Come and enjoy the black-and-gold spectacle

IOWA CITY - The medalist for the first wrestling match in Kinnick Stadium history was the weather. Make no mistake, the sun and the mild winds stood on the top step and had a big, old gold medal hung around its neck.

On Friday night, with winds in the teens, the mats for Grapple on the Gridiron were more like flying carpets.

The No. 4 Hawkeyes wrestling team's match with No. 1 Oklahoma State went off under beautiful sunny skies and temperatures that climbed near 60 degrees on Saturday.

The sun might've been blasting its brightest when Iowa topped the Cowboys, 18-16, in front of an NCAA record crowd of 42,287 fans.

For the 10 Hawkeye wrestlers, all of whom, from their first steps in the sport, crawled a gritty, dank path to this stage, it was a moment of a lifetime.

'I can't describe it,” said 174-pounder Sammy Brooks, who beat OSU's Jordan Rogers 17-2 for a technical fall. 'Even if I tried, I don't think anybody would even understand outside of the guys who wrestled and went out there and did it.”

After Brooks ended his match 1:09 into the second period, he stood up and flexed to the crowd.

'I wouldn't usually flex like that or celebrate, but I couldn't even stop myself,” Brooks said.

The result was beautiful. The logistics it took to make this happen, they came through. One complaint from fans was there weren't enough gates open, so a bottleneck formed and some fans had to wait 20-plus minutes to get in.

'I walked out pre weigh-in and there were a few people trickling in, three sections over, and I was like, ‘OK, that's cool, that's a good amount of people, whatever,” said 125-pounder Thomas Gilman, who started the day with a 9-1 major decision. 'And then when we went out there to shake hands, I was like, ‘Holy crap,' this is like a football game, there's that many people here.'”

- Iowa had to purchase a new mat that wouldn't be affected by the weather. Believe it or not, regular wrestling mats aren't really built for 50 degrees and tend to freeze and harden.

- The Iowa wrestlers stationed in what usually is the referees lockerroom in Kinnick. Heaters filled the tunnel that led onto the Kinnick turf. Post-match, several wrestlers put on sweats and went back out to cheer teammates. It was that nice of a day.

- One little touch that wrestling fans certainly appreciated was the fact that the Hawk Vision stadium visuals crew found a way to work riding time onto the Kinnick videoboard. That took some computing because football doesn't have riding time.

Between the men's and women's basketball doubleheader Friday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Grapple on the Gridiron, Saturday night's football game with a sold out Kinnick of 70,585 and then another men's and women's hoops doubleheader Sunday at Carver, yes, the Iowa athletics staff has had a full plate.

'If you walked around the department this week, you wouldn't have been able to tell because everyone has been so professional,” said Gene Taylor, Iowa deputy director of athletics. 'They're stressed and they know it. I told them by the end of the day on Monday, you're going to wake up and feel really good about what you put on this weekend between the four basketball games, wrestling and football. They're going to feel really good about it.”

So, should we put this on the calendar for 2016? Make it an annual event.

'That's a good question,” Taylor said with a laugh. 'If it goes well, and it has, I think it will get talked about. I don't know how quickly, but this is pretty cool.”

Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands said he wasn't going to bother Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz for an encore performance. At least not Saturday afternoon because, you know, Ferentz had something on the agenda with the No. 5 Hawkeyes facing Minnesota in the first matchup between the two schools under the lights at Kinnick.

'What we say to football is keep doing what you're doing,” Brands said. 'We know where our bread is buttered. You pay the bills. That is the truth and I've said that a lot. We're very, very grateful. We have the best coach in America. And I say that sunshine and not so much sunshine.”

Brands had a hand up in the air for the 'sunshine,” meaning the good times. And then the hand dipped for the not-so-much sunshine.

Grapple on the Gridiron had its hand raised at the end of a circus of a Saturday.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com