By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Misfortune has taken down Matt Fields again.
The latest hardship for the hard-luck Hawkeye was what the Iowa wrestling team feared most Sunday when it boarded the bus home from Minnesota “its heavyweight’s sophomore season is finished.
Initial tests indicated that Fields tore two ligaments in his left knee Sunday against top-ranked Cole Konrad and will likely require reconstructive surgery.
Iowa coach Jim Zalesky said Fields heard something in his knee pop and when Konrad shot toward the leg and Fields’ foot stuck in the mat.
“(Iowa trainer Matt) Doyle thinks it’s his MCL and ACL,” Zalesky said. “We’re not 100-percent sure. We’re going to go in today (for an MRI), but that’s what it looks like. It’s the same thing (former Iowa NCAA champion) Cliff Moore did (in the summer of 2001).”
Fields was 15-6 and ranked sixth in a year in which his mat time had already had cut short by another injury.
After finishing one victory shy of earning All-America honors last year as a true freshman, Fields underwent hip surgery in April. The operation gave him more flexibility with his lower body, but kept him on crutches and off the mat for much of the offseason.
The two-time state champion from North Cedar returned to full strength ahead of schedule and opted not to use a redshirt this year, saying he didn’t want to miss the chance to wrestle Oklahoma State senior Steve Mocco, a two-time NCAA champion.
“It’s tough,” Zalesky said. “It’s one of those things you have to go through and fight through. It’s not something he saw happening, but we talk about how sometimes you face adversity and have to fight through it.”
Fields has two seasons of eligibility, plus a redshirt year, remaining. Zalesky said the Hawkeyes will explore the possibility of a medical hardship waiver, which would allow Fields an extra season of competition.
“We’ll have to see how he comes back and when he comes back,” Zalesky said. “I don’t know if he wrestled too much this year or not to burn a year. That’s something we’ll have to see once his eligibility runs out.”
If there’s one thing that cushions the blow for the Hawkeyes for now, it’s that the injury comes at a weight where Iowa has a capable back-up.
Junior Ryan Fuller, a 2004 NCAA qualifier, will take over the starting job he held before the arrival of Fields, the nation’s top heavyweight recruit two years ago.
“If something like this had to happen,” Zalesky said, “this is the weight for it to happen, I guess you could say.”
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