The top-ranked Hawkeye wrestling team won its 21st national title and crowned two individual champions in Perry and sophomore 149-pounder Brent Metcalf at the 2008 NCAA Championships last weekend in St. Louis, MO. It was Iowa's first team title since 2000, and the first time the Hawkeyes crowned more than one NCAA champion since Doug Schwab and T.J. Williams won titles in 1999. Iowa scored 117.5 team points in the victory, more than doubling its NCAA point total (57) from 2007. Iowa and runner-up Ohio State were the only teams with two individual champions.
Perry became Iowa's 14th two-time NCAA champion when he defeated Michigan's Eric Tannenbaum in the 165-pound finals, 5-2. It was the fifth time the two had met, with each wrestler owning two wins. Perry scored a takedown in the first 19 seconds of the match and rode Tannenbaum the entire first period. He took a 3-0 lead early in the second period on an optional start escape, but injured his right knee in a scramble. Perry injured the same knee in January and sat out the entire Big Ten dual season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery. Tannenbaum scored a third-period takedown to make the score 3-2, but released Perry and did not score again. Perry's riding time point made the final score 5-2. The senior from Stillwater, OK, ended his Hawkeye career with a 96-16 record, going 20-3 this season. A three-time NCAA finalist and four-time Big Ten finalist, Perry is Iowa's 17th four-time all-American.
Perry is the third Hawkeye to earn the national weekly honor this season. Metcalf was named Wrestler of the Week on Jan. 16 and Mar. 12, and sophomore 133-pounder Joe Slaton was picked on Dec. 12.
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