2020 Big Ten Wrestling Championship

Kaleb Young Has Finally Matched His Physical Fitness With His Mental Focus

Kaleb Young Has Finally Matched His Physical Fitness With His Mental Focus

Iowa's Kaleb Young says he's been physically ready since August, but he's just now getting into perfect condition mentally. That bodes well for the Hawkeye.

Feb 12, 2020 by Anna Kayser
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Each wrestler in Iowa’s 2020 lineup has a uniqueness about them: Spencer Lee likes technical falls, Austin DeSanto is, well, Austin DeSanto, and so on and so forth. 

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Each wrestler in Iowa’s 2020 lineup has a uniqueness about them: Spencer Lee likes technical falls, Austin DeSanto is, well, Austin DeSanto, and so on and so forth. 

Kaleb Young has a knack for getting himself into close matches.

Seven of his 13 total decisions on the year have been decided by four points or fewer, and he’s tallied two bonus-point wins this season. It’s not something he necessarily enjoys, but it’s something he is good at, going on an 11-match win streak since losing 3-2 to Princeton’s Quincy Monday before Midlands. 

Two of his losses early in the season came against ranked opponents. Then, at Midlands, something shifted in Young’s favor. He took three decisions before pinning then-No. 5 Kendall Coleman from Purdue in 7:57. 

Hear young talk about his performance at Midlands:

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Young followed that up what he does best, an SV1 5-3 win over Markus Hartman, to win the 157-pound bracket. Since then, he’s taken down Coleman again, along with ranked opponents in Peyton Robb and Jake Tucker. 

He wholeheartedly attributes that shift to his mentality. It’s something that the Iowa coaching staff pushes for in each of its wrestlers and could be the difference between a close win and a close loss. 

“Physically, I think I’ve been where I want to be since August or September,” Young said. “I don’t know why it takes my brain a little while to catch up, but that’s something I need to improve on. I’m where I want to be and I’m working on being better than where I am right now, too.” 

Last season, his ability to mentally fight his way through matches like that showed in a big way in Pittsburgh at NCAAs. He took down 5-seeded Ryan Deakin of Northwestern not once but twice by a takedown in SV1 after losing to him in the regular season. 

All of his 2018-19 losses – besides his 6-2 loss to Deakin – were decided within a takedown. All came against ranked opponents. 

Young’s path through Iowa’s final two dual meets features No. 24 Ryan Thomas of Minnesota and No. 18 Wyatt Sheets of Oklahoma State, but the biggest challenge of the season will come after those bouts. Three Big Ten 157-pounders are currently ranked in the top 10 with Deakin coming in at No. 1 overall, and Young will have to prove he can either score points or continue to fight through the toughest matches he’ll face this season. 

After a fourth-place finish at the conference tournament in 2019, Young’s mentality strengthened going into NCAAs. Now he has the ability to battle with anyone and continue his undefeated dominance over the conference. 

“I prefer to major guys and tech fall and pin guys, but sometimes it comes down to winning close matches,” Young said. “We have to win close matches too. Our coaches preach to us that the most dominant wrestlers win close matches, so I mean if I’m dominating guys and losing close ones, that’s not what I want. I’ve got to win the close ones too.”


Anna attended the University of Iowa, where she covered multiple sports from volleyball to football to wrestling. She went to Pittsburgh in March 2019 for the NCAA DI Wrestling Championships and did live coverage of the entire event and Spencer Lee’s second-straight NCAA title. Follow her on Twitter.