Four former University of Iowa wrestlers will continue their competitive careers as members of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club in Iowa City, Iowa. Graduating seniors Thomas Gilman, Cory Clark, Alex Meyer, and Sammy Brooks have all accepted positions within the club.
Last month, we talked about three-time All-American, Thomas Gilman joining the club after Tom Brands appeared on an episode of Takedown Radio confirming Gilman’s desire to wrestle freestyle on the senior level. After taking three years off from competing in freestyle, Gilman will look to continue the success he saw early in his Iowa career, when he made two Junior World Teams at 55 kg back in 2013 and 2014. Brands also confirmed that Gilman intends to compete at Rochester, Minnesota’s Northern Plains tournament, which serves as the last chance qualifier for the Senior Men’s Freestyle World Team Trials.
After winning a NCAA title in March at 133 pounds, Clark has already guaranteed himself a spot at the Trials, but after details of the injuries he battled all season came public, it is expected that Clark will miss this year’s competition while he gets his body back to full health. Clark is expected to compete at 61 kg, where USA Wrestling ranked him in the top ten earlier this winter. Clark has also been absent from both international styles since his early years at Iowa, though he was a Junior national champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman his senior year at 126 pounds.
Meyer comes in currently listed as an 86 kg wrestler, but with the UWW announcement earlier this year that Men’s freestyle will expand from eight to ten weight classes, Meyer is a potential candidate for a weight between the current 74 and 86 kg classes. For evidence look no further than his UWW University Nationals results where he picked up a third place finish in 2015 and first place finish in 2016 at 80 kg.
Like Gilman, Brooks enters the HWC with World level experience, earning a bronze medal at the 2011 Cadet World Championships, and he was eighth in the World on the same 2013 Junior team that Gilman competed on. After a fifth place finish at the UWW University National tournament in 2015, Brooks reached the best of three finals last summer, falling 0-2 to Penn State’s Morgan McIntosh. Brooks is currently listed as at 86 kg.
Listen to Hager and Ross break down Gilman’s potential impact on the 57 kg field on the latest episode of Potentially Dangerous:
[…] Instead, Perry’s main goal will be the development of the HWC wrestlers – which include four of the five starting seniors from the 2017 squad, Olympian Dan Dennis, and former NCAA champion Matt […]