BY JENNIFER JACOBS – desmoinesregister.com

No one stopped 17-year-old Jerod Botts of Waverly from climbing into the cage for a mixed martial arts fight even though he was underage, didn’t have a parent’s permission and had never fought before. An experienced fighter beat him badly, leaving him with a broken nose, a cracked eye socket and vision damage.

When 20-year-old Zach Kirk of Shenandoah was paralyzed from the neck down in an amateur fight, the promoter who staged the event didn’t offer to pay medical expenses — and wasn’t required by law to do so.

The fist-pumping adrenaline rush and freewheeling style of combat draws young fighters despite the danger. The intoxicating swirl of bloody spectacle, thumping music and alcohol attracts crowds to bars and concert halls across Iowa.

Industry insiders, in interviews with The Des Moines Register, said they love the sport, but they believe certain practices in Iowa’s amateur fight scene lead to exploitation and injuries and need to be cleaned up.

Iowa is one of 15 states with no regulation of amateur mixed martial arts fights. Amateur fighting is illegal in six states. Other states have either regulation by state officials or oversight by a third-party sanctioning body.  Read more... (1337 words, estimated 5:21 mins reading time)

Craig Sesker USA Wrestling

Iowa’s Brent Metcalf shoots in on North Carolina State’s Darrion Caldwell during the 2009 NCAA finals in St. Louis. Photo by Larry Slater.

IOWA CITY – Brent Metcalf took the college wrestling world by storm during the 2007-08 season.

Metcalf’s first season as an Iowa Hawkeye was a memorable one as he won his first NCAA title, led Iowa to the national team title and won the Hodge Trophy as the best college wrestler in the country.

He came back strong again last season, extending his winning streak to 69 matches before he was upset by North Carolina State’s Darrion Caldwell in the 2009 NCAA finals. Metcalf helped the Hawkeyes edge Ohio State for the team title last March. Iowa won the title without crowning an individual champion.

Metcalf jumped right into freestyle competition after the NCAAs and placed second at the 2009 U.S. Nationals. He fell short of placing at the U.S. World Team Trials.

He just started his senior season as the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 149 pounds for the No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes.  Read more... (1333 words, estimated 5:20 mins reading time)

Andy Hamilton • Iowa City Press-Citizen

The top-ranked Iowa wrestling team did enough Friday to beat up on two more opponents and set another school record for dual dominance.

But the Hawkeyes didn’t do enough to appease coach Tom Brands during wins against Bucknell and Rutgers in Lewisburg, Pa.

“There is seven minutes to wrestle and much, much more has to happen in those seven minutes,” Brands said. “I’m not sure we understand that right now. We could understand it, but then what’s the hesitancy? That’s the disconnect. We’ve got to figure it out. There’s got to be more happening in seven minutes.”

The Hawkeyes (7-0) won 16 matches while beating Bucknell 29-7 and handling Rutgers 33-9 to extend their school record of consecutive dual wins to 45 and match the program record for most wins on the road with 31.

Freshman Matt McDonough registered a pin and a technical fall in a pair of victories at 125, Daniel Dennis posted a technical fall and a major decision at 133 against No. 13 David Marble of Bucknell, and Jay Borschel notched two majors at 174, including a 10-1 demolition of Bucknell’s ninth-ranked Shane Riccio.  Read more... (525 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

By KATHIE OBRADOVICH • kobradov@dmreg.com

Republican Jim Gibbons of Des Moines, a former Iowa State University wrestling coach, will run for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District.

The winner of the GOP primary will take on incumbent Democrat Leonard Boswell.

Gibbons, 50, said Thursday that he is leaving his job at Wells Fargo Advisors to pursue a full-time campaign. “I think anything that you do successfully, you can’t do that with one foot in and one foot out,” he said.

He said he began thinking seriously about running when he got a call from an old friend, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a two-time NCAA wrestling champion from the University of Wisconsin.

“He called me up in the middle of the summer and he asked, ‘Jim have you ever considered running for Congress?’ And I said, ‘Every day.’ ”

Iowa has had a few wrestlers in top-level political positions, including former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa City, and former Iowa House Speaker Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs. Republicans have tried, unsuccessfully so far, to recruit former Hawkeye wrestling coach Dan Gable to run for office.  Read more... (408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

by SEAN KEELER

State College, Pa. — The wrestling room is bigger than a VFW hall, the mats wide as a country mile. Four high-definition televisions hang on the walls, each one placed strategically a few feet apart from the next.

“It’s a nice room,” Cael Sanderson says. “But obviously a room’s not going to win for you.”

He smiles. Penn State’s Lorenzo Wrestling Complex opened in 2006 to the tune of $4 million. Tucked neatly into the west side of campus, it’s more a penthouse than a palace, but every corner sparkles.
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“I think it was just a lot of bad information that was out there as to why I made the decision,” Sanderson said of the stunning coup that brought the former Iowa State wrestling coach here from Ames five months ago. “But really, that wasn’t the reason that I took the job. I was just looking at a long-term opportunity here.”

At the most recent NCAA wrestling championships, a dozen Pennsylvania natives were named to the All-American team; two were natives of Iowa. Steve Sanderson, Cael’s father, told The (Penn State) Daily Collegian last spring that his son had discussed a move to State College for at least a year, if the job ever came open.  Read more... (634 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

For most high school athletes, particularly those competing in fall sports, what looms ahead mostly is a diversion at this stage of the school year.

What Matt Lackey and Wes Hand are offering high school and upper-level middle-school wrestlers at Bettendorf’s wrestling room, however, is anything but a diversion.

With five all-American awards between them – Lackey a national champion from Moline and Illinois, and Hand at Iowa – the pair has so much wrestling street cred that they can command a great deal of attention.

And they are, every Sunday evening, at Bettendorf’s wrestling room from 5:30 to 7 p.m. offering clinics. There is no cost for the clinics, and the Q-C residents, Lackey and Hand, like it that way.

“As long as I have two cents to throw in and somebody to listen, I’ll do it,” said Lackey, who like Hand, doesn’t have future coaching aspirations. “I’m always going to be a part of wrestling. I’ll always be a coach. Obviously, Wes and I are not affiliated with anybody, so we’re able to teach and help kids out when coaching staffs can’t.”  Read more... (334 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Andy Hamilton – Iowa City Press-Citizen

Danny Song wasn’t certain what he was getting into three years ago when his search for a place to continue his wrestling career led him from New York to Iowa.

He had just finished his senior season at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy where he became a Division III All-American under coach Tim Alger, a former Hawkeye.

A phone call from Alger to Iowa coach Tom Brands helped get Song’s foot in the door of the Dan Gable Wrestling Complex in 2006. Ultimately, it helped Brands find the newest member of his coaching staff.

Brands said Monday that Song will be the strength and conditioning coach for the Hawkeyes. The 25-year-old replaces Jared Frayer, who left Iowa after one season for an assistant position at Wisconsin.

“I consider myself a product of this program,” Song said. “I feel like the philosophy, the lifestyle, the culture, it’s what I was looking for, even not knowing it. But getting out here and getting a feel for it, it’s exactly where I want to be.”  Read more... (387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

More than two years after their last matches at Iowa State, twins Trent and Travis Paulson remain inseparable.

They live together, they train together and now they’re back at ISU together to continue their quest to become world and Olympic freestyle wrestling champions.

“We’ve always wanted to stay together, just because we feed off each other. We always have,” Travis said Tuesday. “We know what we’re capable of and we push each other to the limit.”

Their return figures to be a two-way deal in the Cyclone wrestling room.

The Paulsons say they’ll benefit from training under Iowa State Coach Kevin Jackson, an Olympic gold medalist and former national team coach. Jackson’s ISU wrestlers will benefit from having the Paulsons as workout partners.

“Our mentality is we want to work harder in practice than we do in a match,” Jackson said. “A match should be easier than practice, so with these guys in our room, it kind of plays into that. We’re actually wrestling at a higher level than we’ll face in competition. There are no collegians as good as these guys right now.”  Read more... (614 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

AMES, Iowa – For Iowa State’s current 141-pound wrestling standout, a former Cyclone 141-pound NCAA champion is in his corner all the way this season. Luckily for Nick Gallick, it’s his workout partner, coach and older brother, Nate Gallick.

The Gallick brothers don’t have a sibling rivalry. Nate and Nick Gallick’s relationship could be more closely described as a partnership. Their brotherly arrangement exists in the realms of both collegiate and freestyle wrestling. They want to be the best and sometimes the road to being on top is a hard path to take.

Brothers are sometimes the most hard on each other, but for the Gallick brothers; that is part of their goal.

“Having Nate back in the room with me on a daily basis will be good,” Nick Gallick said. “That is going to help me. I’m really excited he is back.”

Nick Gallick has shadowed his older brother’s career closely in his time in a Cyclone singlet. The younger Gallick is a two-time All-American heading into his senior season, like his older brother. Nate Gallick finished his senior season as the 2006 NCAA 141-pound champion and is now a volunteer coach on ISU’s wrestling coaching staff.  Read more... (952 words, 1 image, estimated 3:48 mins reading time)

Andy Hamilton • Iowa City Press-Citizen

Nick Moore joked in May that he might hold off on making a commitment until next spring just to throw off all of the people who expected an announcement this summer that he was headed to Iowa.

As it turned out, the three-time state champion from West High might have thrown himself for a loop.

“I wanted to stay open-minded and not get set on Iowa,” Moore said. “But in the end, it would’ve hurt a bit not to go to Iowa.”

So Moore committed to the Hawkeyes on Sunday night, ending a short recruiting process that also included Old Dominion and Edinboro — perhaps the only two schools that thought it wasn’t a lost cause to pursue a wrestler who has a brother and three other high school teammates either at Iowa or on their way.

“Even if it’s just your siblings there, it’s tough to turn away from that school,” Moore said. “But I live in Iowa City, too, so they probably didn’t want to waste their time.”  Read more... (568 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)