By Jordan Hansen
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NEW YORK — Iowa did not score a single takedown in its three finals matches on March 19 in the NCAA Championships.

That was one of the first things Hawkeye head coach Tom Brands noted during his pres conference. It didn’t sit well with him.

The Hawkeyes, in fact, lost six of seven matches on the final day of completion, dropping them out of the team race completely. It was disappointing for the team and a sign there’s work to do before Iowa can compete with Penn State for a team title.

“It’s not a very good result,” Brands said. “It’s not going to propel you to what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Having won five of the last six titles, the Nittany Lions are slowly becoming what the Hawkeyes were under Dan Gable — a dynasty.

Now established as a wrestling superpower, Penn State is the perennial favorite — what Iowa was. Nittany Lion head coach Cael Sanderson referred to this during his press conference after the NCAA meet and seemed happy with where his program sits.

“We leave here ready to improve, and build, and get some freshmen to the next level,” he said. “We’re happy we won, but we’re excited about the future also.”

The problem for the Hawkeyes’ coaching staff, however, is that Penn State returns four All-Americans, and with its incredible future recruiting classes, seems set to win again and again.

Iowa regressed this year, only scoring 81 team points and finishing fifth. A season ago, the Hawkeyes finished second with 84 points. However, that isn’t the best barometer of what happened during the tournament.

Tied for the tournament lead with Penn State for most All-Americans (six) Iowa had three second-place finishes, one fourth-place finish, and two eighth-place finishes. Thomas Gilman (125), Cory Clark (133), and Brandon Sorensen (149)all were runners-up, and 197-pounder Nathan Burak finished fourth.

Alex Meyer (174) and Sammy Brooks (184) finished eighth for Iowa.

The thing was, Penn State simply wrestled better, grabbing two titles, three runner-up finishes, and a sixth-place finish. Even more damning, Penn State had 16 bonus-point victories, including five technical falls and five pins.

“We are … a long ways [from Penn State], and that doesn’t mean this guy is giving up, but when you look at how they wrestle,” Brands said. “When you look at the points they score — and I’m not only talking about match points — I’m talking about bonus points, team points, how they add up.

“It’s not light years, but we have to do some things to close the gap.”

Simply put, Iowa has to score more points, and to start, the team might want to look at what Gilman did this season.

Scoring bonus points in 25 matches this season, he tallied extras in every match at the NCAA Tournament outside of his finals loss to Penn State’s Nico Megaludis.

Last year, he had just 20 and only one in the NCAA Championships. Still, he finished fourth and vowed to be more aggressive. He did and it ended up with him in the national finals.

Even so, there’s no satisfaction from anything other than first place. The thing is, Penn State occupies most of those spots.

“I have to get better right now as an individual and as a wrestler,” Gilman said. “I just take every opportunity on the mat to get better and learn.”

Iowa returns five All-American’s next year, and three will be returning NCAA finalists.

Going 0-for-3 in those finals matches will be something on the Hawkeyes’ minds. The question, however, is what they’ll do about it.

“I don’t think your disappointment grows because of a train-wreck-type thing, which the finals could probably be described a little bit as a train wreck,” Brands said. “I think our fans expect more. We expect more, and those guys expect more.”