WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2025
March is Championship Season! Many States have concluded their final tournaments of the season where new individual and team champions have been crowned – what an exciting time to be a wrestler and wrestling fan!
Congratulations to everyone who has qualified for, placed in, or has won a title for the first time – it’s a huge accomplishment, and something to build from. To those of you that found success again – BOOM! What an explanation point to a remarkable wrestling career!
Now it’s time for our HAWKS to embark on that same postseason journey. It all starts on Saturday, March 8th in Evanston, IL at the B1G Championships – hosted by Northwestern University (Get Tickets).
CLUB UPDATE
Spencer Lee (#2) won the UWW Rankings Series Tournament in Zagreb, Croatia last month, beating Roman Bravo Young (MEX) in the semifinals and Bazarganov Islam (AZE) in the finals. With that tournament win, Spencer now has 43,000 Ranking Points, tying him with Rei Higuchi for the #1 spot. Ranking Points help inform seeding at international tournaments, including other Rankings Series Tournaments, Pan Ams, and the UWW World Championships in September.
Lee and fellow Clubman Austin DeSanto just competed at the FloWrestling Night in America event on Wednesday, February 26 at the Xtream Arena. Spencer lost in a tight match (3-2) to World Champion, Masanosuke Ono from Japan and Austin fell to familiar foe, Seth Gross (10-0). Thank you to everyone who attended in person and those of you that watched from home. To re-watch their matches go to flowrestling.org.
Up next is the U.S. Open in Las Vegas, NV on April 25-27. Typically we send a large contingency of Clubman and University athletes to this event every year. Spencer Lee, however, has already qualified for Final X on June 14 in Newark, NJ because of his 2024 Olympic silver medal performance. Spencer will face the 57kg US Open Champion in a best-of-three series for the 2025 World Team spot.
DeSanto (61kg) will need to compete at and win the US Open to earn a spot at Final X, to face the 2024 61kg World Bronze Medalist, Vito Arujau in a best-of-three series.
HAPPENING NOW
The NCAA Wrestling Committee has announced the allocation spots for the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships and the B1G has 87 automatic qualifiers. You can see the weight-by-weight allocations here and the B1G Seeds Predictions here!
Our #2 ranked Hawkeyes have 9 athletes ranked nationally, and 7 in the top 7 competing this weekend. Hopefully you’re able to make the trip to Northwestern – we love seeing black-and-gold filled bleachers in enemy territory! Our HWC Social will be between sessions on Saturday at Bat 17. If you’re not making the drive east, we encourage you to watch every match this weekend on the Big Ten Network and BTN+.
Our Post-Season Lineup
125 – #14 Joey Cruz
133 – #1 Drake Ayala
141 – Cullan Schriever
149 – #3 Kyle Parco
157 – #2 Jacori Teemer
165 – #2 Michael Caliendo
174 – #7 Patrick Kennedy
184 – #7 Gabe Arnold
197 – #1 Stephen Buchanan
HWT – #11 Ben Kueter
UPCOMING EVENTS
Help us celebrate our Clubman at our Annual Banquet Saturday, May 3, 2025 at the Hotel at Kirkwood Center in southeast Cedar Rapids. Registration is Now Open! This event is fun, casual, and open to any and all wrestling fans! Attendees will enjoy dinner, live and silent auctions, the 2024-25 highlight video, talks from our staff and athletes!
And like we mentioned before, if you’re coming to Chicago this weekend for B1G’s please join us between sessions on Saturday at Bat 17, just an eight minute drive, south of Welsh-Ryan Arena!
Pre-Match Social | Saturday, March 8 — Bat 17 — More Info
Annual Banquet | Saturday, May 3 — Hotel at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids — Open Now!
Riverside Golf Outing | Monday, June 23 — Blue Top Ridge Golf Course — Open Now!
Inner Circle Tailgate Party | September 2025 — Goschke Family Training Center — Coming Soon
Sporting Clay Shoot | Saturday, October 11 — Highland Hideaway Hunting — Open Now!
MERCHANDISE
HWC Inner Circle Members get access to exclusive merchandise all season long and we will be dropping another few items prior to B1G and the NCAA tournaments – so stay tuned! To find store details, look back through your email and search “New Inner Circle Merchandise!” to find our store password and promo codes! And then, start shopping!
Not an Inner Circle Member? Shop our General Store or Join the Inner Circle today!
Thank you again for supporting our team, showing up day-in-and-day-out, and being a loyal fan of Hawkeye Nation! GO HAWKS!
Chad Beatty
Executive Director
HAWKEYE WRESTLING CLUB
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