By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

On paper, Iowa is picked to win the 2008 NCAA Div. I championship. Based on the W.I.N. Tournament Power Index — located on page 10 of this issue — which accumulates the potential NCAA points that go with an individual’s ranking, the Hawkeyes are picked to beat Minnesota and Michigan by nearly 15 points.

But there is another paper — which illustrated the brackets of the past three NCAA tournaments — that suggests that Hawkeyes may not be ready to supplant the Gophers and Wolverines or much less the Nebraska Cornhuskers or the Iowa State Cyclones, which also make up W.I.N.’s top five tournament teams.

Of the nine wrestlers traveling to St. Louis for Iowa, only Charlie Falck (125), Ryan Morningstar (157), Mark Perry (165), Phil Keddy (184) and heavyweight Matt Fields have participated in previous NCAA tournaments and last year they accounted for a 12-8 record; highlighted by Perry’s 5-0 march toward a national championship.

The three-time All-American — who has compiled a 14-2 career mark at the NCAAs where he also collected a runner-up (2005) and third-place (2006) finish on his post-season resume — has the most NCAA experience by far for the Hawkeyes.

His coach, Tom Brands, certainly doesn’t worry about his senior from Stillwater, Okla., who’s had to overcome a knee injury this season that kept him out of the line-up for nearly six weeks.

“Anybody who knows Mark Perry knows that this is the Mark Perry time of year,” Brands said. “He’s ready and he’s Mark Perry at his best right now.”

But how do these Hawkeyes — who also have four first-year wrestlers in sophomores Joey Slaton (133), Dan LeClere (141), Brent Metcalf (149) and Jay Borschel (174) competing in their first NCAAs — compare to the other highly-rated teams?

Minnesota, by far, has the most NCAA experience with five seniors — Mack Reiter (133), Manuel Rivera (141), C.P. Schlatter (157), Gabe Dretsch (174) and Roger Kish (184) — one junior — Dustin Schlatter (149 — one sophomore — Jayson Ness (125) — among their nine wrestlers competing in St. Louis. Together they compiled a 27-15 record in last year’s tournament, won by the Gophers and have collected multiple All-American honors by Reiter, both Schlatters — including a national championship by Dustin in 2006 — and Kish.

Of the six men Michigan sent to the Gateway City, four — Josh Churella (149), Eric Tannenbaum (165), Steve Luke (174) and Tyrel Todd (184) — earned All-American honors and produced an 18-7 mark for the Wolverines who placed sixth as a team.

Iowa State, which finished just 9.5 points behind Minnesota in last year’s team race, has six sophomore returning to the NCAAs again: Nick Fanthorpe (133), Nick Gallick (141), Mitch Mueller (149), Cyler Sanderson (157), Jake Varner (184) and heavyweight David Zabriskie. Together, they were 16-11 in Auburn Hills last March, but only Varner’s second-place finish merited an All-American honor for ISU’s returning wrestlers.

Nebraska has four NCAA-veteran wrestlers in Paul Donahoe (125), Jordan Burroughs (149), Stephen Dwyer (165) and Craig Brester (197) among their eight combatants this year. Last year, this quartet finished 9-6, but only Donahoe, who won his first NCAA championship in Auburn Hills, can be called an All-American.

Even Central Michigan, with six — Luke Smith (125), Conor Beebe (133), Brandon Sinnott (174), Christian Sinnott (184), Wynn Michalak (197) and Bubba Gritter (heavyweight) — of its nine wrestlers compiling a 15-12 mark together last year, have more experience than the Hawkeyes.

Does this lack of experience worry Iowa’s second-year coach?

“That’s not something I buy into,” Brands said. “These guys have been competing in post-season wrestling their entire careers. That’s how you get to this level by competing in state championships and Junior Nationals.”

“I know I’ve already faced such pressure, whether it was last year when I entered tournaments in freestyle or when I competed in Fargo,” said Metcalf, who won six Junior National championships over three summers in North Dakota before moving onto college. After transferring from Virginia Tech a year ago, Metcalf was ineligible to compete for the Hawkeyes and spent much of the season competing in freestyle, including last summer’s World Team Trials in Las Vegas.

Brands believes his Hawkeyes have already faced NCAA-like competition.

“It’s like going to Ames, Iowa, before 9,000 fans or going to the National Duals for the first time,” said Brands, whose team defeated Iowa State in a dual meet in December before adding the NWCA Nationals Duals title in January.

“You were born and raised to compete at a high level. This is what drives you. This is what you live for. You have guys believing in themselves and they can get out what they are going to get out of it.”
But Brands, once a three-time NCAA champion for the Hawkeyes, is a realist when it comes to the NCAAs.

“There are no automatics and some top guys lose,” he said, but added that other wrestlers should be ready to pick up the slack. “There are other guys who are ranked lower, who can rise to the occasion and shock the world.

“Is this about wrestling above your seeds and wrestling for bonus points? Yes, it is. Things haven’t just fallen in place for us this year. We made them fall in place.”

The Hawkeyes proved that at the Big Ten tournament, where they trailed the host team Gophers after the semifinal round but rallied to beat Minnesota in the team race.

“We have a group of guys who love to compete and this is the best time of the year to love to compete,” Brands said.

Time will tell in St. Louis which team’s post-season passion will be the highest.