Since its inception, the ISU

wrestling club had always been just talk. But after finally hitting

the mats, the members are now ready to begin competing for the

first time.

While the club was founded in 2006,

with no facility available to use on campus, the group simply

talked about getting things going and occasionally got together to

work out.

“They got together and did some

weight-lifting, some conditioning and talking about wrestling, but

nobody actually wrestled until the end of last spring semester,”

said Zach Byrnes, club president and ISU senior.

After several years of no actual

practices and no wrestling on mats, the club finally took a big

step forward last spring when it began renting out the wrestling

room at Odgen High School.

With a 30-minute drive each way to

practice and with rental fees to use the facility, the move was not

perfect for the club. But with Byrnes’ eyes set on the club joining

the National Collegiate Wrestling Association for competitions this

fall, it was a necessary move.

“We started wrestling over at Odgen

and had a few practices just to kind of get some faith built up in

everybody,” Byrnes said. “So they knew we were actually going to be

competing this year.”

The club held a few practices in

Odgen during the spring semester before having discussions with

personnel at Ames High School in the summer. Those talks led the

wrestling club to its most recent home in the Ames High School

wrestling room.

“After some meetings with the Ames

High athletic director and wrestling coach, we finally hashed out a

deal,” Byrnes said.

With travel for practices now less

of an issue, the club holds four weekly practices and has around 35

members. After many years of talking, they finally are ready for

competition.

This year, the wrestling club will

be a part of the NCWA, a network of club wrestling teams from

across the country. Many of the schools in the league have lost

their Division I wrestling teams because of financial constraints

or Title IX, and the league aims to allow those schools to continue

to compete.

But there is also room for other

schools, and as Iowa State continues to maintain its NCAA Division

I wrestling program, that is where the club will fit in.

“There are two different divisions

within the NCWA,” Byrnes said. “We’ll be Division II because we

have an NCAA Division I team. Any team that doesn’t have that in

front of them is classified as a Division I school.”

Byrnes said that as of now the club

will take part in around seven different meets this year. The

club’s first one will be the Winona State Club Invitational on Oct.

29.

Ryan Kooiker, junior in animal

ecology and club member, has long been interested in moving from

the meetings to the mat. For him, it is an exciting

moment.

“I was just expecting to have

wrestling practices,” Kooiker said. “Having the competition aspect

just makes you that much more competitive.”

While the club will now be competing

for the first time, Byrnes said the club is keeping track of its

every move to focus on improving.

“We can’t do everything in the first

year,” Byrnes said. “But as long as we get established this year,

we can keep building every year.”

One of those building blocks is a

move to a facility on campus.

While the club has cut down on

travel by moving to Ames High School, it still pays rental fees

that it hopes to cut soon.

“It costs us to go [to Ames High],

and if we got on campus, there wouldn’t be any annual cost,” Byrnes

said. “That’s our main goal and where we’re looking to head next

semester.”

With State Gym now on the brink of

opening, the ISU Recreation Services may be able to help push that

goal forward.

“We hope to have plenty of space for

all of the clubs and organizations that want to utilize more space

for practice time,” said Garry Greenlee, associate director of

Recreation Services. “The wrestling club has been with us for a few

years now, so I think it’s important that we look for a place they

can wrestle on campus instead of driving off campus.”

Until then, the club will focus on

its newfound competition.