y Andrew Shanks The Daily Iowan
Iowa City, IA (CSTV U-WIRE) — Alex Tsirtsis didn’t forget how to wrestle. The Iowa sophomore didn’t exhaust his competitive drive or lose his desire to win, either.
Instead, Tsirtsis — who won four state titles in high school on his way to an undefeated 236-0 mark and then parlayed his success into a 22-12-2 freshman campaign — just plain wasn’t wrestling to his abilities. And there was nobody who could pinpoint why the standout wrestler was suffering the dreaded “sophomore slump.”
“I just tried to keep at it and not get too down on myself, “the 141-pounder from Griffith, Ind., said. “I just wasn’t wrestling very well at the beginning of the season. There isn’t one thing that I changed to correct what was going on. I just kept at it and felt that things would eventually turn around.”
Getting down on himself would have been easy for the kid who barely knew what it was like to lose before joining the Hawkeyes. After opening this season with a second-place finish at the Kaufman-Brand Open and a victory in Iowa’s inaugural dual meet at Arizona State, Tsirtsis went on to lose against Iowa State and Oklahoma State before falling in his first match at the Midlands Tournament.
“I think he lost confidence in himself for a while there, “Iowa coach Jim Zalesky. “We all knew that he had the talent to win the matches that he was losing. He’s worked really hard on the bottom position since then, and now he’s winning matches that he might have lost last season or the beginning of this one.”
Indeed, it appears as if Tsirtsis finally has hit his stride. Since conference action began, Tsirtsis’s only defeats were a 4-3 decision against Minnesota’s No. 15 Manuel Rivera and a 2-1 decision in Iowa’s most recent dual meet against Michigan State’s No. 5 Andy Simmons.
Not only has Tsirtsis started winning, though, he’s begun to do it with some panache. When Iowa traveled to then-undefeated Indiana — Tsirtsis’ personal homecoming — on Jan. 29, the Hoosiers jumped to an early 8-0 lead following major-decision victories at 125 and 133 pounds. Tsirtsis, who was wrestling in his home state for the first time since becoming Indiana’s second four-time high-school state champion, pinned Nick Spatola to give Iowa six team points and the momentum to notch victories in the following six weight classes.
“He’s definitely starting to figure some things out, “157-pound Iowa All-American Joe Johnston said. “He looked good [against Penn State] and wrestled really solid. He made things happen for himself. He had a match that could have been very tough, but he made things happen for himself.”
Tsirtsis’ resurgence is even more meaningful to Zalesky’s squad with the injuries it has sustained to heavyweight Matt Fields and 174-pound All-American Mark Perry. For a team that has uncontrollable fits of inconsistency, Tsirtsis could provide a much-needed boost to the beginning of the lineup.
“Tsirtsis is one of those guys who, if we can bring him along, he can be big down the road for us, as far as the Big Tens and the NCAAs are concerned, “Zalesky said. “To have a successful team, we need guys other than our four All-Americans to come along and win some matches.
“And, I think, he’s one of those guys where he has the ability to win at this level and be a very good wrestler. We just need him to continue where he’s at.”
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