Iowa State 197-pound wrestler Rocky Elam celebrates with teammates after winning 20-14 in the Cy-Hawk Series on Nov. 30, 2025 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES — He smiles easily and broadly. His manners, impeccable. He’s laid back and casually conversational, not tense nor stubbornly tight-lipped.
In short, Iowa State’s No. 2-seeded 197-pounder Rocky Elam’s “as cool as a cucumber” as his head coach Kevin Dresser puts it, focused on the journey, not the result, as he seeks to become a five-time All-American at the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships.
“I really don’t feel any anxiety for this tournament,” the former Missouri transfer said about the sport’s marquee event, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. “I feel at peace. I know what I need to do is control what I can control and that’s my effort. That’s the only thing I can control. There’s really no point in my trying to manage the things I can’t control, like what opponent I’m gonna have, or what they’re gonna throw at me.”
So Elam’s planning to “let it fly,” as the nation’s top wrestlers are fond of saying in March — and that’s a team-wide mindset, as well.
“No pressure, nothing to lose,” said the Cyclones’ 13th-seeded 125-pounder Stevo Poulin, a reigning All-American. “Just going out there to win.”
ISU’s represented in each of the 10 weight classes at nationals. Nine of those wrestlers are seeded in the top 16 of their respective weights, with crowd-pleasing No. 1-seeded heavyweight Yonger Bastida serving as the headliner as he seeks to end his collegiate career as a two-time All-American and first-time champion.
“He takes the No. 1 seed seriously and he’s going there for one thing,” Dresser said. “So I think it’s a checklist, all right? I got the Big 12s out of the way. Now I’ve gotta get Thursday (and Friday) out of the way. So I think he’s a lot more process oriented and not as emotional.”
That’s Elam’s approach as well, and his message and mindset discipline is impressive. He’s not hyped, he’s hopeful. He’s not cocky, he’s just Rocky. Ornery on the mat, even-tempered off of it.
“All year long people have commented to me, ‘Man, does that guy’s heartbeat even get above 80 throughout the whole match?’” Dresser said. “So he’s really found a good place to compete at mentally and that’s the name of the game.”
But Elam wasn’t always that way.
As a freshman at the 2021 COVID-affected NCAAs, he was the seventh seed and faced 26th-seed and All-American Jake Woodley of Oklahoma in his opening match. Elam lost, 4-1, but racked up five straight wins in a loaded backside before narrowly losing to the top seed, 8-6, to set up a fateful rematch.
“I was so nervous going into that first match and I think that contributed to (the loss),” said Elam, who is 18-0 this season with eight bonus-point triumphs. “I ended up wrestling all the way back and wrestled Jake again in the fifth place match. So it was kind of crazy, but I’m glad I had that experience because I kind of needed to show myself how tough I was.”
He still is. With experience comes perspective, but Elam’s quiet yet fierce competitiveness hasn’t waned, it’s been honed. The battle-tested transfer’s never wrestled in the spotlight on Saturday night at nationals, but has finished fifth, fourth, third, and sixth respectively in his four other sojourns to the NCAAs.
And falling short when chasing a dream can teach wrestlers lessons for each successive attempt to turn the podium into a summit. Elam’s absorbed all of them — including the one that started it all.
As a freshman in high school, he entered the Missouri state meet expecting to win it. Instead, he didn’t even medal as his short-term dream died in the blood round, and a much larger one began rising above the horizon.
“I really started to love it (then),” Elam said. “And it came from that moment of loss, which is kind of cool.”
