HAWK TALK

January 2015

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65 Burak pinned his first opponent and finished the tournament with a takedown in the final seconds to defeat No. 14 Timmy McCall, 4-3, in the finals. "When you win at Midlands," said Burak, "you get pumped up and you want to keep it rolling." And he did just that. Five days aer winning the Midlands title, he shed the redshirt and defeated seventh-ranked Kyle Snyder to give Iowa an 18-14 win in front of 6,558 screaming Ohio State fans. "It's great to wrestle in Carver," he said, "but it's also fun to wrestle in front of crowds like that. You can quiet a crowd on the road." Aer the first week of January, Iowa's four returning All- Americans are a combined 57-1. e only loss was a 7-4 hiccup by Clark at Ohio State. Evans and Telford are both 16-0, Telford with a team-high nine pins, and Burak is 10-0, including a 9-0 record competing unattached. Iowa's January schedule — like most monthly schedules past the first of the year — will test those records. e Hawkeye have road duals at Oklahoma State (Jan. 11) and Minnesota (Jan. 30), and host Illinois (Jan. 16) and Northwestern (Jan. 23) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its first national championship on Friday, Jan. 23, at 7 p.m. (CT) against Northwestern. Gary Kurdelmeier led Iowa to its first NCAA Championship in 1975, and in the 40 years since, the Hawkeyes have accumulated 23 team titles, more than any other school — Oklahoma State (seven), Penn State (four), Minnesota (three), Iowa State (two), and Arizona State (one). T he All-Americans did what they do, and Bobby Telford performed a first when the Hawkeyes stormed through the Midlands Championships from Dec. 29-30. Each of Iowa's four returning All-Americans — Cory Clark, Mike Evans, Nathan Burak, and Bobby Telford — won their respective brackets at Midlands to lead Iowa to its 24th team title in the 52-year history of the event. Telford won the heavyweight championship aer a pair of runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2013. He pinned two opponents and recorded a pair of wins over top five opponents, including a bloody 4-2 victory against then-top-ranked Mike McMullan of Northwestern. For all his blood and sweat, Telford was awarded Big Ten wrestler of the week honor — the first such honor of his career. Clark won his bracket at a new weight class. He had wrestled to fourth and sixth-place finishes at the 2012 and 2013 tournaments while competing at 125 pounds. is year he is Iowa's 133-pounder, and this year he used a major decision, a pin, and a victory over Jarrod Garnett — the man who bounced him from the tournament in each of the last two season's — to win the 133-pound title. Evans went 5-0 with a pin and major decision while defending his 2013 title at 174-pounds. His 2-1 win over sixth-ranked Zac Brunson in the finals made him Iowa's first back-to-back Midlands champion since Brent Metcalf won three straight from 2007-09. Burak won the 197-pound title the hard way. Wrestling unattached to preserve a redshirt, the junior All-American wrestled his way through the bracket on his own dollar and with a pair of amateur coaches in his corner — Metcalf and Matt McDonough. JANUARY SCHEDULE Jan. 11 at Oklahoma State Jan. 16 vs. Illinois Jan. 23 vs. Northwestern Jan. 30 at Minnesota

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