Hlas: 2 ex-Hawkeyes, 2 personalities, 1 Olympic berth

IOWA CITY — Tony Ramos is the charismatic local drawing card, the 2014 NCAA champion, the No. 1 seed at his weight who hasn't lost to a fellow American in three years.

Daniel Dennis? At first glance, the No. 3 seed in former Iowa Hawkeyes teammate Ramos' 57 kilograms (125 1/2 pounds) division might seem like just a face in the crowd in the freestyle division of this weekend's U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

So take a second glance. Dennis' college career didn't match Ramos' flash or results. But Dennis did go from a 15-18 record as a freshman to a national runner-up finish as a fifth-year senior.

Take an even longer look at No. 3-seed Dennis, and you'll see someone who has wrestled very well in the last year and could surprise many by capturing that Olympic berth at his weight.

'He's dangerous,' said Iowa wrestling head coach Tom Brands, 'and he's focused, and he's after something, and he's confident. And that's what makes elite athletes elite.'

While 25-year-old Ramos is a marketer, promoter and Twitter aficionado, Dennis is happy to go through life without attention.

'Ramos likes being the man in a lot of different arenas,' Brands said. 'Money motivates him. Fame motivates him. 'Big Man On Campus' motivates him.

'When all is said and done, Dennis will be in Wyoming rock-climbing somewhere and sleeping in his hatchback.'

Dennis, 29, left competitive wrestling in 2011. The thought of him being the No. 3 seed in the U.S. team trials this weekend was once as far removed as he was from the Iowa wrestling room. He had left Iowa City, traveled, and eventually was living in California and working in a Mixed Martial Arts gym.

'I was retired for going on three years,' Dennis said. 'I had no intention of coming back. One thing led to another. I got talked into it. Now I've moved back to Iowa City.'

Another former Hawkeye wrestler, the ever-loquacious Royce Alger, kept hounding Dennis to return to the mat.

'He said 'I like to watch you wrestle,' ' Dennis said. 'That was the only angle he played, but he played it with no hesitation and was relentless with it. He annoys the hell out of me. Which can be a good thing.'

Dennis didn't spend much time establishing himself. He was second to Reece Humphrey in the 2015 U.S. World Team Trials (Ramos was on the World team at a different weight), and won a prestigious tourney in Spain later in the year. Then he dominated at last December's U.S. Senior Nationals, beating 2012 Olympian Sam Hazewinkel 10-0 in the finals.

'I feel if I wrestle well,' Dennis said, 'I can beat anybody in the world.'

Dennis and Ramos are from northern Illinois towns 32 miles apart. Ramos was a freshman who was redshirting in 2009-10 when Dennis was a Hawkeye senior. Dennis went to Rome in 2014 to be Ramos' training partner in USA Wrestling's acclimation camp before Ramos proceeded to Uzbekistan for the World Championships.

Now the two are fellow Hawkeye Wrestling Club members trying to attain the same goal, a spot on the U.S. Olympic team at 57 kg. They don't spend much time working out together.

'I just don't think it benefits either of us,' Dennis said. 'I don't feel the need for it. I don't steer away from it by any means. But I think we're kind of on track to the same goal.'

'Me and Dennis were really close,' Ramos said. 'I would say it's changed a lot now. There's not as much interaction going on. We both know what's at stake. Someone's got to crush someone's dream, and that's just the way it is.

'People say you can be friends off the mat, enemies on the mat, whatever you want to call it. But real competitors, that's a hard thing to do. Especially when you're training alongside each other every single day and seeing each other in this room every single day.'

Ramos has commercial sponsors. He has his own website that sells 'Team Ramos' shirts. Dennis markets nothing.

'Nothing wrong with it,' Dennis said. 'It's just not me. I don't have the catchphrases and I don't have those little knickknacks that maybe make him him. It's not my personality, is all.'

There is no guarantee Ramos and Dennis will collide Sunday. Like the other five men's freestyle weight classes, theirs is stuffed with accomplished wrestlers.

But if the two former Hawkeyes were to spar for a spot in Rio de Janeiro's Olympics, Carver would have a large 'Team Ramos' against Dennis and a handful of friends and family members. Which is probably the way both would want it.