Iowa State wrestling to be awarded team trophy for fourth-place finish at NCAAs

Iowa State wrestling will be adding hardware to its trophy case after all.

After the NCAA initially awarded only first-, second- and third-place trophies at the national tournament, the NCAA later decided to award the Cyclones a trophy for their fourth-place efforts.

The NCAA traditionally awarded fourth-place trophies for wrestling, but decided to cut back to three in 2024. That left the Cyclones short of their season-long goal for 2024. Now the dream has been realized, better late than never.

Coach Kevin Dresser confirmed the development to the Register after Yonger Bastida shared the news on Instagram.

"Iowa State wrestling is a history program," Bastida wrote on Instagram. "We wouldn't have accomplished this without the love and support of Cyclone Nation."

The Cyclones took fourth behind Penn State (172.5 points), Cornell (72.5 points) and Michigan (71 points). Iowa State was at 68.5 points, a point and a half better than fifth-place Iowa. It was the first time ISU eclipsed Iowa's total since 2017 and Iowa State's best finish since 2010. Behind David Carr's national title and All-American efforts from Evan Frost, Casey Swiderski and Anthony Echemendia, Iowa State had its most All-Americans since 2009.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him atEmckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23