A look back at the inaugural Soldier Salute

Iowa’s Spencer Lee wrestles Wyoming’s Jore Volk at 125 kilos throughout the Soldier Salute wrestling match in Coralville, Iowa on Friday, December 30, 2022. Lee received by main choice 15-5. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Wrestling shall be full steam forward by the point this week is completed, however listed here are some ideas from the earlier week within the Wrestling Weekend That Was.

STICK WITH SOLDIER SALUTE

The inaugural Soldier Salute wrestling match is within the books. With no shock, the match was a well-run occasion that capped a busy month of wrestling at Xtream Enviornment in Coralville. The venue hosted the Dan Gable Donnybrook – massive boys’ and ladies’ highschool wrestling match that included groups from 5 states – after which held the United World Wrestling World Cup for males’s and ladies’s freestyle.

Dipping their toe into the pool of faculty wrestling vacation tournaments needed to be thought-about a hit for organizers that has this wrestling occasion factor down. The match was hatched final season in response to a second straight Midlands Championships being canceled, however the turnaround time was so quick it was not possible to get off the bottom, however the idea was too good to desert.

“The pageantry of it’s nice,” Iowa Coach Tom Manufacturers mentioned. “We need to preserve constructing it, and after I say we that places me in with the organizers, which I’m not an organizer. Nice first yr. We need to be part of it. Hold coming again.”

Iowa, after all, was the headliner within the males’s and ladies’s fields. Although you didn’t appear most of the high wrestlers from applications like College of Northern Iowa, Wyoming, South Dakota State and North Carolina on the lads’s aspect, followers nonetheless noticed members of their applications in motion. Possibly it was a feeler to see how the match went earlier than committing extra rivals and first-string wrestlers sooner or later. Extra colleges have already expressed curiosity. Anticipate the numbers and high quality of the sphere to develop every season.

Don’t overlook concerning the trigger behind the match. Proceeds from the occasion shall be donated to United Service Organizations and a belief fund devoted to the continued development of highschool ladies wrestling. Why wouldn’t groups be on board? Military, Navy, The Citadel and Virginia Army Institute have been among the many applications highlighted on the lads’s aspect and Military’ World Class Athlete Program competed within the girls’s match.

“The army means the whole lot to me,” Manufacturers mentioned. “I’m a patriot. Whenever you describe your self and also you name your self a patriot and issues which can be purple, white and blue, United States of America, honor and issues of that nature, we, as civilians, don’t maintain a candle to the army. I’ve at all times felt that manner and at all times mentioned that.

“I believe if I went to fight I might poop my pants. What they do to maintain this nation robust and secure, hats off to them instances one million.”

Some could level to established occasions like Midlands and Southern Scuffle (the place Iowa State despatched its wrestlers this week). Others will point out loyalty and custom, referencing the ties to these occasions. These tournaments began someplace and grew into the marquee occasions on school wrestling’s midseason calendar. The Soldier Salute has the identical potential.

Iowa Metropolis Space Sports activities Fee members Josh Schamberger, Luke Eustice, Kylee Walker with the assistance of Nathan Eichorst put it collectively. Schamberger has been an vital cog, securing many high tournaments lately and persevering with the realm’s custom of being a wrestling mecca.

“Nothing surprises me,” Manufacturers mentioned about Schamberger’s potential to land and execute wrestling occasions. “Actually, I don’t know if ardour or assist or simply love for the game of wrestling is clear. He’s positively the correct man to have in Iowa Metropolis/Coralville and on this area, for positive.”

HAWKEYES DOMINATE

This was anticipated and no shock in any respect. Iowa topped eight champions and had 11 complete finalists, profitable the group title with 228 factors, 122 greater than runner-up Military.

“We now have to guage this. We’ve received to maneuver ahead,” Manufacturers mentioned. “I do know one factor. We’ve received to remain wholesome. That’s the place we’re at.”

Spencer Lee was again in motion, rolling to the 125-pound title. Lee posted bookend pins to the match, sandwiching a 19-1 technical fall and a 15-5 main over U20 World champion Jore Volk, of Wyoming. Lee wasn’t positive he would wrestle till a short while earlier than the occasion.

“Acquired to get higher,” Lee mentioned. “It was actually good for me. Match format, making weight two days in a row, which isn’t an enormous deal, nevertheless it’s the one manner we will emulate a Huge Ten or NCAA match.

“Fairly good. I had some robust guys. I’m comfortable I competed.”

Lee confronted teammate Drake Ayala within the finals. Ayala stuffed in for an injured Lee final season and is coming off surgical procedure of his personal. Ayala was robust by the semifinals however ran right into a buzz noticed within the title match. Lee scored a takedown, four-point nearfall off a tilt and received a pin in 1:24.

“I felt fairly good,” Lee mentioned. “I had a troublesome opponent within the finals. Drake is a teammate, which is unlucky. It’s additionally a very good factor, as a result of it means your teammate’s good while you’re in a match and meet within the finals. Clearly, he would do very nicely.”

Manufacturers mentioned it was good to get Lee extra matches, serving to prepare for postseason conditions that follow can’t emulate. Lee mentioned the remainder of the common season is unsure.

“We’re taking it one match at a time,” Lee mentioned. “I hope to wrestle each single match the remainder of the season to be there for my teammates. Do what I’ve received to do. Attempt to win as a lot as I can, get as wholesome as I can and compete the way in which I need to compete.”

Iowa had three head-to-head finals matchups. The veterans have been victorious over their youthful teammates. At 149, Max Murin used a third-period escape and takedown to tug away for a 7-4 choice over Caleb Rathjen, who dropped all the way down to 149 from 157 and beat former Ohio State wrestler Anthony Echemendia within the semifinal.

Warner additionally received at 197, topping Hawkeye freshman Kolby Franklin, 10-2, within the championship. Actual Woods (141) and heavyweight Tony Cassioppi trounced the opposition. Woods went 4-0 with two technical falls, a serious choice and a pin.

Cassioppi pinned his manner by the bracket. All 4 pins got here within the first interval, lasting a complete of seven:38. His longest match was 2:17 and he decked Navy’s Ryan Catka in 2:11 of the ultimate.

“I really feel like I wrestled nicely,” mentioned Cassioppi, who moved to 11-0 with 9 pins this season. “I wrestled who was on the market in entrance of me. Not a lot else I can do about it.”

It was a very good springboard into the Huge Ten twin season that begins Friday at Illinois.

“It’s not an enormous factor on my radar,” Cassioppi mentioned concerning the upcoming convention meets. “I’m regularly getting higher nevertheless I would like. I’m not wanting forward, simply the subsequent factor up. Bettering week in and week out.”

IOWA WOMEN ROLL

Members of the Iowa girls’s wrestling group aren’t formally representing the Hawkeyes, but. They are going to begin their first season throughout the 2023-24 marketing campaign. They have been out in full power on the Soldier Salute, wrestling unattached.

The Hawkeyes completed with three champions. Sterling Dias (101), Felicity Taylor (116), Reese Larramendy at 143 have been first. Bella Mir (155), Kyle Welker (170), Emilie Gonzalez (101) and Brianna Gonzalez (109) every positioned second.

Service members offered every champion with a plaque, which resembles awards ceremonies by USA Wrestling. In a particular second, Taylor, a former South Winneshiek prep, obtained hers from Officer Megan Black-Campion, who was the primary Iowa feminine to put on the Iowa Excessive College Athletic Affiliation as a member of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont group.

As Megan Black, Black-Campion was a state qualifier for Ottumwa after which positioned eighth at 106 in Class 1A for the Rockets.

“It’s been fairly cool to replicate and look again to see how far the state of Iowa has come,” Taylor mentioned. “I’’s now sanctioned. One of many ladies I seemed as much as as a wrestler handed me my award, in order that was superior. She was a teammate of mine at McKendree (College). It’s loopy the way it all connects her being my position mannequin and handing me my award and hopefully I get to do this for one more lady sometime.”