HAWK TALK

January 2013

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gone the distance — a 4-1 win against David Devine of Southern IllinoisEdwardsville, 3-2 against Gibson, 11-4 against Jack Delia of Lehigh, and 6-1 against Joe Stolfi of Bucknell. He was exposed to Iowa wrestling as a youngster in the form of concession stands at youth tournaments. he arrived in West Lafayette, Ind., he shut out Pat Walker of Illinois (2-0), defeated Ben Apland of Michigan (6-4), and blanked Cameron Wade of Penn State (5-0) to reach the finals against Nelson. "They have all this USA Wrestling stuff and there were always a couple Hawkeye things to buy there, too," Telford said. Still, Telford didn't know what the Hawkeye wrestling mystique was about until he started exploring college options while in high school. Telford was 5-2 at his first national championships; "You look at the history and the packed arenas; his only losses were 2-0 to both Zachery Rey of the work ethic and the tradition at the University Lehigh (the NCAA runner-up) and Clayton Jack of Iowa," Telford said. "You understand what the of Oregon State (fourth-place finisher). program is about and what the coaches are about. As soon as Tom Brands showed up in my living Eight of the top 15 heavyweights in the nation room, within the first minute, I knew this is where compete in the Big Ten. Telford is the highest I wanted to go, and this is what I wanted to do ranked underclassmen of the bunch. with my life." "The Big Ten is the best in the country, especially Telford is majoring in health and human physiolin the sport of wrestling," Telford said. "There are ogy with a goal of being a coach. some good guys that are coming back and good guys filling spots, so it is always going to be the most competitive conference. That's why you wrestle in the Big Ten, that's why you come to Iowa. You want to be in that competitive atmosphere." Telford competes at 285 pounds, but he doesn't enjoy tactical, low-scoring results, that define most heavyweight outcomes. His strengths are pace and applying pressure, which paid off in his most recent win against Gibson. "I like pushing their conditioning and mental toughness," Telford said. "I want to get to their legs, get on top, be tough on top, and turn them. If I'm on the bottom, I want to get out and go right back it." Fifteen of Telford's 29 wins a year ago were by six points or more; this season only four matches have 56 In his slimmest margin of victory this season, University of Iowa heavyweight Bobby Telford downs No. 15 Matt Gibson of Iowa State, 3-2, on Dec. 1 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. (Photo by Darren Miller)

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