Ludington is from New Jersey, but DeLuca is not. DeLuca attends Blair Academy but is a native of the Albany, New York area.#1 ranked Ludington commits to Iowa
Elite recruit Harvey Ludington announced on Instagram that he has committed to the University of Iowa. Ludington, from Brick, New Jersey(Brick Memorial HS), is the #1 rated 190 lbs. high school wrestler in the country. Ludington is #1 at 190 by MatScouts and FloWrestling. The #1 spot was earned...iowawrestlingblog.com
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
i have always thought that PSU was smart for loading up on upper weights. A lot of the HS prospects choose football, so there is less competition coming in every class. In the lower weights - what other sport is an elite athlete that weighs 125/133/141/149 lbs going to play? All of the top 10-20 at the weight go wrestle in college.
I seem to recall a dude named Spencer Lee and another Drake Ayala
In defense of the original statement Spencer’s been gone for two years and currently in the lineup at the first 6 weights Ayala is the only AA threat that was a recruit out of high school…
Glad we are finally having more to look forward to in the second half of the lineup, especially 184, that has been a hole for a long time. Bull, Kem when healthy, Warner, and Cass were a good group, but I think this new group is even better, and more athletic. Have a high quality 125 in 2025 class, and we are going after the best recruits from 133 to 149 in 2026, just need to pray we land them.
Our main competitors for Bo and Jax are PSU, tOSU and OSU. Been told Carl and Taylor go alittle cheap on the money now since they think it’s such a privilege to wrestle for them, and it seems to be working, so could out bid them. Tom Ryan seems willing to really open up their huge pocket book, so would have to want to wrestle for us more. Main competitors for Raneys seem to be Illinois and OSU. Illinois should be easy to out bid. There have been people here more in the know that said money shouldn’t be a problem for us to land top recruits.
Last year I heard of two different deals that were in the 400,000 a year range, so I do think that Penn State is not afraid to spend some money. It might not be as much as some other people however I think they're in the game when it comes to finances.
Penn State in the game with finances? You don't say??
Reminder: NIL is rich kids buying their own toys for their own—and our indirect—pleasure. This year, the “kids” bought the Hawks three top-tier gunslingers, the Lions two returning champs and a runnerup, and the Cowboys respectability. As I understand it, not $1 of a university’s wrestling budget helps pay these tabs. Take comfort in being one of the destination schools in such a cutthroat environment. If inclined, struggle privately with whether the NIL/portal marriage helps or hurts the competitiveness of our sport.
Agreed, I don't like it but it is how it works. At least. And all of the top dogs are playing the game.
Yeah, my original post was terribly written … I did a bad job of conveying my thought: I should say … for the “donors” … I know the school is not flipping the bill … Can and will Iowa (donors) sustain making X donations to be able to bring in high-level/cost wrestlers? Does Iowa have that type of donor network?
Thanks … and thanks for calling out my poorly-worded original post… in looking back at it I absolutely made it sound like the program was handing out the cash … I think my intent was Iowa in general terms … meaning … the Iowa donors/network … I really have no idea how many people contribute big bucks to Iowa wrestling … and bless them for doing so!
