Wrestling Mailbag: It's ISU-UNI week! Plus, final thoughts on girls state and Iowa wrestling

Last week was pretty busy, obviously, with all the great high school wrestling taking place, between the girls state wrestling championships and the boys state duals championships. Naturally, that means all the college wrestling took a backseat while the high-schoolers took center stage.

So I spent Sunday and Monday re-watching all the Division I duals from the last week — Iowa's three teams went undefeated, in case you missed it — and to open today's Mailbag, here's some quick thoughts/observations on each of those five results:

Iowa 18, Minnesota 13: The Hawkeyes didn't wrestle Nelson Brands, Abe Assad, or Tony Cassioppi last Friday, but took the first six matches to beat the Gophers for the ninth time in a row. Brody Teske came up clutch at 133, Cobe Siebrecht beat a past All-American, and Aiden Riggins competed really well against Bailee O'Reilly, a two-time NCAA qualifier, up at 174. I have more thoughts, obviously, but all things considered, a good win for Iowa.

Northern Iowa 44, California Baptist 0: Panthers racked up four pins, including three in a row from 133-149, to become the third in-state program to beat Cal-Baptist this season, but the only one to blank them — Iowa State beat the Lancers 39-9, then the Hawkeyes beat them 42-3.

Iowa State 20, West Virginia 13: Cyclones fell into a 10-0 hole after losing the first three matches, but stormed back to win by winning six of the remaining seven, sparked by Paniro Johnson's 14-4 major over Sam Hillegas at 149 pounds. David Carr registered an 8-2 win over Peyton Hall, a returning All-American, and Yonger Bastida added another major decision at 197 and the Cyclones mostly rolled after the slow start.

Iowa State 16, Pittsburgh 15: An excellent, excellent dual, which went to the third tie-breaking criteria (total match points: Iowa State 51, Pittsburgh 44). That advantage came largely from Carr's 7-3 win over Holden Heller at 165 and Marcus Coleman's 10-5 win over Reece Heller at 184. Pitt took the first three matches, Iowa State took the next three to tie it at 9-9, then they alternated the last four matches, capped by Sam Schuyler's last-second takedown to beat Dayton Pitzer, 4-3, at heavyweight, which tied the dual and forced tiebreakers. Great wrestling.

Northern Iowa 20, West Virginia 12: Panthers won 6-of-10 matches, led by major decisions from Cael Happel and Parker Keckeisen. But the coolest part of this particular dual is that the Runyon brothers, Lance and Kalob, both wrestled, and won, in this dual. Lance won 8-1 at 174 and Kalob (who goes by Tank) won 9-2 at 197 in his dual debut for the Panthers. Quick research says the last time those guys were in the same dual lineup was 2019, when Southeast Polk beat Waverly-Shell Rock, 37-27, in the Class 3A state duals final.

*deep breath*

All caught up?

Good — because the action continues this week.

On Friday, Northern Iowa hosts Iowa State at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls and Iowa hosts Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. On Saturday, the boys high school individual postseason begins with districts, and that quickly leads into the state tournament, which begins next Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena.

Welcome to February, wrestling fans. Strap in for a fun ride if you haven't already.

OK, onto the Wrestling Mailbag. The was a grand total of 612 pins at the girls state wrestling championships last week out of 868 total bouts assigned. That's good for a 70.5% pin rate, which says that Iowa girls clearly understand wrestling's most basic assignment — which is to pin your opponent.

Please give me a follow on Twitter and I’ll keep you up to date on all things wrestling in Iowa. Don't forget to tune into the Register's wrestling podcast, In the Room, each week. You can find the latest episodes below.

Thanks for your help here, and for reading.

What's next for Iowa girls high school wrestling?

I think we'll see multiple classes before a larger venue, to answer your question, if only because the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union signed a multi-year contract with Xtream Arena, but if I'm being completely honest, I hope we don't see multiple classes for a while.

A single-class state tournament is fun because it allows teams like East Buchanan, with a 9-11 enrollment of 147, to compete with, and beat, teams like Southeast Polk, with a 9-11 enrollment of 1,801, the second-largest school in Iowa this year. You really get see all the best girls wrestle each other in the state tournament.

Like imagine a world where, on the boys side, Southeast Polk, Waverly-Shell Rock, Bettendorf, Fort Dodge, Ankeny, Waukee Northwest all clash with Osage, West Delaware, Don Bosco, Wilton, Alburnett, and others? That state tournament would be bonkers. Even qualifying for it would be a major accomplishment.

Anyways, the more important point here is that a single-class state tournament just doesn't make sense right now.

This girls wrestling movement has been bubbling for a while, from 188 girls wrestlers statewide in 2018-19 to 1,023 last year to 2,386 this year. Just because participation doubled from one year to the next and the first session of the state tournament sold out doesn't mean we should make reactionary decisions.

Girls wrestling is growing both in terms of participation numbers and in overall talent. Iowa girls are as good as they've ever been and only getting better, and more and more girls are giving wrestling a try. When something is this good, don't try to fix it. Keep a good thing going.

There will come a time when multiple classes makes sense. That time is not now, and I'm not sure it'll be anytime soon, either. Schools are still in the very early stages of building their programs. Some have a larger head start, like Waverly-Shell Rock and East Buchanan and others, but let's give everybody else a few more years and then see what this looks like.

A larger venue would be fun, but again, one sold-out session doesn't mean we should jump from Xtream Arena, a perfectly-sized space with a staff that cares deeply about competitions like this, whether it's the Dan Gable Donnybrook, the Solider Salute, the men's and women's freestyle World Cup, or the girls state tournament. Once we sell out every session for a few years in a row, then, and only then, should we even consider moving it.

The one thing I'd really like to see next is a girls state duals championships. That team-vs-team dynamic is huge when it comes to growing both the sport at all levels and overall fan engagement, especially at the sport's higher levels, and I think it could be a vital next step in the continued growth of Iowa high school girls wrestling.

But, again, I'm not sure that a girls state duals tournament would've made sense this year, just because it was the first year and we really didn't know what this whole thing would look like. Now that we're a year in, we can look back, see what worked, what didn't, and see if it makes sense to grow in these areas.

That we're having these conversations is a good sign. Doesn't mean we should act just yet, but it does mean we're headed in the right direction. Let's keep doing that and adjust as needed.

MORE:The 37 things we learned from the 2023 girls state wrestling championships

Are the Iowa Hawkeyes recruiting any of Iowa's top girls wrestlers?

Tanner is basically asking who the most impressive girls were at the state championships — at least that's how I'm reading it — and there were so many. Here's an incomplete list just off the top of my head:

The 3 freshmen champs: Raccoon River's Katie Biscoglia (100), Pleasant Valley's Abigail Meyrer (120), Southeast Polk's Skylar Slade (155), because like duh. Those three came in expecting to win and did so convincingly. The fourth freshman finalist, Vinton-Shellsburg's Chloe Sanders, shouldn't be forgotten here.

Prairie's Mackenzie Childers. Went 49-0 and won at 125. Along the way, she beat Lewis Central's Sophie Barnes in the semifinals (Barnes was the last girl to beat Childers, in the third-place match last season), and Wilton's Hannah Rogers, a returning state champ. Childers recorded four pins in five matches and outscored her opponents 34-4 along the way. She was the hot knife, and the rest of the 125-pound field was the butter.

The 3 repeat sophomore champs: Union's Jillian Worthen (105), Riverside's Molly Allen (115), Iowa Valley's Emma Peach (145). They've all jumped levels since winning last year, and it shouldn't be a coincidence that they were all huge parts of Team Iowa's 16U women's freestyle national championship-winning team this past summer. Allen, especially, showcased some wicked offensive versatility, scoring 51 points in five matches.

The top-four finishers at 120: Meyrer won the weight, but Moravia's Layla Ewing (second), Chariton's Leah Chandler (third), and North Scott's Khylie Wainwright (fourth) all won tough matches throughout the tournament. Honestly, this whole weight featured a ton of impressive wrestlers.

Charles City's Lilly Luft: How can you not be impressed by everything she's done throughout her entire career?

Waverly-Shell Rock's Kiara Djoumessi: How can you not love the energy and enthusiasm with which she wrestles? Four pins in five matches en route to first at 140 — including a pin in the semifinals to give the Go-Hawks the team lead on Friday morning, then a pin in the finals to outright clinch the team title.

Spencer's Olivia Huckfelt: Went 45-0 with 35 pins and 10 wins by forfeit. She's now 80-1 for her career, per stats that I found on Trackwrestling. Just unbelievably dominant.

Decorah's Naomi Simon: She joined Luft, as well as Bettendorf's Ella Schmit and Iowa Valley's Millie Peach, as a three-time state girls champ, and will have the chance to become Iowa's first female four-timer next year. She pinned through the state tournament as a freshman and has only gotten better every single year — like nationally-relevant better. She wants to be a Hawkeye, too. I imagine her and Clarissa Chun have already talked.

I could keep going. It's too early to tell which ones or how many of these Iowa girls will become Hawkeyes — or if any (other than Luft, who has already signed) become Hawkeyes at all. But one big takeaway from last week was that Iowa girls are getting better, quickly, and Chun will have a lot of in-state options to recruit if she so desires, and that's a really cool thing to think about.

From December:Iowa women's wrestling adds two more commits, second recruiting class takes shape

Will Iowa wrestle its best lineup against Michigan on Friday?

Odds seem low. Don't be mad at me for saying that, just reading the tea leaves here.

Iowa has wrestled the full A-Team lineup exactly one time this season, in a 34-6 win over Nebraska. At the beginning of the season, Spencer Lee, Brody Teske, Real Woods and Nelson Brands all missed time. In recent weeks, it's been Abe Assad, Jacob Warner and Brands again who have been in and out of the lineup.

Iowa coach Tom Brands has been outspoken about how weird this season has been from an injury perspective. He doesn't ever dive fully into those details, but we can use context clues to figure out who's dealt with things or is still dealing with things this season:

• Lee, obviously, missed time while fully preparing to come back from double knee surgery.

• Teske said he was in the hospital for a while earlier this year.

• Woods has had his hand taped and his leg wrapped at various points this year.

• Nelson Brands had his elbow taped in his first few matches.

• Warner has had his knee taped/wrapped since the Illinois dual.

• Why else would Assad, who traveled with the team to Minnesota last Friday, miss time?

So will we see the full A-Team against Michigan? I have my doubts, but I guess anything is possible.

But here's this too: Michigan hasn't wrestled their full A-Team in recent duals, either. Cam Amine, a two-time All-American at 165, has missed the last two duals since pinning Ohio State's Carson Kharchla. At 149, Chance Lamer hasn't wrestled since mid-January. At 141, Cole Mattin has also missed a couple of recent duals.

This was always going to be an interesting dual meet, but maybe it's even more interesting now just because we aren't 100% sure who will go and who won't. We'll learn more as the week goes, of course. But clearly bothj teams are dealing with stuff.

College wrestling is hard and the season is long. These things happen.

MORE:Down three starters, Iowa Hawkeye wrestlers muscle through an 18-13 win over Minnesota

Iowa Hawkeye wrestling at the 2023 NCAA Championships

I'm not sure that either of these things are likely to happen, but I guess the more likely option between them is Iowa not winning a trophy? I have a hard time believing Iowa will collapse like that, even with their current injury struggles. But I also don't think they'll just magically morph into the 1997 team and blitz the field.

These do-or-die prompts are hilarious to me. Barring something unforeseen, Iowa is pretty firmly a trophy team this year, you guys. They may not have the collective firepower to run down Penn State for first, but they have enough to enter March as the No. 2 team — at least on paper.

Whether they deliver on that expectation remains up to them. We'll do more math to give a more accurate picture for the national championships after the conference tournaments next month.

Early look at Iowa's title contenders in 2023-24

I'm reading this question as, "Who are Iowa's top title contenders next year?" And if I'm wrong, forgive me, but that's the prompt we're rolling with.

Let's start with, first, who's returning next year and who's expected to step into the starting lineup:

• 125: Drake Ayala

• 133: Brody Teske

• 141: Real Woods

• 149: Caleb Rathjen/Cody Chittum/Joel Jesuroga

• 157: Cobe Siebrecht/Cody Chittum/Aiden Riggins

• 165: Patrick Kennedy

• 174: Nelson Brands/Gabe Arnold/Aiden Riggins

• 184: Abe Assad

• 197: Kolby Franklin/Zach Glazier

• 285: Tony Cassioppi

At first glance, I like Drake Ayala, Real Woods, and Tony Cassioppi as Iowa's immediate title contenders in 2023-24.

Ayala, because he's shown he can compete with and beat some of the best guys at this weight, after he should be fully healthy and ready to roll from the word go next year. Also, six of the top-10 125-pounders in InterMat's rankings are seniors (not including Spencer), so that clears out a lot of space at the top.

Woods and Cassioppi, because they're already contenders this year and both still have one more year of eligibility, so it stands to reason that they'll be contenders again next year.

So you'd start there and then we'll see who else emerges or takes steps forward toward becoming potential contenders as next season unfolds. There's still plenty of this season left to go, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves here, but Iowa's in pretty good shape for the 2023-24 season — at least at a quick glance.

This week, I'm grateful for my mom, who sends me an encouraging text (usually a funny gif or a picture of a motivational quote) every Monday morning. Always look forward to those messages. They kickstart my weeks on, quite literally, a good note.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Mailbag: On UNI vs. Iowa State wrestling week, girls tournament, more