Malcom To Sign With Hawkeyes
Matt Malcom will be remaining in black and gold for his collegiate wrestling career.
Malcom, a Glenwood senior, has committed to the University of Iowa wrestling program. He is the first Ram to accept a Division I wrestling scholarship since Mitch Artist signed with Iowa State in 2005.
“I just fit in really, really well I felt like with my style of wrestling and just the atmosphere,” Malcom said of his commitment to the Hawkeyes. “I love the coaches. Everything just fit perfectly.”
The Hawkeyes placed second at last year’s national championships and will once again contend for the crown this season under nine year head coach Tom Brands.
The Rams’ three time state qualifier was 47-6 at 152 pounds last season. He placed fifth at the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament.
This spring and summer, Malcom wrestled with the MWC Wrestling Academy in Omaha. Head coach at MWC Zac Dominguez pushed him this off-season to challenge his training and competition regimen. Since the end of Glenwood’s season in March, Malcom’s taken just four weeks off since the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament last March.
“He (Dominguez) helped me so much with just becoming a better wrestler. He pushed me into doing Freestyle and Grecco,” Malcom said.
After winning the state tournament in both styles this summer, Malcom joined the duals team for Junior National Duals in Tulsa, Okla. It was there Malcom caught the eye of Iowa assistant Ryan Morningstar.
“One of their assistants watched me in some freestyle (wrestling) events over the summer in North Dakota and Oklahoma and they told me they’d be in contact,” Malcom said.
Malcom took an official visit to the Iowa City campus in September.
After considering Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D. and Grand View University in Des Moines and receiving some interest from Iowa State, Malcom called Hawkeye assistant coach Ryan Morningstar to commit after school Friday during Glenwood’s Homecoming activities.
“I made up my mind that day,” Malcom said. He called the Hawkeyes his “dream school.”
“I’ve always dreamed of being in black and gold. Them and the Glenwood black and gold.”
Malcom is undecided on what he will major. He could wrestle at 157 or 165 for the Hawkeyes.
“I haven’t talked a ton about that with them but that’s what I’m assuming,” he said.
The Rams open their season Dec. 3. Malcom knows as an Iowa commitment he’ll wrestle his senior season with a target on his back. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
"I’m looking forward to that too,” he said. “Just knowing I have to be that much better because kids want to beat me.”