After a long week in Somokov, Bulgaria at the 2025 U20 World Championships a pair of Iowa wrestlers are headed back home.
Both Leister Bowling IV and Naomi Simon will likely do so with slight disappointment over their results.
In his first World Championships appearance, Bowling (Greco-Roman) lost in the bronze medal match at 77 kilograms to finish in fifth place.
Meanwhile, Simon (Women’s Freestyle) lost her quarterfinal bout at 76kg and was not pulled back into repechage. That spelled the end of her tournament and a seventh-place finish – a year after earning bronze at the same event.
On the eve of the fall semester, this wraps up the final competition before the 2025-26 school year gets underway.
Senior (September 13-21) and U23 Worlds (October 20-27) are still on the docket before the college season officially begins. But from now on, any current Hawkeyes will very much be ‘student-athletes’ while competing in those events.
And so, as classes begin, here’s my final essay on U20 Worlds – followed by some brief highlights of another international tournament involving two Hawkeyes last week.
Bowling battles with the best in first World Championships appearance
It’s rare, but sometimes I almost feel like I know what I’m talking about with this sport.
I’m referring, of course, to my U20 preview from last week – especially as it pertains to Leister Bowling IV.
In it, I highlighted the incredible run the Iowa freshman had been on throughout the summer, while also acknowledging the potential landmines of the European/Asian Greco competition descending upon Bulgaria.
As it turns out, both elements came to fruition for the Colorado native.
In the Round of 16, Bowling gritted out a 3-1 victory over Azis Atanasov (Bulgaria), countering a second period throw attempt to take the lead.
His reward? A quarterfinal matchup against three-time age-level World medalist (and 2022 U17 champ) Anri Putkaradze of Georgia.
The Georgian stood at least a head shorter than the American, but possessed a rock-solid, explosive style. Putkaradze used that to gut Bowling twice from par terre, then hit a four-point throw just before the first-period buzzer to end the bout via technical fall (9-0).
Needing Putkaradze to advance to the final to keep his medal hopes alive, Bowling got just that.
(In fact, Putkaradze then went on to win gold with a 10-1 tech. fall in the final.)
Now back in Sunday’s repechage, Bowling faced recent U23 Asian champ Akzhan Ykylassov (Kazakhstan). Midway through the second period, things weren’t looking good. That is, until the Hawkeye pulled off this decisive sequence to turn the tables:
The win meant a bronze medal was now on the table against Kiryl Valeuski (UWW) – a reigning U17 World champion.
Unfortunately, the result was identical to Bowling’s previous match against a past World champ – a 9-0 tech. fall defeat.
Despite the disappointment of a 2-2 overall record, the performance was laudable, nonetheless.
Bowling was the lone member of 17th-place Team USA to reach a medal match – finishing as its highest placer (fifth). And his two wins were exactly half the amount produced by the nine other Americans competing (four).
Now, he’ll return to Iowa City for his first year as a Hawkeye.
Simon’s repeat medal bid comes up short
The tournament for Iowa’s other U20 entry spanned just a single day.
Those are the cruelties of the international repechage (consolation) format – when your only chance to wrestle for bronze is to either reach the semifinals or lose to a wrestler who advances to the gold medal match.
Naomi Simon had neither qualification on her side this time. But first, here’s how we got there:
Round of 16 – win by FALL over Rupinder Kau Johal (Canada)
After giving up an exposure on an early shot, it was all Simon.
The Hawkeye rattled off nine consecutive points, the last of which coincided with a pin late in the first period.
The win over Canada set up a quarterfinal against a foe who was in Simon’s U20 bracket a year ago – though the two never met.
Quarterfinal – loss by 10-4 dec. to Tuvshinjargal Tarav (Mongolia)
In this match, Tarav – fifth in 2024 – never really allowed Simon to get comfortable.
The Mongolian controlled the ties throughout and twice put the Hawkeye on her back. But even still, Simon took a criteria lead (4-4) thanks to a dogged takedown mid-second period.
Not 20 seconds later, Tarav tossed the American to her back for four points, regaining a lead she wouldn’t relinquish.
Her fate now out of her hands, Simon’s hopes of another World medal rested upon the Mongolian winning her semifinal.
Unfortunately, Tarav fell victim to a spectacular throw (and pin) by a Ukrainian – who’d go on to win gold.
Not matching/exceeding her bronze medal from 2024 will certainly bother the Iowa sophomore – whose eight team points helped the Americans to a narrow fourth-place finish behind China. But with a year of U20 eligibility remaining it’s clear the next objective has already been set.
Said Simon in a post-tournament Instagram post, “I’ll be back.”
Mixed performances in Paraguay for Iowa’s twin lightweights
I mentioned an additional international tournament took place this past week, and we’ll cover theHawkeye-related details now.
Twins Emilie (50kg) and Brianna Gonzalez (53kg) were among a contingent of Americans competing at the 2025 Junior Pan-American Games.
The event – a U23-eque ‘mini-Olympics’ for North/South American countries – is taking place in Asunción, Paraguay and involves all manner of sports.
Both sisters advanced to the semifinals with dominant wins – Emilie pinning her Paraguayan foe in 1:11 while Brianna impressively controlled a reigning U23 World silver medalist.
That’s where both of their championship runs would end, however.
Emilie fell 11-0 to Greile Bencosme (Cuba), an identical result to that of Iowa teammate Ava Bayless against Bencosme several months ago. Funnily enough, Bencosme also went on to win the gold medal match by the same scoreline.
As for Brianna, she was stymied in the semis by Venezuela’s Alexa Alvarez.
Alvarez – who competed up a 57kg earlier this summer – proved too strong/stingy for the Hawkeye in a 6-0 decision. In fact, Alvarez didn’t allow a point the entire tournament, winning her quarterfinal and gold medal bouts via 10-0/11-0 margins.
That left bronze medal matches for both sisters.
A tight early leg lace proved fatal for Emilie in a 13-2 defeat to Nohalis Loyo (Venezuela) – who finished third at Senior Pan-Ams in May. Whereas Brianna got back on the winning track against Brazil’s Kailane Araujo – exploding for a pair of first-period double leg takedowns, the latter of which she followed by running a bar for the fall.
Less than 48 hours later, the twins were back in Iowa City doing some community service before classes start Monday:
Short time
Here’s hoping I’ve successfully covered all angles from these two international tournaments.
Three weeks from now we’ll have another – including seven(!) Hawkeyes – with the Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
Until then, keep an eye out for more Iowa wrestling content as the school year officially gets underway.
I’ll have full breakdowns of both the men’s and women’s rosters as they’re officially updated.
(The women’s roster already has been, while the men’s will likely follow sometime this week.)
Otherwise, thanks as always for reading/following along here at Hawkeye Report, and I’ll talk to you again real soon.
