All photos credit to Jacqueline Cordova/Cyclone Fanatic
There’s something different about Senior Day now.
College wrestling doesn’t always unfold in four-year arcs anymore. Sometimes it’s a one-year chapter. Sometimes it’s a second chance.
That’s the reality of the sport and across college athletics in the NIL era.
And yet, when Stevo Poulin, Vinny Zerban, Rocky Elam and Yonger Bastida are honored Sunday inside Hilton Coliseum, it won’t feel temporary.
Three starters arrived in Ames with one year left. One of them arrived in 2019 from Cuba.
Different paths. Same vision.
And in one season together, they have built something.
The Friendship That Followed Them to Ames
Poulin and Zerban both wrestled at Northern Colorado before transferring to Iowa State. But they didn’t coordinate the move. They didn’t sit down and map it out. They didn’t even tell each other they were entering the portal.
A coaching change forced quick decisions. The 30-day window opened. Phones rang. Futures shifted.
Zerban already had a destination in mind. And somehow, without ever comparing notes, he and Poulin both landed in Ames.
Maybe it was fate.
After two years as roommates in Colorado and even longer knowing each other since high school, they’re no longer sharing an apartment out west. They’re sharing a lineup spot in Ames, getting their hands raised inside Hilton Coliseum side by side for one final season.
And for Poulin, that final season has felt different.
He has called it the most fun year of his career. He talks about wrestling “free,” not taking practices for granted.
“Before I go out and wrestle, I’m not nervous. At all. Usually I am,” Poulin said. “Sometimes I’m a little scared because why am I not nervous? I think it’s the confidence. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life, and I’m training with the best guys in the country.”
Zerban focuses on mentality — being grittier in the third period, pushing pace and staying loose instead of tight.
Dresser admits portal recruiting is rolling the dice. You don’t truly know what you’re getting in that 30-day window.
What Iowa State got were workers. Coachable veterans. Athletes who seek hard work.
And both will tell you Iowa State gave them something, too.
Zerban lights up talking about the campus, the strength room, the wrestling room, the support staff, even the dining center he mentioned with a smirk tucked under his long, unruly hair. Poulin compares competing in a Hilton dual to the atmosphere of a football Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.
“It was really hard, but it’s been everything I imagined,” Zerban said of his transfer decision. Being at Iowa State, he says, makes it easy to wake up every day.
For one year, they got to live the version of college wrestling most kids dream about.
And Iowa State got their best.
Rocky’s Leap of Faith
Rocky Elam didn’t leave Missouri on a whim.
Missouri wasn’t just a stop on his résumé. It was legacy. His older brother, Zach, built his own name as a Tiger. His family built memories there. Black and Gold meant something.
If he was going to leave, it had to be right because family has always been central for Elam.
“That was a factor in the decision, being so close to home,” Elam said in Missouri feature story in 2021. “I love to go back and see my family, especially for stuff like Thanksgiving. We don’t have to travel far. They can always come down for whatever.”
Elam loved his time at Missouri. But he also believed change could lead to growth.
When he entered the portal, he wasn’t chasing hype. He was looking for the right people.
He noticed the calls. Teammates reaching out without being prompted. David Carr. The Frost brothers. Chris Perry.
He didn’t have to sell himself. They had already chosen him.
And then there was Bastida.
A former rival. A Big 12 opponent. The same wrestler he battled fiercely just a couple of years ago when both athletes were at 197 pounds.
Bastida hosted his visit to Ames.
“I can’t think of a better guy to help me and for me to help him win Nationals,” Elam said in a one-on-one interview a few days after announcing his commitment. “I’ve gotten calls from guys at Iowa State reaching out and saying they’re excited to have me. That’s something they don’t have to do, but they choose to. That’s what makes me feel like this is a place that wants me — a place that’s interested in my well being as a wrestler and as a person.”
It only took Elam 48 hours to decide he was a Cyclone.
“That goes to show how quickly I knew this place could become home,” Elam said.
Home.
That word doesn’t get thrown around lightly. Elam talks often about being process-based. About gratitude. About wanting relationships that extend beyond one season.
“I don’t really want to be in a place that just values me as a wrestler for one year,” he said.
Elam didn’t want it to feel transactional. He wanted it to feel right.
He found that it in Ames.
Yonger’s Evolution
When Iowa State announced Bastida’s commitment more than five years ago, Dresser didn’t just talk about accolades.
“We obviously are very happy to add Yonger to our roster,” Dresser said in 2020. “He is already a very successful wrestler on the international freestyle wrestling stage and we are very excited to help him learn folkstyle wrestling. I know that Yonger is very excited to experience everything that goes along with being a Division I student athlete.”
Experience everything. For Bastida, that meant far more than just stepping onto a new mat.
Learning how to train and live like a Division I athlete. Becoming a full-time college student while navigating a new culture and a new life more than 1,500 miles from his hometown of Trinidad, Cuba — separated from everything he had ever known.
It meant starting over. It meant discomfort. And through that discomfort came growth.
Today, Dresser calls him “the show.” Nobody leaves Hilton before heavyweight.
The entertainment value is undeniable. Explosiveness. Swagger. A heavyweight strong enough to lift a gold medalist like Wyatt Hendrickson for a takedown.
Now, there’s a calm to him. A steadiness that wasn’t always there.
Experience humbled him. It sharpened him. It made him more focused, more controlled — aware that every time he steps on the mat, someone wants to take his head off.
The growth didn’t stop at the edge of the mat.
“I came a long way,” Bastida said recently. “With my English, with wrestling — folkstyle — everything. When I came from Cuba, I didn’t know anything. I knew freestyle, but not folkstyle. I didn’t know English either. I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come.”
He paused when he talked about Iowa State.
“I feel like it was the right place to come,” Bastida said. “All the support — from teachers, academic advisors, coaches, my teammates, the Cyclone fans — that’s something I’ll take to the grave with me.”
Anthony Echemendia, one of Bastida’s childhood friends who also found his way to Ames, once described the early version of Bastida as quiet. Reserved. Not yet fully comfortable in his own voice.
That version feels distant now.
The heavyweight who commands Hilton Coliseum, who smiles under the lights, who carries himself with presence — that didn’t just happen. It was built.
He didn’t come to Ames just to win matches.
He came chasing opportunity. The kind of life so many talk about when they speak of pursuing the American dream.
Somewhere along the way, Ames became family.
One More Rep
Dresser told his team this week that Sunday is “one more rep” inside Hilton.
Right now, everything is process oriented. Big 12s next. Nationals after that. Sharpen what you’re best at. Dial in nutrition. Sleep. Details.
Senior Day doesn’t usually hit him in February.
It hits in April when the team gets together for the annual team banquet.
When the seniors get the opportunity to grab the mic. Some cry. Some laugh. And sometimes, Dresser admits, he gets choked up.
Maybe Sunday he won’t let himself feel it yet.
There’s too much left to accomplish. This team believes it can do something special. They know this opportunity doesn’t come around often. And for the four seniors in the starting lineup, this is their final opportunity.
Come April, regardless of what the final brackets show, there may be a tear or two.
Because even in a sport that now moves faster than ever…
Even in an era that can feel transactional…
Four seniors chose Ames.
And when they stand up at that banquet and say goodbye, that choice will feel anything but temporary.
