KANSAS CITY, Kansas — University of Iowa sophomore Drake Ayala advanced to the NCAA finals at 125 pounds and the Hawkeyes crowned two more All-Americans, going 3-for-6 on the consolation side of the bracket on Friday night at the 2024 NCAA Championships at the T-Mobile Center.

After a lengthy review Ayala got a takedown against Wisconsin’s Eric Barnett the No. 10 seed, that proved to be the distance as Barnett would get an escape and a stalling point but was unable to take the Iowa native down.

“I got it done when it matters most,” said Ayala. “It wasn’t pretty, but sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do. I am just really, truly blessed to be in this situation, to be healthy and to have the best people surrounding me right now.”

Ayala advances to the NCAA final for the first time in his career and he extends Iowa’s streak of having an NCAA finalist to 34 consecutive tournaments. Iowa has had at least one wrestler in the NCAA finals in every year since 1990 and in 48 of the last 49 tournaments dating back to 1975.

“Ayala has been a winner since he was a baby boy,” said head coach Tom Brands. “That is continuing now into his college career. We love it. His family loves it. Hawk fans love it. We need it.”

Ayala will face Arizona State’s Richard Figueroa in Saturday’s final. Ayala and Figueroa have never met at the collegiate level, but Ayala won 5-3 in sudden victory at Who’s Number One in 2020 and Figueroa won at the 2021 U20 World Team Trials (freestyle), 7-4.

In the second semifinal of the evening, No. 6 seed Michael Caliendo fell to the No. 2 seed Mitchell Messenbrink of Penn State, sending him to the backside of the bracket. Ramos had a takedown and two-point near fall in the first, taking a 4-1 lead before Lee tilted Ramos for four points in the second, grabbing a 5-4 lead.

On the backside of the bracket, the Hawkeyes went 3-for-6 in the Blood Round and consolation quarterfinals with Real Woods (141) and Jared Franek (157) winning in the round of 12 to secure All-America honors. Woods can finish no lower than sixth place on Saturday morning and Franek will wrestle for seventh.

“This is a tight race for second,” said Brands. “It matters. We want to be one above that, but right now it is really, really tight going for second. So, we are going to need all of our guys contributing. Woods did a good job of getting the major. He kept wrestling. He didn’t want to keep wrestling, but he spurred himself on and got a major decision.”

Woods went 2-0 during the session to secure his fourth career All-America honor. He won a 5-2 decision over Northern Iowa’s Cael Happel before following with a 11-2 major decision over Minnesota’s Vance VomBauer.

Franek went 1-1 at 165 to clinch his second career All-America nod. In the blood round, Franek won a 4-2 decision over Northern Iowa’s Ryder Downey before falling to third-seeded Myer Shapiro of Cornell via major decision, 11-2. The Harwood, North Dakota, native will finish wrestle Nebraska’s Peyton Robb for seventh after being seeded 10th.

Senior Brody Teske (133) and junior Patrick Kennedy saw their NCAA tournaments come to an end in the blood round. Teske dropped a 6-3 decision to fourth-seed Dylan Shawver of Rutgers and Kennedy fell to top seeded Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech, 8-4.

Penn State is leading the team race with 141 points. Iowa is second in the standings with 60 points followed by Arizona State and Iowa State both with 59.5.

OF NOTE

• Woods and Franek’s All-America honors are 366th, 367th in program history.
• Woods and Franek are the 166th and 167th All-Americans in school history.
• Iowa has had at least four All-Americans in 16 straight seasons and 16 times in head coach Tom Brands’ 17 seasons.
• Iowa has crowned at least one All-American in 52 consecutive tournaments dating back to 1972.

SEMIFINALS RESULTS

125 | #3 Drake Ayala (Iowa) vs. #10 Eric Barnett (Wisconsin), 3-2

165 | #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) major dec. #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa), 17-9

CONSOLATION RESULTS

133 | #4 Dylan Shawver (Rutgers) dec. #15 Brody Teske (Iowa), 6-3

141 | #3 Real Woods (Iowa) dec. #7 Cael Happel (UNI), 5-2

157 | #10 Jared Franek (Iowa) dec. #5 Ryder Downey (UNI), 4-2

174 | #1 Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) dec. #12 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa), 8-4

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141 | #3 Real Woods (Iowa) major dec. #26 Vance Vombaur (Minnesota), 11-2

157 | #3 Meyer Shapiro (Cornell) dec. #10 Jared Franek (Iowa), 11-2

FINALS MATCHUPS

125 #3 Drake Ayala (Iowa) vs. #8 Richard Figueroa (Arizona State)

CONSOLATION MATCHUPS

141 | #3 Real Woods (Iowa) vs. #5 Anthony Echemedia (Iowa State)

165 | #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) vs. #7 Izzak Olejnik (Oklahoma State)

UP NEXT
Session V will take place Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. (CT). The session will consist of the consolation semifinals and placement matches for third, fifth and seventh place.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The 75th-ranked University of Iowa women’s tennis team defeated No. 34 Illinois, 4-2, Friday evening at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center. It is the Hawkeyes’ second straight win over a ranked opponent and moves the team’s record to 8-6 overall and 3-0 in Big Ten play.

The Fighting Illini started the night by capturing the doubles point with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 line. The Hawkeyes got an impressive win on court one with sophomore Daianne Hayashida and senior Vipasha Mehra downed No. 47 Megan Heuser and Alice Xu, 6-2.

Junior Barbora Pokorna and sophomore Pia Kranholdt dropped a close match at No. 3, bringing it to a tiebreaker before falling, 7-6 (4), to Josie Frazier and Kida Ferrari.

In singles competition, the Hawkeyes wasted no time in earning four singles wins at the top four spots.

After falling on court six to fall behind 2-0, Kranholdt earned a straight set victory over Treiber on No. 4, 6-4, 6-1. Junior Marisa Schmidt continued on court two with her 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Schaefbauer.

In the final moments of the match, Pokorna and Hayashida got their winning points simultaneously on courts three and one to secure the Hawkeyes’ upset win. Pokorna defeated Frazier; 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 and Hayashida downed Heuser; 7-6 (3), 6-4.

QUOTING HEAD COACH SASHA SCHMID

“I’m really proud of the team, it was a great fight today especially after losing the doubles point. I really felt like we had a good start in singles, and I’m happy for the way they courageously finished out those singles matches to get to four points. We will regroup tomorrow, and get ready to host a very competitive Northwestern team.”

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes will finish this weekend’s home competition Sunday, hosting No. 35 Northwestern at noon at the HTRC.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The University of Iowa baseball team dropped the series opener at Purdue, 10-3, on Friday afternoon at Alexander Field.

The Boilermakers led wire to wire after scoring three runs in the first inning.

Brody Brecht started on the mound for Iowa, allowing three earned runs over five innings. Brecht allowed seven hits and struck out three batters. The Iowa defense committed four errors, leading to three unearned runs.

Caleb Strack, Chas Wheatley, Drew Deremer and Justin Hackett entered out of the bullpen and combined to strike out six Boilermaker hitters.

Andy Nelson hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning, while Davis Cop collected two hits to lead the Hawkeyes. Kyle Huckstorf, Gable Mitchell and Raider Tello had base hits for Iowa.

Purdue scored three runs in the first and fourth innings, and two runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Starter Jordan Morales allowed four hits in seven innings of work.

UP NEXT: Iowa (11-10, 0-1 B1G) returns to Alexander Field to take on Purdue on Saturday at Noon (CT).

The Atlantic Trojans boys golf season has come into to full swing. The Trojans have 17 athletes are coached this season by Kendra Henningsen, who is in her first year as head coach and brings abundance of experience to the program.

Coach Henningsen commented on how things went last season.

Coach Henningsen is feeling positive from what she’s seen in practice.

Coach Henningsen had this to say about playing in the Hawkeye Ten Conference.

Coach Henningsen explained what her main goals are for the year.

The Trojan boy’s first golf meet will be a Hawkeye Ten Conference regular season meet when they will take on Kuemper Catholic at the Carroll Country Club on Tuesday April 2nd. That golf meet will get underway at 4:30 p.m.

The Iowa State men will advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time with a victory over Washington State Saturday in Omaha. The fourth ranked Cyclones opened the tournament with an 82-65 win over South Dakota State. Washington State edged Drake 66-61 on Thursday night.

That’s ISU coach T.J. Otzelberger. It is expected to be another pro-Cyclone crowd in Omaha.

Senior guard Curtis Jones says the fans give Iowa State an advantage.

Senior forward Tre King says Washington State will challenge the Cyclones in the post.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Two University of Iowa wrestlers – Drake Ayala (125) and Michael Caliendo (165) – advanced to Friday night’s semifinals during Session III of the 2024 NCAA Championships at the T-Mobile Center.

The wins clinched All-America honors for the Hawkeye duo. They are the 364th and 365th All-America honors in Iowa history.

Ayala is a first-time All-American and Caliendo earned his second All-America honor and first at Iowa.

Along with the two semifinalists, the Hawkeyes have four wrestlers alive on the consolation side of the bracket. Iowa is fifth in the team standings with 41.5 points, while Penn State is leading the team race with 86.5 points. Michigan (50.5) is second, Arizona State (44.5) is third and Iowa State (42.0) is fourth.

Ayala opened quarterfinal action with a 4-1 sudden victory decision over Oklahoma State’s Troy Spratley at 125.

Spratley earned an escape after choosing to begin the second period in the down position. Ayala responded with an escape in the third period. A takedown with 53 seconds remaining gave the Fort Dodge, Iowa, native his second overtime win over Spratley.

Ayala will face Wisconsin’s 10th-seeded Eric Barnett in tonight’s semifinals in a rematch of the 2024 Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals (Ayala won via decision 8-1).

The win gives Caliendo his second career All-America honor and moves his record to 27-4 this season. Caliendo will face Penn State’s second-seeded Mitchell Messenbrink (Messenbrink and Caliendo have met twice this season with Messenbrink winning both meetings.)

No. 3 seed Real Woods and No. 10 seed Jared Franek both fell to the Round of 12 with quarterfinal losses.

Woods matched up with Lachlan McNeil of North Carolina and the two had a tight match at 141. McNeil broke a 1-1 tie with a third-period takedown and three near fall points before the buzzer to win, 7-1.

Franek dropped a 5-2 decision to second-seeded Jacori Teemer of Arizona State. Teemer got a reversal to tie things at 2-2 and then a takedown with 31 seconds remaining to advance to the semifinals.

No. 15 seed Brody Teske stayed alive with a 2-0 session. In his first match, Teske won via major decision over Maryland’s Braxton Brown before following with an 3-1 victory in tiebreakers over Army’s No. 25 seed Braden Basile. He had a reversal in the first tiebreaker period to advance to the round of 12.

No. 12 seed Patrick Kennedy advanced with a 2-0 performance in the morning session. He defeated No. 11 seed Austin Murphy of Campbell, 5-3, before defeating Central Michigan’s No. 19 seed Alex Cramer, 5-2.

Caleb Rathjen (149), Zach Glazier (197), and Bradley Hill (285) had their tournament runs come to an end during Session III.

Rathjen fell 7-2 to Ohio State’s No. 14 seed Dylan D’Emilio at 149, Glazier lost in sudden victory to No. 9 seeded Stephen Little of Little Rock, 4-1, and Hill lost via major decision to Virginia Tech’s Hunter Catka, 11-2.

Rathjen finished the year 20-7, Glazier went 25-4, and Hill went 21-9.

QUARTERFINALS RESULTS

125 | #3 Drake Ayala (Iowa) dec. #6 Troy Spratley (OK State), 4-1 SV1

141 | #6 Lachlan McNeil (North Carolina) dec. #3 Real Woods (Iowa), 7-1

157 | #2 Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) dec.  #10 Jared Franek (Iowa), 5-2

165 | #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) dec #3 Julian Ramierez (Cornell), 9-4

CONSOLATION RESULTS

133 | #15 Brody Teske (Iowa) major dec. #17 Braxton Brown (Maryland), 14-6

149 | #14 Dylan D’Emillio (Ohio State) dec. # 13 Caleb Rathjen (Iowa), 7-2

174 | #12 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) dec. #11 Austin Murphy (Campbell), 5-3

197 | #9 Stephen Little (Little Rock) dec. #7 Zach Glazier (Iowa), 4-1 SV1

285 | #26 Hunter Catka (Virginia Tech) major dec. #25 Bradley Hill (Iowa), 11-2

—

133 | #15 Brody Teske (Iowa) dec. #25 Braden Basile (Army), 3-1 TB1

174 | #12 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) dec. #19 Alex Cramer (Central Michigan), 5-2

SEMIFINALS MATCHUPS

125 | #3 Drake Ayala (Iowa) vs. #10 Eric Barnett (Wisconsin)

165 | #6 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) vs. #2 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State)

CONSOLATION MATCHUPS

133 | #15 Brody Teske (Iowa) vs. #4 Dylan Shawver (Rutgers)

141 | #3 Real Woods (Iowa) vs. #7 Cael Happel (UNI)

157 | #10 Jared Franek (Iowa) vs. #5 Ryder Downey (UNI)

174 | #12 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) vs. #1 Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech)

UP NEXT
Session IV of the 2024 NCAA Championships will begin at 7 p.m. (CT) and it will be televised live on ESPN.