Iowa’s Steven Holloway adjusts to heavyweight wrestling as he again fills in for Sam Stoll

IOWA CITY - Steven Holloway was supposed to be a temporary fix.

The situation has changed, making him the only option and the permanent solution.

Holloway bumped up to heavyweight this season, starting while NCAA qualifier Sam Stoll recovered from offseason knee surgery. When Stoll suffered another knee injury that prematurely ended this season, Holloway was picked to man the spot the rest of the way.

He will face two tough tests against ranked opponents this weekend. Third-ranked Iowa hosts No. 16 Wisconsin on Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and travels to No. 13 Minnesota on Sunday.

Holloway is coming off a 6-1 decision over Ohio State's Josh Fox.

'It's my chance to go out there and shine and show why I'm wrestling here and why they picked me to wrestle at Iowa,” Holloway said. 'Nothing's changed. Just keep working hard, wrestling hard.”

News of Stoll being done for the year came before the home dual against Penn State on Jan. 20. Hawkeye teammates said Holloway needed to take advantage by embracing the opportunity to be the full-time starter.

'I don't know if he has a choice,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. 'So, his mindset is going to determine a lot, but he's been a soldier. But, we want him to love his role.”

Things have changed from when the Mediapolis Class 2A state champion chose Iowa over Northern Iowa and Indiana. He wrestled 197 pounds for his redshirt season, going 16-6 last year. Holloway is 6-6 in the heaviest class, looking to get bigger, which he hopes means better as well.

'Building up to heavyweight has been a long journey,” Holloway said. 'I'm still going toward it. I'm at 220. That's a plus, I guess.

'Basically, my program is just eat. (Iowa assistant coach Ben) Berhow, the heavyweight coach, gets on me about that. Every time he's in my ear. Just eat, eat, and eat past the point of fullness, so that's tough for me.”

Holloway's target weight for the Wisconsin dual is 225. The focus is on eating healthy and building the right kind of mass that will maintain his quickness. Iowa Strength and Conditioning Coach Travis Rutt said Holloway will have to add a lot of good calories, but hasn't given him a set amount to intake daily. He has seen results already but it is a long-term process.

'He's quicker than most guys,” Rutt said. 'He's very explosive.

'Putting on the wrong kind of weight would be disadvantageous. We'd be going the wrong way, because then we'd be slowing him down and less explosive. He would be more inefficient with the wrong type of weight.”

Holloway was effective in his first Big Ten victory, scoring a couple of takedowns. He will have greater foes with the Badgers' second-ranked Connor Medbery and Minnesota's No. 7 Michael Kroells. Holloway can learn from last week's performance.

'He realizes the holds that he hit can work on anybody,” Brands said. 'No matter what the body looks like, how big the body is, how big the hips are, how big the legs are, how big the belly is, it makes no difference.

'When you go, follow through, keep your hips underneath you and explode to your finish. Run through to completion.”

Holloway gained confidence with the latest victory. He proved he can have success, but has to wrestle hard the full seven minutes as he adapts to the heavyweight strategy.

'It's a different wrestling style,” Holloway said. 'I'm kind of getting used to it. That's what me and Berhow have been working on week in and week out. I just need to wrestle more like a heavyweight, I guess. Not take those shots I would take on guys my size and be able to finish. Can't get stuck under the big guys.”