IOWA CITY — The future of Iowa football special teams just got a boost.

Class of 2025 specialist Scott Starzyk announced his commitment to the Hawkeyes on Thursday. Starzyk is the No. 1 ranked kicker and No. 4 ranked punter in the class, according to Kohl’s Kicking. He is regarded as a five-star prospect in both categories.

Starzyk, a product of The Woodlands High School in Texas, picked the Hawkeyes over other offers from Mississippi State, Syracuse, Texas A&M and Oklahoma, among others. Iowa offered Starzyk a full-ride scholarship, which is something it doesn’t always do for high school specialist prospects. He took a visit to Iowa in June.

Iowa kicker Drew Stevens has two seasons of eligibility remaining. So barring something unforeseen, Starzyk will be in his first season in the Hawkeye program while Stevens is in his last. The Hawkeyes also have placekicker Tripp Woody on the roster. Iowa just brought in a freshman punter, Rhys Dakin, to fill the departure of Hawkeye legend Tory Taylor.

Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods continues to do good work for the Hawkeyes. That facet of the game has been a strength for the program. Landing Starzyk is another step in continuing that standard.

Starzyk joins LeVar Woods’ son among the commitments in Iowa’s 2025 class. Iowa City West’s Mason Woods made his public pledge to Iowa in June.

The Hawkeyes continue to make progress in its 2025 recruiting class.

Over the last few weeks, the Hawkeyes have landed verbal commitments from Mason Woods, 3-star offensive lineman Cameron Herron and Lucas Allgeyer, 3-star cornerback CJ Bell and 3-star defensive lineman Brad Fitzgibbon.

Iowa is still trying to fill out the class. Highly touted Hawkeye legacy recruit Iose Epenesa, brother of former Iowa star A.J. Epenesa, has yet to announce his college choice. If Epenensa were to commit to the Hawkeyes, it would be a headliner to Iowa’s 2025 recruiting class. The Hawkeyes are also still in the mix for receiver Terrence Smith.

Starzyk is now the 14th player to commit to Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s 2025 recruiting class.

He joins the following verbal commitments in the class:

• Defensive lineman Brad Fitzgibbon (Marist, Ill.)
• Cornerback CJ Bell (St. Thomas More School, CT)
• Offensive lineman Lucas Allgeyer (Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day, MO)
• Offensive lineman Cameron Herron (Warren Central, Ind.)
• Athlete Mason Woods (Iowa City West)
• Defensive back Drew MacPherson (Loyola Academy, Ill.)
• Quarterback Ryan Fitzgerald (Loyola Academy, Ill.)
• Tight end Thomas Meyer (Clear Lake)
• Linebacker Burke Gautcher (Sycamore, Ill.)
• Linebacker Carson Cooney (Oswego, Ill.),
• Tight end Eli Johnson (River Falls, Wis.),
• Quarterback Jimmy Sullivan (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
• Defensive lineman Joey VanWetzinga (Pleasant Valley)

Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com

IOWA CITY — There’s an alternate timeline of Spencer Lee’s wrestling career that could have ultimately played out.

Following a stunning loss in the 2023 NCAA semifinal to Purdue’s Matt Ramos to stop him from becoming a four-time collegiate champion, there was a case to be made that Lee had left everything out on the mat he could. Three NCAA titles, two Dan Hodge Trophies, a Cadet World title and a pair of Junior World titles had cost him him ACLs and deteriorated his knees to a point where Lee wondered whether he had anything left in the tank.

Lee has never been one for excuses. His “excuses are for wusses” quote following winning a title with no ACLs in his knees became a tagline for the Hawkeye wrestling program. But even he wondered if it was maybe time to step away.

Following that loss in March, Lee finally committed to taking his long-desired trip to Japan as an escape from it all.

“I just needed to not think about wrestling,” Lee said during a press conference Thursday.

Lee was a longtime admirer of Japanese culture. Not only for its dominant wrestling, but Japanese culture in its entirety. In Japan, he stayed in Tokyo while visiting Kyoto, Osaka and other major towns along the way.

“I really enjoyed the peacefulness,” Lee said. “Just to walk around and have a lot of time to think.”

More: Wrestling mailbag: Is Iowa wrestling falling behind in recruiting? Who to watch at Fargo

While he was wanting to avoid wrestling, he still made sure to meet up with an old friend in Takuto Otoguro, an Olympic gold medalist in 2021. The two met and became friends in the 2014 World Championships and stayed in touch throughout their careers.

When Lee spoke with Otoguro, Otoguro mentioned how hard it was prepare for another Olympics. Now that he had reached the pinnacle, what comes next was a big question. When Otoguro began training again after some time away, he told Lee he still loved it when they were in Japan, so he would try once again.

When Lee returned from his wrestling hiatus, he felt refueled, which is exactly what Iowa coach Tom Brands was hoping for. When Lee floated the idea to him, Brands and the staff “spurred” him to take some time to make the heart grow fonder.

“You’re fanning the flames,” Brands said. “Making him burn hot inside.”

Lee would then go on to perhaps look the best he has in some time, rolling through Senior Nationals to qualify for the Olympic Trials in December 2023, defeating the United States’ best at the Trials and then qualifying the 57-kilogram weight class for the US in Istanbul and going undefeated in that run.

Across the sea, Lee’s friend Otoguro failed to qualify for the Olympics himself, but told Lee he would be seeing him soon, making Lee realize the bigger picture of why it made sense to continue on.

“He messaged me and told me that he would be on the team in 2028,” Lee said. “For me it was like, ‘I get it.’ Just because you reached that pinnacle, it doesn’t mean you’re done with your potential.”

Spencer Lee on Olympics: ‘It would be wrong to say that I’m not representing Iowa’

Wrestler Spencer Lee meets with media ahead of his upcoming appearance in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

More: Iowa wrestling leads nation in attendance for 17th straight season, Penn State ranks second

Today’s version of Lee is a revival of what Lee was prior to all those knee injuries, before the stunning loss in his senior season. His time away in a country he longed to visit one day helped him realize there was still another level he was capable of reaching if he could find a way.

Now, Lee heads to his mother’s home country of Paris. He’s been practicing his French with the France wrestling delegation in Colorado to impress his mother and family who all were born and raised in France, all while working on his stellar par terre offense that helped him roll through the qualifying process. In total across Senior Nationals, the Olympic Trials and the Last Chance qualifier, Lee wrestled in 11 matches, outscored his opponents 107-25 with five technical falls and a pin in that time.

Ultimately, Brands’ prodding of Lee to take some time away paid off big time for all parties, but they are turning toward the next step of this process to try to win gold. A former gold medalist himself in 1996, he’s not trying to push Lee to emulate what he did, but rather to exceed what he accomplished in Atlanta 28 years ago.

Lee will be looking to Drake Ayala, Pat Lugo and Brandon Sorensen to help as training partners. At this point, current and former Hawkeyes training with the Olympians has become a tradition, like Lee did as a teenager with Daniel Dennis furing his Olympics run in 2016.

For Ayala, it’s a massive opportunity to build upon his successful sophomore campaign when he reached the NCAA finals. Having dealt with injuries of his own the past two seasons, he’s getting a shining example of what it will take to reach his pinnacle.

“He left a little undone as well,” Brands said. “This is part of that for him but there’s also an unselfish part of that as well. He’s the right guy along with Lugo and Sorensen to go with Spencer because of their relationship.”

Now the “zero hour” is upon Lee and the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, a term Brands borrowed from Dan Gable as they prepare to try to get Iowa’s sixth gold medal from the Olympics. Brands says he has no need or desire to place pressure on Lee ahead of the Olympics, but Lee’s urgency to get out and reach the pinnacle is at an all-time high in his career.

“You’re talking about a guy who’s a super high-octane competitor, you’re talking about a guy who gets up for the best events that are in front of him and here we are,” Brands said. “It’s time to perform.”

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23

The Class 4A and Class 3A Iowa high school baseball state tournaments come to Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids this year, beginning July 22 and concluding with the championship games July 26. Below is a look at the brackets and schedule released by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

Teams qualified with victories in Wednesday night’s substate finals.

The Class 2A and Class 1A state tournaments are at Merchants Park in Carroll. Those brackets were released earlier Wednesday.

Class 4A state baseball tournament

Quarterfinals — Tuesday, July 23

No. 1 Cedar Rapids Kennedy (33-4) vs. Pleasant Valley (20-17), 11:30 a.m.

No. 4 Johnston (33-5) vs. No. 8 Waukee Northwest (26-14), 2 p.m.

No. 2 Dallas Center-Grimes (35-3) vs. West Des Moines Dowling (23-15), 5 p.m.

No. 3 Iowa City High (33-7) vs. No. 10 Waukee (26-16), 7:30 p.m.

Semifinals — Thursday, July 25

5 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Final — Friday, July 26

7 p.m.

Class 4A substate baseball finals

No. 10 Waukee 1, Sioux City North 0

No. 2 Dallas Center-Grimes 6, Sioux City East 0

No. 4 Johnston 1, Cedar Falls 0 (13 innings)

West Des Moines Dowling 2, No. 5 Ankeny Centennial 0

No. 1 Cedar Rapids Kennedy 5, North Scott 1 — Kennedy had lost a substate final four times in the previous nine years, including the last two. So when North Scott posted a run in the top of the first inning, there were all kinds of here-we-go-again vibes. But this Cougars team is one of the best offensively in school history and responded immediately with a four spot in the bottom of the inning. Read more.

No. 8 Waukee Northwest 8, No. 6 Linn-Mar 1 — In a season with so many highs, Linn-Mar suffered through one of its toughest nights of the summer at a most inopportune time. The Lions fell behind 2-0 after two innings. Then three more runs scored on the third, all on wild pitches. Read more.

No. 3 Iowa City High 3, Iowa City West 1 — Jake Mitchell’s two-run single in the second inning propelled City High past its crosstown rival. Thanks to a pair of strong pitching performances from City High juniors Talon Young and Jaxton Schroeder, the Little Hawks’ early three-run advantage held up. Read more.

Pleasant Valley 4, No. 9 Iowa City Liberty 3 (12 innings)

Class 3A state baseball tournament

Quarterfinals — Monday, July 22

No. 1 Dubuque Wahlert (33-9) vs. DeWitt Central (25-12), 7:30 p.m.

No. 4 Sioux City Heelan (32-10) vs. No. 9 Pella (27-9), 5 p.m.

No. 2 Marion (31-5) vs. Center Point-Urbana (29-8), 2 p.m.

No. 3 North Polk (26-6) vs. Harlan (27-8), 11:30 a.m.

Semifinals — Wednesday, July 24

5 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Final — Friday, July 26

5 p.m.

Class 3A substate baseball finals

No. 4 Sioux City Heelan 8, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 7 (8 innings)

No. 3 North Polk 4, Algona 3

Center Point-Urbana 4, No. 5 Western Dubuque 2

No. 1 Dubuque Wahlert 7, Clear Creek Amana 0

DeWitt Central 10, No. 6 Davenport Assumption 2

No. 2 Marion 3, Gilbert 0

No. 9 Pella 4, No. 10 Grinnell 1

Harlan 10, Council Bluffs Lewis Central 0 (5 innings)