first-team All-American led the nationally-ranked Hawkeyes to 22 victories and a third place Big Ten finish in 2021.

Garza, who graduated in May with a degree in economics, led the nation in total points (747), 30-point games (8), field goals made (281), and 20-point games (22). The native of Washington, D.C., ranked second nationally in points per game (24.1), fifth in free throw attempts (199), 10th in free throw makes (141), and 11th in double-doubles (13).

His 747 points extended the single-season school record that he set last season (740). The two-time Big Ten Player of the Year broke Iowa’s 32-year-old scoring record held by Roy Marble on Feb. 21, 2021. He finished his Hawkeye career with 2,306 points, which ranks seventh best in Big Ten history. Garza is the only men’s basketball player in Big Ten history to accumulate 2,250 points and 900 rebounds.

In addition to ranking first in career scoring, Garza is tops at Iowa in 30-point games (13), conference scoring (1,399), field goals made (870), field goal attempts (1,594), and 40-point games (2); second in rebounds (931); fourth in double-doubles (34); fifth in blocked shots (154); sixth in free throw makes (446) and attempts (636); and 16th in 3-pointers made (120).

Garza netted 36 points against Oregon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, which was the most points scored by any player in a 2021 NCAA Tournament game and the most by a Hawkeye in 65 years matching Bill Logan’s 36 scored against Temple in 1956.

The Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year is selected by a panel of conference media members from nominations submitted by each institution.

2021 Pride of Iowa All Conference Baseball Teams

1st Team 

Pitcher

*Jaydon Knight So. Mt. Ayr

Keegan Christensen Sr. Lenox

Caelen DeVault Jr. NV

Matt Hughes Jr. MSTM

Catcher

Kale Rockhold Fr. CD

Infield

*Jaixen Frost So. Mt. Ayr

Wyatt Carlson Jr. EU

*Kasey Carter Jr. MSTM

Matthew Boothe Jr. CD

Outfield (3)

Erik Trujillo Sr. Mt. Ayr

Carson Elbert Sr. MSTM

Mason Merfeld Sr. SE Warren

Utility (2)

Dawson Swank Sr. Mt. Ayr

Hogan Franey Jr. MSTM

*Unanimous Selection

2nd Team

Pitcher (4)

Gavin Stott Jr. MSTM

Cade Nelson Jr. SE Warren

*Devin Adams Jr. CD

Mason Mather Sr. NV

Catcher (1)

Dylan Swaney Sr. Bedford

Infield (4)

Jace Grose Jr. Mt. Ayr

Boston DeVault So. NV

Tanner Dierking Sr. SE Warren

Cullen Wood Sr. Lenox

Outfield (3)

Brock Manser Jr. SE Warren

Troy Holt Sr. MSTM

Silas Walston Fr. Bedford

Tyke Hullinger Jr. CD

Utility (2)

Cael Cassady Jr. MSTM

Brendan Knapp Jr. SWV

Honorable Mention

SEW – Jeffery Oakley Jr.

Mt. Ayr – Briar Knapp Sr.

CD – Jaxson Cornett So.

Lenox – Brad Larson Sr.

NV – Evan Forcht Sr.

Bedford – Noah Johnson Jr

MSTM – Jack Franey Sr.

EU – Ethan Mitchell Sr.

SWV – Caleb Pearson Jr.

Wayne – Strait Jacobsen So.

(Radio Iowa) – A new University of Iowa study finds Olympic bronze medalists tend to appear happier on the podium than the silver medalists who beat them. U-I marketing professor Andrea Luangrath focuses much of her research on non-verbal communication and is using high-tech software that can detect emotions from facial expressions in photos and video.  “We actually formed the largest data set ever used to test this phenomenon,” Luangrath says. “We gathered more than 400 athlete photos, representing more than 60 countries, and we did this from the Olympic games over time, too, so we gathered photos from the 2000 to the 2016 Olympics.”

So why do the third-place finishers smile more broadly than those in second-place? It has to do with “counterfactual thinking,” or imagining an alternate reality. The silver medalist, Luangrath says, tends to make an upward comparison, looking to the gold medal winner and thinking, “If only I’d been a little better.” “But the bronze medalist, they formed what we call a downward comparison,” Luangrath says. “It’s kind of thoughts of, ‘Well, at least I won a medal at all.’ They’re thinking about that 4th place finisher and they’re saying, ‘I’m actually just happy to be on the medal stand at all.'”

Gymnast McKayla Maroney and her famous face from the 2012 Games.

Perhaps the most recognized silver medal winner in recent years is American gymnast McKayla Maroney. She made the famous “not impressed” grimace after finishing second in the women’s vault at the 2012 Games in London. The U-I professor says it’s the perfect example of this phenomenon as Maroney underperformed. “Everyone had this expectation that she was going to earn a gold medal and so when she fell short of that, of course, she was disappointed in herself, as was everyone else for her, but it was really revealed on her face,” Luangrath says. “That iconic face has actually gotten her a lot of mileage. She’s take that face all over the world.”

The software used in the research can read a person’s facial expression by the shapes and positions of their mouths, eyes, eyebrows, noses, and other parts of the face. Not surprisingly, the study found gold medalists are far more likely to smile than the other two medalists, and people who finished better than expected were also more likely to smile, regardless of their medal. The study, “Counterfactual Thinking and Facial Expressions Among Olympic Medalists,” was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.