It was a busy weekend for Iowa Hawkeye athletics, as three significant sports were on display.

First, the Iowa Women’s team lost a heartbreaker to Ohio State in the Championship game of the Big Ten Tournament. It was a remarkable run for Iowa to even get to this point, as the team began Big Ten play with a record of 1-6, the worst start to a Big Ten season for them in nearly three decades. They would rally and close strong around a very young team, as they were down three starters who were lost to injury very early in the season. They also dealt with significant injuries during the middle portion of the season.

This game will leave a bittersweet taste in their mouth, as they led by 16 points with 18:25 to play in the game and lost on a last second free throw. Iowa sits with a record of 19-13 and likely earned a trip to the NCAA tournament, a feat that seemed highly unlikely in mid-January. It’s fair to say this was the best coaching job of Lisa Bluder’s career that has been marked with excellent work, and Iowa has a solid team returning next year.

On to the mats where the Iowa wrestlers wrapped up the 34th Big Ten title in school history before the finals round began. That’s a good thing because Iowa crowned just two champions even though they began the day with six finalists. While the Hawks were favored to win just two titles if you looked at the pre-meet rankings, how they got to their two was a bit surprising.

First off, Matt McDonough suffered his first defeat of the year to Angel Escobedo of Indiana. Escobedo is a former NCAA champion and entered the finals match with an undefeated 32-0 record and ranked #2 in the nation. McDonough, a freshman, had the same record and was ranked #4. McDonough lost the match 6-4, but he proved to be Escobedo’s equal in this match, the first meeting between the two. The kid proved to himself that he can hang with anyone, and I was very encouraged by the way he fought.

Next up was 133-pounder Daniel Dennis, and he was beaten by Minnesota’s Jayson Ness, who has not lost this season. Dennis really didn’t muster much of an offensive fight in this one, which was disappointing.

The shocker of the tournament was #1 ranked Brent Metcalf losing to #2 ranked Lance Palmer of Ohio State. The fact that #2 beat #1 might not be that big of a deal to some people, but up to that point, Palmer had never beaten Metcalf, and Metcalf had just two losses in his college career, both coming at the hands of Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State. Palmer showed signs of breaking through the Metcalf wall back in Iowa City in February, losing a 3-1 decision. Palmer scored a first period takedown on Sunday and put on an impressive ride against Metcalf, and once the third period came around, Metcalf looked a little winded, something you just have not seen during his Iowa career. Palmer survived a Metcalf gramby roll and did not let go of Metcalf’s ankle, and he won the final scramble and also got back points, much to the delight of everyone not wearing black and gold inside Michigan’s arena.

It’s just so odd seeing Metcalf lose…his loss in the National Finals last year was one of the most shocking outcomes I have ever witnessed in any sporting event. This loss was shocking as well, due to the legacy that Metcalf has created. He will have two weeks to stew on this result, and I expect for him to be back on the finals stand the Saturday night of nationals looking for revenge. Both Metcalf and Palmer should be on opposite sides of the draw.

Jay Borschel scored the first championship of the day for Iowa, and the first of his career. He is undefeated this year and has really perfected his craft. Iowa scored another title with Dan Ereckson at heavyweight. He knocked off highly rated and previously unbeaten Nate Everhart of Indiana. Erekson hit him with a takedown right off the whistle and converted that into a cradle that scored him three nearfall points.

Tom Brands was named the Coach of the Year for the third straight year, something that oddly has never been done before. I find it odd because Dan Gable was coach at Iowa for so long. McDonough was named the Freshman of the Year, the fifth Hawkeye to ever earn that honor. Iowa qualified all 10 wrestlers for the first time in the Brands era, but Ryan Morningstar had to injury default in his 3rd place match with a bad knee, something to keep an eye on.

Finally, the Iowa Men’s Basketball team closed out the regular season with an 88-53 loss at Minnesota. In keeping with their recent road woes, they were down 42-20 at halftime, marking the fourth straight league road game where they did not score more than 20 points. Iowa hit just 4-17 from three point range. Aaron Fuller led Iowa with 16 points.

Iowa will face Michigan on Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, for the third straight year. Michigan swept a pair of games against Iowa this year. Iowa’s record stands at 10-21, the most losses ever in one season by an Iowa basketball team. They finished conference play at 4-14.

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