ISU transfer back in business at Iowa<\/p>\n
By Andy Hamilton “\u00a2 Iowa City Press-Citizen “\u00a2 July 3, 2009<\/p>\n
Rankings apparently came into play when Tyler Clark<\/span><\/a> made his decision to leave Iowa State and transfer to Iowa.<\/p>\n The two-time NCAA qualifier was listing some of the factors Thursday that led to his departure from the Cyclones when the business major mentioned the University of Iowa’s Tippie Business School, which recently ranked 44th nationally by U.S. News. Iowa State was unranked.<\/p>\n Of course, Iowa’s No. 1 wrestling program factored into the equation too.<\/p>\n “Right now,”\u009d Clark said, “this is the place to be.”\u009d<\/p>\n Clark, a 125-pounder, feels so strongly Iowa is the place for him that he’s sacrificing a scholarship check and an opportunity to compete next year to join the Hawkeyes.<\/p>\n Clark said Iowa State granted him a conditional release after coach Cael Sanderson<\/span><\/a> left the Cyclones for Penn State and Kevin Jackson took over in Ames. Clark was restricted from transferring to Iowa penalty-free. Thus, he can’t have contact with Tom Brands<\/span><\/a> or the Iowa coaches until his first day of classes in the fall, he’ll have to pay his way through school next year without scholarship assistance and he won’t be eligible to compete for the Hawkeyes next season.<\/p>\n Clark’s situation is similar to what four current Hawkeyes went through in 2006. Seniors Brent Metcalf<\/span><\/a>, Jay Borschel<\/span><\/a>, Dan LeClere<\/span><\/a> and Joe Slaton, along with graduated senior T.H. Leet, left Virginia Tech after their first year at the school to attend Iowa and follow Brands, who had been named the head coach of the Hawkeyes that April.<\/p>\n Clark, however, didn’t use his redshirt at Iowa State so he won’t lose a year of eligibility next season and has two years left to compete.<\/p>\n “I would like to wrestle,”\u009d Clark said. “I’m on track as it is to graduate in four years. I’ve kept up on my schooling, so it would’ve been nice to graduate and have wrestling done in four years and focus on getting my master’s. But it might be a blessing in disguise. This could be a big improvement year for me. Not having that redshirt coming straight out of high school, I gained a lot of experience and I really didn’t have a chance to focus on my weak areas. This might be a time I can do that.”\u009d<\/p>\n Clark said a year of strictly training will give him an opportunity to hone his basic skills and get back to wrestling with an attacking style.<\/p>\n “I was like that in high school, and I kind of drifted away from that,”\u009d he said. “I’d like to get back to the way I was ” always attacking, always being the aggressor.”\u009d<\/p>\n Clark picked Iowa State over Iowa during his senior year at Bettendorf. He said he was drawn to Ames by the recruiting pitch and plan that Iowa State assistant Cody Sanderson offered and envisioned himself going into engineering at the time.<\/p>\n