Unheralded Hawk shines
Fuller third; Fullhart reaches Team Trials final series
By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
AMES — While popular conversations about Iowa’s heavyweight situation centered around the guy leaving and the guy coming in last summer, Ryan Fuller’s name was typically left out of the discussions.
Fuller heard the rumblings caused by NCAA wrestling champion Steve Mocco’s transfer to Oklahoma State. He listened to the talk about prized incoming recruit Matt Fields. He understood the hype.
“I think I got lost in the mix, but I guess I never really did anything to make myself noticed, “he said. “Fields was taking care of business in high school big-time at the national level. Mocco took care of it in college. They had taken care of business, and I really hadn’t done much. It’s not that I got overlooked, it’s that I didn’t do what they were doing.”
Fuller took care of some business Saturday at the World Team Trials and pushed his name into conversations about Iowa’s heavyweight situation going into next season. The junior-to-be placed third in the freestyle challenge tournament at 264,½ pounds, finishing behind Mocco and Minnesota’s Cole Konrad, the two finalists at this year’s NCAA meet.
“There were some tournaments last year that weren’t of this caliber that I wasn’t placing as high in, “Fuller said. “I think I wrestled well (Saturday). We’ve got a bunch of great coaches, and if you do what they tell you to do you’ll be surprised what happens.”
Fuller was one of the biggest stories for the Iowa program on the first day of the two-day tournament. Former Hawkeye Lee Fullhart won the challenge tournament at 185 pounds. Mike Zadick placed second at 132, but no other wrestler with Iowa ties — unless you still count Mocco — reached Saturday’s mini-tournament finals.
Fullhart beat two-time NCAA champion Chris Pendleton of Oklahoma State 1-1, 1-0. The victory pushes Fullhart into today’s best-of-three final series against Muhammed Lawal in a rematch of the U.S. Open final that Lawal won.
“Maybe (the U.S. Open loss) points out a few more of my problem areas I need to focus on, “Fullhart said. “Other than that, the training’s (been) the same.”
Zadick dropped a 1-0, 0-2, 2-1 decision to Iowa State senior-to-be Nate Gallick. Former Hawkeye Doug Schwab was the only other former Hawkeye to place in the top four. He took fourth at 145,½.
Only winners of Saturday’s challenge tournament advanced to today’s best of three final series.
In women’s freestyle, recent Iowa City transplant Sara McMann cruised through the challenge tournament. The 2004 Olympic silver medalist pinned her first opponent and outscored her next two by a combined margin of 29-3.
As for Mocco, the ex-Hawkeye heavyweight survived a close call to beat Konrad 1-0, 0-1, 1-0 in a match that came down to video review to see which wrestler went out of bounds first as time expired in the final period.
While Mocco took an Olympic redshirt season in 2004, Fuller filled the heavyweight spot in the Iowa lineup as a freshman. He qualified for the NCAA tournament and finished the season with an 18-19 record, but started cutting down to 197 pounds after the season in preparation for Mocco’s return to Iowa.
Fuller dropped his weight to 235, but started regaining the weight to challenge Fields after Mocco departed. Sidelined with injuries for nearly six weeks, Fuller, a two-time state champion at Lisbon, compiled a 3-3 record this past season while Fields, his former foe from North Cedar, qualified for the NCAA tournament.
“We grew up next to each other and he’s younger, so that kind of put an extra punch to it, getting beat out by someone who’s younger, “Fuller said. “I wrestled against him a lot when we were younger and had a rivalry between schools in high school, and then to come in and let all my fans down (was frustrating), but it was what was best for the team.”
While Fields recovers from off-season hip surgery (Iowa coach Jim Zalesky said Fields could be back on the mat when classes resume in the fall), Fuller has made a push to regain the starting job.
“He’s made a lot of gain this past five or six weeks, “Zalesky said. “He never got a lot of matches in this year. It’s a good thing he won the regional and got to come here and train. Any time you get that training time getting ready for a tournament, it helps you.”
The same week he wrapped up finals in May, Fuller won the Northern Plains Regional in Waterloo to qualify for the World Team Trials. He opened the tournament Saturday by dropping a 1-0, 3-1 decision against Konrad. Fuller then reeled off three straight wins, beating Ty Watterson 4-3, 2-1, knocking off 2004 NCAA finalist Pat Cummins 0-3, 3-1, 1-0, and clinching third with a 1-0, 2-2 win against Michael Irving.
“I always knew I could beat guys I had beaten in the past, “Fuller said.
Reach Andy Hamilton at 339-7368 or [email protected].
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