It's blatantly obvious that head coach Jake Kadel is Hell bent on making Iowa Wesleyan a powerhouse in NAIA wrestling & he isn't very patient as he works to climb up the ladder not only in the Heart of America Conference, but throughout all of the NAIA. Take one look at the schedule he has his wrestlers enduring not only facing Grand View and other top NAIA programs, but putting his boys up against some top tier NCAA Division III competition. The philosophy of, "wanna be the best? gotta wrestle the best" is not lost on Coach Kadel. With former Iowa Hawkeye Cash Wilcke in the room to put the wrestlers through Hawkeye style red-flag practices, you know that these guys are going to be in phenomenal shape. The future is bright for Tiger wrestling.
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| 141 lbs Brandon Ball |
Believe it or not, having been out of High School now for well over 18 years, I wrestled Brandon Ball my senior year. Matter of fact, he was my last match. He went on to have a stellar High School career, taking 7th place honors his junior season of 2006 & winning the Iowa High School state title his senior season of 2007. He went on to compete for Coe College, where he made All American honors his sophomore season with a 4th place finish at the NCAA Division III tournament in 2009. Unfortunately things came up and it seemed as if his wrestling career ended on a sour note. It was sad to see, cause I've always had a lot of respect and admiration for Ball, even though he loves to tell me how lucky I was to beat him & how I'd never do it again. I'm 37, I'd guess Ball be to at least 33 if not 34. Can he still hang with these kids in their late teens and early 20's? Does he still have the conditioning, strength, flexibility and quickness that he had well over 10 years ago? He's been keeping up with MMA fighting and working out, but it's still a different scene than college wrestling. On a personal note I'll be rooting for him. We seem to have an obsession with youth in this sport & I think it'd do wrestling a lot of good to see someone of his age succeed. Talent and ability wise, if 100% healthy, Ball is an extremely tough guy. He gave NCAA DI runner-up Dan Dennis of Iowa all he could handle in a 6-4 loss. What a redemption story this will make if he's able to wrestle as well as I know he's capable of.
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| 157 lbs Brent Ward |
One of two Ironwood Ridge High School grads from Arizona, Brent Ward had himself a pretty respectable season last year as a freshman. Not only did he place 4th at the Heart of America Conference tournament, but he also had a 3rd place showing at the Under Armor Invitational at Central and he also placed 2nd at the Last Chance which was also held at Central College.
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| 174 lbs Caelen Shannon |
A Cedar Rapids Xavier state qualifier, Caelen Shannon had some good showings throughout his freshman season last year as well. 5th in the Heart of America, he was 4th at the Buena Vista Invite, 5th at the Cliff Keen Mike Duroe Invite at Cornell and 2nd at the Last chance at Central College.
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| HWT Wyatt Nelson |
The other half of the Ironwood Ridge duo of Arizona, Wyatt Nelson also had some good showings last season as well. 5th at Buena Vista and 4th at Last Change, he was 6th at Heart of America. Again, only sophomore this season, the future looks to be bright.
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| HWT Brendon Lundsford |
A transfer from Hannibal-LaGrange, he will push Wyatt Nelson as hard as Wyatt Nelson will push him. When you have two talented HWT's in the room going at it every day, they're only going to make themselves better.
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