Iowa wrestling men's U20 World Team Trials/U23 Nationals preview

It’s almost time for Iowa wrestling fans to take a break from a busy spring freestyle schedule.

Almost.

Seven Hawkeyes have qualified for Final X next month – where they’ll have the chance to earn a spot on Team USA for the 2025 Senior World Championships – that much is certain and will remain unchanged.

However, what is still up in the air are potential berths on age-level World teams – the pecking order for which will be confirmed this weekend in Geneva, Ohio. That’s where USA Wrestling will host its annual U23 Nationals/U20 World Team Trials event.

As of now, 13 athletes with present/future Hawkeye ties are scheduled to compete across several disciples/age groups. That list begins with the following octet – all but one of whom will compete in the U23 Freestyle Nationals:

Our crew heading to Geneva.@HWC_wrestling x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/QEWIYHZcNC

— Iowa Hawkeye Wrestling (@Hawks_Wrestling) May 29, 2025

Also, testing their mettle versus U23 competition will be Owen McMullen (a class of 2026 commit) and Massoma Endene (the wildly intriguing incoming Division III transfer).

And rounding out Iowa’s U20 contingent will be premier 2026 recruits Bo Bassett and Michael Mocco, plus 2025 commit Leister Bowling IV – the lone wrestler amongst this group who already sits in the best-of-three finals.

For some, this weekend represents the culmination/expectations of an effort to make another World team. For others, it’s a prime opportunity for a brand-new experience and/or accomplishment.

But regardless of the mindset entering the tournament(s), some high-level wrestling will be required to get them where they want to go. After all, they don’t just ‘hand out’ spots on a World team. You’ve got to go earn ‘em.

Here’s a preview of the Hawkeyes who’ll be looking to do just that in the days to come.

Format features

Before we dive into the principal characters, first a refresher on the format of this weekend’s proceedings.

For the U20 World Team Trials, half of the best-of-three finals spots (10 in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman) are already filled by athletes who won April’s US Open. The other half will be determined by a ‘Challenge Tournament’ this weekend, pitting elite fields of qualified competitors against one another just to earn the chance to get into the best-of-three series.

Once all spots are filled upon completion of the Challenge Tournament (Saturday morning), the best-of-three finals will go off later in the afternoon to determine Team USA’s U20 representatives.

Conversely, the U23 Nationals hold a slightly different distinction.

For one, there is no Challenge Tournament and there are no athletes sitting out until the finals. Instead, (sizable) brackets will be contested over two days (Saturday/Sunday) for all 10 weight classes, with the two finalists at each weight then wrestling a best-of-three series for the title of ‘U23 National Champion.’

While nice, that title does not automatically earn an athlete a spot on the U23 World team later this year. First dibs for that honor goes to any age-eligible member of the 2025 Senior Men’s National Team (if applicable) – meaning any U23-eligible athlete could accept the spot so long as they’re in the top three at their weight on the current Senior ladder.

If no such athlete fits the criteria, or if they decline the spot, the U23 National Champion will get it.

As always, we’ll cross that bridge if/when we get to it. For now, here’s the who/what to look out for this weekend.

Championship veterans

It may sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but high school seniors-to-be Bo Bassett and Michael Mocco are seasoned vets when it comes to this type of environment.

Both past U17 World champions, the pair came up just short of titles at last month’s US Open. Now, they’ll have to go the hard route to make another World team.

For Bassett – also a U20 World bronze medalist a year ago – a hellacious field of elite high school and collegiate competitors awaits at 65 kilograms. Fortunately, he ripped through a similarly treacherous bracket at the US Open (other than the final), earning bonus points in all seven of his victories.

After falling 5-2 at the Open, he’d love to get another shot at Lehigh All-American Luke Stanich in the best-of-three finals.

Keep an eye out for Aden Valencia as well – the younger brother of Iowa women’s wrestler Nyla Valencia. Aden, a freshman at Stanford in 2024-25, has mostly competed at Senior-level freestyle events dating back to last year. But he and Bassett are familiar with one another – with the future Hawkeye owning a 4-0 record in recent meetings, including a two-match finals sweep at U20 Trials last year.

Meanwhile, Michael Mocco would like to exact some revenge of his own at 125kg – where Penn State freshman Cole Mirasola awaits in the finals.

Mirasola won 7-6 in the US Open semis despite scoring zero takedowns to Mocco’s three. That can’t have sat well with the future Hawkeye heavyweight.

But if Mocco wants that opportunity he may have to beat both Koy Hopke – a Minnesota freshman (and 2022 U17 World champ) whom he lost to 6-2 at the Open – and star Fort Dodge (IA) product Dreshaun Ross (committed to Oklahoma State) just to get there.

Talk about earning it.

Final favorites

While Bassett/Mocco have the most familiarity with this championship environment and definitely possess the talent to win their weights, the two Hawkeyes arguably in the best position to take home a title are Leister Bowling IV and Massoma Endene.

That almost goes without saying for Bowling – again, the lone Iowa-affiliated wrestler sitting out until the best-of-three finals.

The Colorado native’s US Open run was nearly impeccable. Not only did he earn technical falls in all five matches, but Bowling only allowed three total points scored against him.

Several of those opponents litter the Challenge Tournament bracket competing to face him, but a new entry at 77kg could provide the biggest test.

Aliaksandr Kikiniou Jr. also reached the US Open finals but did so at 72kg and in the Senior division. He’s now registered for U20’s, and while I’m the furthest thing from a Greco-Roman expert, my intuition says that this may be Bowling’s greatest challenge to date.

So perhaps Iowa’s most likely winner is someone else entirely. Perhaps it’s U23 entrant Massoma Endene – who doesn’t have the track record of past World titles like Bassett/Mocco, nor the benefit of sitting in the finals (Bowling).

But what the three-time Division III NCAA Champion does have is a favorable-looking bracket at 97kg. The same happened to be true a year ago, and Endene won the tournament with ease.

If he could make the 2024 World team outscoring that field by a margin of 41-1, I don’t see why he couldn’t do similarly in 2025.

Endene was seventh at the Senior US Open last month, but none of those top contenders are in the field this weekend.

Well-traveled former blue chipper Christian Carroll (Oklahoma State/Iowa State/Wyoming) is. Keep an eye on him.

Other names of note

Based on pure wrestling accomplishments as a Hawkeye I probably should’ve mentioned Michael Caliendo’s name a while ago.

He’s part of a loaded U23 field at 74kg, and as a reigning NCAA runner up (and three-time All-American) I’m always eager to watch him compete. But this is freestyle – which as I documented pre-Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament two weeks ago – is less familiar territory for the Iowa senior-to-be.

That inexperience showed as Caliendo went 0-2 in Louisville. How will he respond/adjust this weekend? 74kg has at least three NCAA All-Americans amongst its ranks, plus several other talented freestylers.

Under folkstyle rules this would be a no-brainer. But it isn’t.

We’ll have to see if/how that matters here in a few days.

There are also three other U23 entries I want to highlight, for different reasons.

At 57kg, 2025 Iowa starter Joey Cruz returns after taking seventh place at this event a year ago. How does he look after a disappointing postseason – one that was followed by Iowa adding his possible replacement via the transfer portal in Rutgers’ Dean Peterson.

And how about freshman Kael Voinovich? After a redshirt year with several positive moments, how does the youngster fit in amongst an ever-crowded group of 149/157-pounders on the Iowa roster?

Voinovich made a deep run at the (U20) US Open a year ago, and there’s no one currently registered at 70kg who stands out as an overwhelming favorite over the field.

Somebody else who is in that field is 2026 commit Owen McMullen.

Fresh off an extended injury-related absence, McMullen finally returned to competition a few weeks ago.

It was a promising start, too. However, U23 Nationals should present a far greater challenge for the high school teammate of Bo Bassett (Bishop McCort).

Don’t forget

Five more Iowa athletes will also take the mat in Ohio this weekend:

• Koye Grebel (U23 – 70kg)
• Isaiah Fenton (U23 – 74kg)
• Joseph Kennedy (U23 – 74kg)
• Sebastian Robles (U23 – 79kg)
• Brody Sampson (U20 – 92kg)

No member of the group has yet to make an impact in Iowa’s varsity lineup.

Of the quintet, redshirt freshmen Kennedy and Sampson each registered four or more wins at April’s US Open (U20 division) – the latter placing eighth at 92kg. Grebel also competed in Las Vegas, going 1-2.

Fenton, a Burlington native, is about to enter his third year as a Hawkeye. Robles will be a redshirt senior next fall.

How to watch

As with all USA Wrestling events, your streaming home for this weekend’s festivities is FloWrestling.

Action for the Iowa wrestlers won’t get started until later Friday – with Leister Bowling IV contesting his U20 Greco best-of-three final.

Meanwhile, the entirety of U20 Freestyle competition will be run on Saturday. U23 Nationals will be split pretty much evenly between Saturday/Sunday.

*all times Central Standard*

Friday, May 30^th

3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

• U20 Greco-Roman World Team Trials (best-of-three finals)

Saturday, May 31^st

8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

• U20 Freestyle World Team Trials (Challenge Tournament prelims, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals and consolations)
• U23 Freestyle Nationals (prelims and consolations)

3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

• U20 Freestyle World Team Trials (best-of-three finals and all medal matches)
• U23 Freestyle Nationals (prelims and consolations)

Sunday, June 1^st

9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

• U23 Freestyle Nationals (quarterfinals, semifinals, consolations, all medal matches and best-of-three finals)

Short time

Per usual, I’ll have coverage of proceedings on my social media throughout the weekend. Then once everything has wrapped up, I’ll recap every match/move of note – probably publishing sometime later Sunday evening or early Monday morning.

‘Till then, enjoy these Iowa Hawkeyes whenever you can spare a moment to check in.

This is a really fun double-booking of wrestling every year, and again, this will likely be the last time you see many of these guys compete between now and November.

My advice? Savor every little bit of it that you can.