By J.R. Ogden, Special to W.I.N. 

Brent Metcalf walked off the mat after winning the 149-pound NCAA title looking a bit disappointed.

It wasn’t an act.

            “That’s real Metcalf,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said.

            The “real” Metcalf is also a lot like the “real” Brands. And that’s not by mistake.

            A sophomore from Davison, Mich., Metcalf has become the face of the Hawkeye wrestling team, which captured its first NCAA team title since 2000 and 21st overall, March 22, in St. Louis, Mo., where the Hawkeyes outscored second-place Ohio State by a 117.5-79 point margin.

            The face of the current Hawkeyes looks an awful lot like those great Hawkeyes of past, one of whom is the current Iowa coach: three-time Iowa NCAA champion and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Tom Brands.

            “I think our philosophies are similar,” Brands said after Metcalf won his first national title in his NCAA debut at 149 pounds. “I know that he thinks he can beat anybody and I know that he knows I think he can win any time, anywhere.

            “That’s a good mentality to have.”

            If the Hawkeyes truly are back on top in the college wrestling world, Metcalf is one — if not the No. 1 — of the reasons why.

            A four-time Michigan state champion who won all 228 of his high school matches, Metcalf has that steely focus and singular determination that made Iowa a national power three decades ago.

            He won 39 of 40 matches in his first varsity season, including the last 32 in a row. He was named Outstanding Wrestler at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships.

            Not bad for a guy who had never officially wrestled in college.

            Metcalf — like teammates Joe Slaton, Dan LeClere, Jay Borschel and T.H. Leet — started his career at Virginia Tech when Brands was leading the Hokie program. When Brands left Tech to return to Iowa City in 2006, the five followed. But Tech did not let them out of their scholarships and all four had to sit a year under NCAA transfer rules.

            Metcalf said the wait was worth it.

            “I’ve made amazing strides from where I was a year ago,” he said. “It’s paid off.”

            Metcalf said he wasn’t thrilled with this 14-8 title match win over Penn State’s Bubba Jenkins because he made too many mistakes, missed too many opportunities.

            In other words, he didn’t dominate enough.

            “Happy with the win, not so much with the performance,” he said.

            Jenkins scored two early takedowns and led 4-1. Both came on the edge of the mat on shots initiated by Metcalf.

            “The philosophy of Brent Metcalf and the philosophy of Iowa wrestling is to wrestle on that edge and that’s where I failed,” he said. “It’s not how you want to wrestle. It’s not how I want to wrestle.”

            Metcalf came back in the second period with two big takedowns, one in which he put Jenkins on his back for a three-point nearfall.

            “That was definitely a big takedown,” he said. “It put the match just out of reach … which turned him into all-or-nothing mode.”

            Metcalf was asked why, after capturing a national title, he didn’t even crack a smile.

            He had just reached the pinnacle of folkstyle wrestling in this country and it looked like any win in any dual meet.

            “I may be kind of a stingy wrestler,” he said, never cracking a smile.

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