26-27 Wrestling Recruiting

[Mead For My Horses]

I hesitate to copy & paste paywall content, but I will here to get this recruiting thread going. Matscout Willie does a nice job of summarizing where we are & where we should go.

Iowa State Cyclones
Needs: Everything

First Call: #42-Mac Crosson (IA) and #45-Max Dhabolt (IA)

Why: Guess how many commits ISU has for 2026. Wrong. Zero. They have no commits for next year and had just one (#14-Christian Castillo) in 2025. That's not to say Coach Dresser can't recruit. No, far from it. It's to say the Cyclones should have a gang of money. And they'll need it. 8 of this year's 10 starters will be JR's or SR's.

The good news is that the state of Iowa has an above average group of prospects in 2027 - ten Big Boarders in total.

If I were Dresser & Co., I'd start by locking down Crosson and Dhabolt to get off to an early start before hitting more both in-state and nationally.

Who They Are: Crosson and Dhabolt were both 3rd at state as FR and won state titles as Sophs. Dhabolt also made Fargo finals. Both are growing significantly and I think could project to very fine starters in the 165-174 range.

Others: #38-Dawson Youngblut (IA), #50-Gavin Landers (IA), #53-Grayson Fuchs (MI), #71-Brayden Koester (IA)

 

[stuclone]

I hesitate to copy & paste paywall content, but I will here to get this recruiting thread going. Matscout Willie does a nice job of summarizing where we are & where we should go.

Iowa State Cyclones
Needs: Everything

First Call: #42-Mac Crosson (IA) and #45-Max Dhabolt (IA)

Why: Guess how many commits ISU has for 2026. Wrong. Zero. They have no commits for next year and had just one (#14-Christian Castillo) in 2025. That's not to say Coach Dresser can't recruit. No, far from it. It's to say the Cyclones should have a gang of money. And they'll need it. 8 of this year's 10 starters will be JR's or SR's.

The good news is that the state of Iowa has an above average group of prospects in 2027 - ten Big Boarders in total.

If I were Dresser & Co., I'd start by locking down Crosson and Dhabolt to get off to an early start before hitting more both in-state and nationally.

Who They Are: Crosson and Dhabolt were both 3rd at state as FR and won state titles as Sophs. Dhabolt also made Fargo finals. Both are growing significantly and I think could project to very fine starters in the 165-174 range.

Others: #38-Dawson Youngblut (IA), #50-Gavin Landers (IA), #53-Grayson Fuchs (MI), #71-Brayden Koester (IA)

I'd add Nico DeSalvo to the list of Iowa high school studs for 2027 as well

 

[4theheckofit]

I could be wrong, but watching Landers the last two years...seems to have very little offense against better competition and is content playing defense.

 

[BikeSkiClone]

Youngblut and Landers - IAWC teammates of Schwab and Youngblut a Bosco teammate - seem to be UNI’s to lose, but who knows. Don’t know a ton about Dhabolt but would love to see Crosson wrestling for the good guys.

 

[Joeylee]

I'd add Nico DeSalvo to the list of Iowa high school studs for 2027 as well

Already a crazy good scrambler. should translate well to the way college wrestling is heading

 

[stuclone]

Youngblut and Landers - IAWC teammates of Schwab and Youngblut a Bosco teammate - seem to be UNI’s to lose, but who knows. Don’t know a ton about Dhabolt but would love to see Crosson wrestling for the good guys.

I think Dhabolt might end up being the best of all 2027 kids out of Iowa

 

[buf87]

I assume UNI will load up in this class with his kid, Youngblut being from Don Bosco and Landers from Denver. Will Crosson be a UNI lean, since from Indianola and Downey at UNI?

 

[SouthJerseyCy]

The OP is spot on with their concern. I was looking through the Flo rankings the other day and ISU has a total of 2 commits ranked in the top 20 at their weight. One of those (Stanton) I'm not sure is committed here anymore. By comparison Virginia Tech (random choice) has 12. Army has 10.

 

[RHBVClone]

I assume UNI will load up in this class with his kid, Youngblut being from Don Bosco and Landers from Denver. Will Crosson be a UNI lean, since from Indianola and Downey at UNI?

I've seen Desalvo multiple times hanging out with the Schwab boys. Though Nico isn't with that club, it may be tough to crack into that Immortal crew with all the UNI ties.

 

[stuclone]

I've seen Desalvo multiple times hanging out with the Schwab boys. Though Nico isn't with that club, it may be tough to crack into that Immortal crew with all the UNI ties.

I'm guessing DeSalvo ends up at Minnesota or Iowa State. He's close with the Schwab boys from his time with Immortal, but I think he will go to a bigger school

 

[cycloneman003]

The OP is spot on with their concern. I was looking through the Flo rankings the other day and ISU has a total of 2 commits ranked in the top 20 at their weight. One of those (Stanton) I'm not sure is committed here anymore. By comparison Virginia Tech (random choice) has 12. Army has 10.

Think it's be pretty dramatic to be very concerned at this point. It's still early on the class of 2027 guys, seems like we're in a good spot with Merrill who's top 10 guy in 2026 and we've still have a very young roster. So possible roster limits coming, our high level of activity in the transfer market and international guys and a young roster = 2026 class being light, granted we've had a couple of misses there that we'd have liked to land. 2027 still plenty of time to work on that class.

 

[SouthJerseyCy]

Think it's be pretty dramatic to be very concerned at this point. It's still early on the class of 2027 guys, seems like we're in a good spot with Merrill who's top 10 guy in 2026 and we've still have a very young roster. So possible roster limits coming, our high level of activity in the transfer market and international guys and a young roster = 2026 class being light, granted we've had a couple of misses there that we'd have liked to land. 2027 still plenty of time to work on that class.

The rankings I'm looking at include classes of 2024 and up. 3 light classes in a row and we won't be 'young' for long and we can't rely on the transfer portal like other top schools. Not claiming the sky is falling, but we do need to pick up the pace.

 

[cycloneman003]

The rankings I'm looking at include classes of 2024 and up. 3 light classes in a row and we won't be 'young' for long and we can't rely on the transfer portal like other top schools. Not claiming the sky is falling, but we do need to pick up the pace.

2024 had Naak, Meza, Bartelt and Herrera. Plus Diversent not counted and Riggins came in with 3 years left. That was a pretty good haul.

2025 is a small class, Castillo and Pearson are good gets, and then only one year fill in transfers which is not ideal every year I agree. 2026 will be small too it looks like and we'll certainly have some transfers.

So to some extent I agree because 2027 will be an important class. I think, with our roster as is, it's not the end of the world to have back to back small classes in 25/26

 

[BikeSkiClone]

Been curious what happened with him regarding club switching. Started with Sebolt when he moved to Iowa (swear I saw an interview with him a while back where he said they moved to Iowa specifically to train w/ Sebolt and SEP). Switched to Immortal for a year or so, then went back to Sebolt and has been there since.

 

[Joeylee]

Kane Naak seems like a guy who works hard and could end up being a really good wrestler and big part of the team down the road

 

[crablegs]

Been curious what happened with him regarding club switching. Started with Sebolt when he moved to Iowa (swear I saw an interview with him a while back where he said they moved to Iowa specifically to train w/ Sebolt and SEP). Switched to Immortal for a year or so, then went back to Sebolt and has been there since.

Who is “him”?

 

[G-imJustafan]

Who is “him”?

guessing DeSalvo from post above

I've seen Desalvo multiple times hanging out with the Schwab boys. Though Nico isn't with that club, it may be tough to crack into that Immortal crew with all the UNI ties.

I'm guessing DeSalvo ends up at Minnesota or Iowa State. He's close with the Schwab boys from his time with Immortal, but I think he will go to a bigger school

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Reactions:Newguyhere and RHBVClone

 

[enisthemenace]

Who is “him”?

Nico DeSalvo

EDIT: SEP has another kid, freshman, who moved here from PA. Thought is he’s likely a 4 timer. Don’t have a name yet, but something to keep an eye on

 

[BikeSkiClone]

I'm guessing DeSalvo ends up at Minnesota or Iowa State. He's close with the Schwab boys from his time with Immortal, but I think he will go to a bigger school

Who is “him”?

guessing DeSalvo from post above



I'm guessing DeSalvo ends up at Minnesota or Iowa State. He's close with the Schwab boys from his time with Immortal, but I think he will go to a bigger school

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Reactions:Newguyhere and RHBVClone

Nico DeSalvo

EDIT: SEP has another kid, freshman, who moved here from PA. Thought is he’s likely a 4 timer. Don’t have a name yet, but something to keep an eye on

Yes, sorry, DeSalvo. I clicked quote on one of the earlier posts but forgot to “insert the quote” into my response.

 

[enisthemenace]

Yes, sorry, DeSalvo. I clicked quote on one of the earlier posts but forgot to “insert the quote” into my response.

Kid is a stud