It had been a while since Victor Voinovich had been in competition.
The Iowa 157-pounder took advantage of his opportunity in last weekend’s duals against Ohio State and Michigan State.
He’s hoping for more chances this weekend, when the seventh-ranked Hawkeyes play host to #10 Michigan on Friday and travel to take on Purdue on Sunday.
“Honestly, right now, I’m just competing for a spot,” Voinovich said Tuesday. “I just focus on heading into practice every day with the mindset of making myself proud and just glorifying God with my practice and how I compete. That's all I can really do right now — just give my 100-percent effort and let God's plan take care of itself.”
Voinovich swept his two matches last weekend, defeating Ohio State’s Maddox Shaw 5-0 and Michigan State’s Darius Marines 7-3.
It was the first time Voinovich had been in competition since the Soldier Salute in early January, when he placed fifth.
“I was excited I got the opportunity to compete,” he said. “So it's been a little over a month, and I feel like I was able to start kind of just getting back into more of a groove of how I wanted to wrestle. Obviously, in my second match, those bloody noses kind of stopped me a little bit. But for the most part, I feel like I handled that adversity pretty well, and I feel like heading into these next few weeks, I'll keep the ball rolling a little more and get some more takedowns.”
The time between matches didn’t bother Voinovich.
“I was just saying, stay focused on what I can control,” Voinovich said. “And what I can control is just my effort every day, going into practice, emptying my tank, and being proud of how I competed that day in practice, and how I wrestled, and how my focus was that entire practice day.
“Obviously, I'm weighing in every week, and I'm ready. I'm ready when the opportunity comes.”
Voinovich is 9-4 this season. He lost his first two matches of the season at the National Duals Invitational, but notched dual wins over Pittsburgh’s Vince Bouzakis, Chattanooga’s Cavarius Liddle and Utah Valley’s Mark Takara.
Voinovich is listed with junior Jordan Williams at 157 on the probable lineups for this weekend.
Senior Night
Friday’s dual will be the last home appearance of the season for the Hawkeyes. Six seniors will be honored — Drake Ayala, Michael Caliendo, Patrick Kennedy, Gage Marty, Dean Peterson and Sebastian Robles.
“You’re looking at different guys — Robles and Marty, who have a different role than Ayala and Kennedy,” Iowa coach Tom Brands said. “And then you have a transfer in there who's not even a transfer in Mikey Caliendo. I mean, he's not a transfer. He started at North Dakota State, but he's a Hawkeye. And so there's a lot of different levels there.”
Caliendo, a three-time All-American, has an NCAA finals appearance and a runner-up and third-place finish in the Big Ten Championships in his time with the Hawkeyes. Sixty-five of his 94 career wins have come at Iowa.
“He's a full partner with the coaching staff. He's a full partner in the program,” Brands said. “He's a full partner with his teammates. I think of Ayala and Kennedy and him as a leadership group. You put him and Kennedy and Ayala together, and the three of them are great together.”
Ayala, a 133-pounder with two runner-up finishes in the NCAA Championships and two top-three finishes in the Big Ten Championships, has faced obstacles this season, going 7-6. Kennedy has been impressive all season. He’s 13-1 and ranked third nationally at 174.
Robles is 4-6 for his career, 0-2 this season, while Marty is 14-13 overall, 0-2 this season.
Brands said Robles, a 174-pounder, was going to step in at 197 in last Sunday’s dual at Michigan State if he was needed.
“You talked about glue or whatever, but that's a good characteristic of a journeyman-type guy, a guy that's going to be there for you when you need him,” Brands said. “Sometimes you assume a lot in relationships and with Robles, you don't have to assume much, because he'll come and he'll talk to you. He actually will communicate with you and let you know how he's feeling and what's on his mind. I’m a straight-talk guy, and so I appreciate that very much. Don't need to waste time with a lot of words and a lot of guessing. Just come tell me what's on your mind. And he's one of the best at that.
“Marty is awesome. We’ve got other guys, too, that aren't seniors that are in those roles. And I can tell you that those guys don't want to be in those roles, but they're in a role that is, you know … ‘noble’ maybe would be a good word.”
Last Big Ten Weekend
Brands said the Senior Night emotions need to be put aside, because this is the last Big Ten dual weekend for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa wrestles February 22 at Oklahoma State, then doesn’t compete again until the Big Ten Championships.
“We’ve got to kick some butt,” Brands said. “We want to honor those seniors. We want to talk about all of that, but we'll do that at our banquet. But I'm not downplaying this, but we got Michigan coming to town, and we got to wrestle with the energy that not only are you presently doing your job on the mat, but you are sending a message to your future competition, that whatever weight class you're wrestling at, you are sending a message by the way you compete to your future competition. And that's where we're at.”