Iowa
No. 4 Iowa State bonds over blond hair dye, beats No. 17 Northern Iowa, 27-14, on Sunday at Hilton
Iowa State Cyclones Casey Swiderski takes down Northern Iowa Panthers Cael Rahnavardi during their 149-pound wrestling at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
AMES — Casey Swiderski and several of his Iowa State wrestling teammates recently journeyed to the hair care aisle. They scanned the many selections and settled on the cheapest option: An unnatural-looking, but bond-deepening blond dye they all unveiled during the No. 4 Cyclones’ 27-14 dual win Sunday over intra-state rival and No. 17 Northern Iowa before a crowd of 5,615 at Hilton Coliseum.
“I think it just shows how tight we are and, it’s OK, whatever,” said Swiderski, who’s ranked No. 7 nationally at 149 pounds by FloWrestling. “We might look ridiculous. It’s OK. We’re gonna run you out of bounds, or we’re gonna take you down, so whatever.”
Swiderski joined three teammates in winning by technical fall Sunday against the Panthers. The Cyclones scored bonus points in five of their six victories en route to their fifth straight dual win over their cross-state rival.
“We just didn’t punch enough,” said Panther head coach Doug Schwab, whose team got an upset win to start the meet when redshirt freshman 125-pounder Trever Anderson beat No. 21 Kysen Terukina, 8-5, in sudden victory. “We needed to punch more. Hell, we got tech-falled four times. I don’t know how the hell you’re gonna win a dual meet that way.”
Anderson’s gritty win served as a bright spot for UNI — as did No. 13 157-pounder Ryder Downey’s 12-9 triumph over ISU’s No. 9 Cody Chittum. Downey was put on his back early, but battled back and scored three back points of his own in the closing seconds to cement the comeback victory.
“You get put to your back in that situation and you get down, and you know what? It’s OK,” Schwab said. “And here’s the thing: Get the next score. Win the next position (and) win the next position. Make it simple. You don’t need to get it back at once.”
The Cyclones’ 149-pounder Anthony Echemendia adopted a similar approach during the most anticipated matchup of the dual. Echemendia, ranked No. 9 at his weight, scored a takedown with 18 seconds remaining to outlast No. 6 Cael Happel, 9-6. The bout served as a rematch of sorts, as Happel beat Echemendia, 9-3, in December at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
“All that support you get from your teammates and your coaches, it’s what pushes you with 20 seconds, or 10 seconds left,” Echemendia said. “You have all that stuff in your head and you’re like, ‘Man, I can’t fail in front of these people.’ They’re supporting me and they believe in me, so that’s what I keep in mind in those close matches.”
Echemendia said Swiderski, in particular, has been in his corner after both intended to fight for the top-spot at 149 before the season. Echemendia decided to cut weight to ensure both could be in the lineup — and it’s paid dividends on both a team and individual basis.
“I’ve actually never told him, but I respect the hell out of him,” Swiderski said before his hand met Echmendia’s for a heartfelt handshake. “Because now we’re both out here and we’re the one-two punch, and I think it’s only up from here.”
Iowa State also got bonus-point wins from No. 8 ranked 133-pounder Evan Frost, second-ranked 165-pounder David Carr, No. 23 174-pounder MJ Gaitain, and No. 3 heavyweight Yonger Bastida.
As for the “ridiculous” hair dye? That’s not going down the drain anytime soon, Swiderski said. So expect plenty of reapplications well into March.
“I think it’s whatever,” he said. “Just let ‘em know. You don’t want to get beat by the blond guy.”
DES MOINES, Iowa (Iowa State Capitol Bureau) – Local governments in Iowa will no longer be able to protect civil rights that are not protected by the state.
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the measure into law Tuesday. The law follows another bill Reynolds signed last year that removed gender identity as a protected class in Iowa.
When lawmakers first debated the legislation, protesters showed up in opposition. Those against the law say local governments should be able to protect their residents.
Reynolds said the law clears up confusion for businesses and schools.
“We just believe that locals should follow the state laws, especially when it comes to civil rights,” Reynolds said. “Otherwise, we have a mismatch of rights out there, and we felt that it was the right thing to do.”
Reynolds also said the law ensures girls are protected in women’s sports and in public bathrooms.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
See how Iowa schools are bring language teachers from Spain
see how Iowa schools are filling world language teacher positions and enriching classrooms through an exchange program with Spain.
The sounds of Dallas Center-Grimes High School Spanish students singing “¿Por Que Te Vas?” by Jeanette with varying levels of gusto and prodding by teacher Antton Zuazu Hernández may seem like an unusual way to learn.
But the sing-along is how Zuazu Hernández, a native of Spain, helps engage his students and share his culture as part of a teacher-exchange program.
“I feel I’m a messenger in a way, and this is part of the program,” he said. “We’re expected to both bring our culture here and bring your culture back to Spain.”
Zuazu Hernández — who taught English in Spain — is among 26 bilingual teachers in Iowa as part of an exchange program between the Iowa Department of Education and Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture.
“(The program) was created to address the shortage of qualified Spanish teachers in the state and helps expose students to different world cultures,” said Heather Doe, the department’s spokesperson. “… The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain program has been very successful in helping schools, especially in rural communities, hire highly qualified Spanish teachers.”
Iowa has nearly 1,200 world language teachers in kindergarten through college, according to the Iowa World Language Association website.
Some foreign language teachers in Iowa moved to the U.S. and later obtained teaching credentials. Others were recruited to work in Iowa schools.
Iowa schools, including Waukee Community School District, even offer financial incentives as a recruitment tool for hard to fill positions.
“Many of them, like me, will arrive with teaching experience from our home countries, but in the process of validating the credentials in the U.S. we find obstacles,” said Elizabeth Bulthuis, a Waukee High School world languages teacher who immigrated from Ecuador in 2003, “and the validating of credentials also can be lengthy and costly, because of all the educational systems and how they are structured differently.”
Exchange program is beneficial to schools, superintendent
The Spain exchange program — which brings hundreds of teachers to schools across the U.S. — comes with several requirements.
The Spanish teachers must be certified in the language with at least two years of experience, Doe said. Additionally, candidates go through a vetting process at the federal, state and local levels. Teachers also attend a three-day state orientation.
Schools and districts participating in the program pay an $895 fee to offset licensing and orientation costs, Doe said.
The program is a blessing for rural areas struggling to fill positions teaching foreign language, special education, math and science.
“It’s very difficult to even get an applicant,” said Deron Stender, the superintendent at the rural Creston Community School District, “… When I say it’s difficult to even find (the candidates) they don’t exist. And if they do, they’re probably going to be in a larger metro, urban, suburban areas where there’s just more opportunities.”
St. Anthony’s conducts bilingual class for its students
St. Anthony’s Catholic school brings Spanish speaking teachers to the U.S. to teach students the language.
Zuazu Hernández taught Spanish and drove a bus at Creston during the 2024-25 school year. But falling enrollment and budget cuts resulted in his position being eliminated.
A program drawback is teachers only have three-year visas, he said.
“When you have a very good individual that comes to your district from a foreign country after the third year, you still have that need again,” Stender said. “So, we just open it back up to the same program, but you’re doing another refresh of the process, and while that’s a challenge, it’s still better than not having a teacher in the classroom.”
Not every world language teacher comes from Spain
Another issue schools have faced is filling teaching positions for immersion programs.
In the early 2000s, St. Anthony’s started a Spanish-immersion program after several families with children of Honduras and Guatemala descent wanted their kids to have a Catholic school education and maintain their connection to the Spanish language.
“A lot of teachers go to school to teach Spanish, but they go to school to teach it as a standalone Spanish class,” principal Jennifer Raes said. “… We were really searching for teachers that could come here and teach in any subject, just a regular teacher, but also has the skills of teaching in Spanish and English.”
Marisol Guerra, a Honduras native, came to the U.S. in 2010 to help start St. Anthony’s program. Guerra manage to come to the U.S. as part of that year’s Spain exchange program cohort.
More than a decade later, the school offers classes in English and an immersive track where 85% of the students’ day is spent learning in Spanish. While families were hesitant in the beginning to take part in the immersion program, there is now a waitlist of almost a dozen families.
“There was uncertainty, (but) they wanted their children to learn a second language,” Guerra said, “and they wanted without knowing, I think, they also were exposing them to other cultures and opening their minds to other things.”
The over the years, St. Anthony’s has employed teachers who moved to America from Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries.
The over representation of teachers from Spain likely is due to other countries not offering similar exchange programs, said Bulthuis, a member of the Iowa World Language Association.
It took several years for the veteran teacher — who came to Iowa in 2005 — to become credentialed to teach in the U.S. because she was not part of an exchange program.
“I think that world language teachers can be difficult to recruit because the pool of candidates is relatively small, so teachers need a strong language proficiency, cultural knowledge and all the teaching certifications,” said Bulthuis, who left Ecuador in 2003 because of the country’s financial crisis, “(but) many people who speak another language also have opportunity in other careers.”
Bulthuis does not recommend loosening the criteria to teach in Iowa but suggests improving or streamlining the process for an international teacher to obtain a state teaching license.
“… Not every Spanish speaking country is going to have (an exchange) program like that in place to help their community,” Bulthuis said,
Cultural exchange
Educators say employing international teachers goes beyond language skills.
“International educators can bring tremendous cultural and linguistic expertise to the classroom, which is an incredible skill and very valuable for students,” Bulthuis said.
That cultural exchange can carry over into a school’s lesson plans.
Zuazu Hernández often lets his American students’ interests drive what he teaches them about Spanish culture. These questions have ranged from wanting more insight into bullfighting, the Spanish school system, stereotypes and politics.
“Sometimes, they are more interested in me as a person, or the things I can tell them about Spain than the actual Spanish language,” he said, “but they have that curiosity that I think all teachers, we have to take advantage of.”
While reading “¡Viva el toro!” by Lisa Ray Turner and Blaine Ray, a novel about bullfighting, Zuazu Hernández talked to students about his family’s love of the cultural spectacle and how it is losing popularity in Spain because of how the bulls are treated.
Zuazu Hernández is open about his perspective on the practice to his students.
“To me, bullfighting is not worth sustaining just because it’s a tradition — traditions are not always good or acceptable — but rather because it’s an art, and it expands the depth of human understanding of the most intense truths in life, with death as the scariest of all,” he told the Des Moines Register in an email.
His students appreciate his candidness and the chance to learn from teachers with different lived experiences.
“I like having different teachers because they have different experiences, and I think it adds to the overall class,” said Grace Heston, an 11th grader Dallas Center-Grimes High School. “When you’re learning about Spanish, you’re not just learning about a language, you’re learning about the culture associated with it.”
Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com.
Iowa wrestling’s Tom Brands discusses Big Ten Championships results
VIDEO: Iowa wrestling’s Tom Brands talks Big Ten Championships results
Iowa Athletics
The 330 wrestlers competing in Cleveland at the NCAA Championships are now set.
After the conference tournaments established the lion’s share of wrestlers, the NCAA announced the at-large bids on Tuesday, March 10, completing the rest of the field.
Brackets and seeds will be announced on March 10, but here’s a look at the contingents each state of Iowa program will be sending after the at-large bids were announced.
Iowa wrestling NCAA qualifiers
For the third year in a row, Iowa wrestling will be sending nine to the NCAA Championships. Victor Voinovich did not earn an at-large bid at 157 pounds after finishing ninth at the Big Ten Championships, one place outside of NCAA automatic qualification. He concludes his season with a 12-6 record.
Voinovich narrowly earned the starting job over Jordan Williams at 157, with Iowa coach Tom Brands saying it was very close, but Voinovich had shown a little more “fight” this year. Now that Voinovich hasn’t qualified for NCAAs, it’s a decision that will go further under the microscope.
What’s done is done, however, for Iowa. They’ll take Dean Peterson (125), Drake Ayala (133), Nasir Bailey (141), Ryder Block (149), Michael Caliendo (165), Patrick Kennedy (174), Angelo Ferrari (184), Gabe Arnold (197) and Ben Kueter (285) to Cleveland in hopes of salvaging what has been a tough season.
Iowa State wrestling NCAA qualifiers
For the first time since 2010, Iowa State will send all 10 wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Vinny Zerban earned an at-large bid at 157 pounds despite falling short of the automatic qualifying threshold at the Big 12 Championships. Zerban suffered a concussion and medically forfeited out of the tournament after his first match in Tulsa. His health status will be worth monitoring NCAAs inch closer, from March 19-22.
The Cyclones look poised for one of their best postseasons in recent memory with their 10 qualifiers ―Stevo Poulin (125), Garrett Grice (133), Anthony Echemendia (141), Jacob Frost (149), Zerban, Connor Euton (165), MJ Gaitan (174), Isaac Dean (184), Rocky Elam (197) and Yonger Bastida (285). The loss of Evan Frost hurts the Cyclones, considering his pedigree and season as a whole, but Grice’s has earned several ranked wins since entering the lineup in February and could still add some much-needed team points as the team chases a team trophy.
Behind title contenders Elam and Bastida, proven podium threats in Poulin, Echemnedia, Jacob Frost and Zerban (if healthy), Iowa State will be in the mix for a top-four finish in Cleveland.
UNI wrestling NCAA qualifiers
Northern Iowa will send five to the NCAA Championships. Automatic qualifiers Julian Farber (133), Caleb Rathjen (149) and Ryder Downey (165) will be joined by Jared Simma (174) and Nick Fox (184), who each earned at-large bids. The number of qualifiers could extend to six, with Trever Anderson (125) being the alternate at 125 pounds for NCAAs. However, he had to medically forfeit out of the Big 12 Championships, so his health status would be in question if he got called up.
With that, Max Brady (141), Cael Rahnavardi (157), John Gunderson (197) and Adam Ahrendsen (285) will have their seasons come to an end. Brady, a true freshman, will still have three NCAA chances in his career after showing promising moments in relief of Cory Land’s season-ending injury. Gunderson, a U23 World team member, will return for next season as well. Rahnavardi and Ahrendsen were both in their final seasons of eligibility.
Following injuries to Land and Wyatt Voelker, it’s been a hard year for the Panthers. This is half the number of NCAA qualifiers that UNI had last season when they qualified 10 for the first time since 1986. The last time UNI had five or fewer qualifiers was 2016.
However, all five of their wrestlers have each shown moments of brilliance, either this season or in prior NCAA Championships. They may be a smaller crew than normal, but Downey, Rathjen, Farber, Simma and Fox are all ones to watch in Cleveland.
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.
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