Austin DeSanto wrestling Michigan's Stevan Micic at the NCAAs (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)A former Drexel Dragon will become an Iowa Hawkeye.
Weeks after Austin DeSanto was granted a release by Drexel University reportedly seeking "a tougher room" (according to his high school coach), the 133-pounder who just completed his freshman season will be wrestling next season at the University of Iowa.
"I thought about it for a while," DeSanto told Andy Hamilton of Trackwrestling.com Sunday night. "This whole week I thought about what I'm about and this opportunity and what I want to do with them and how hard they wrestle and how hard they train. That's what I'm about. That's what I want to become and I think they can get me to the point where I can become a national champ. That's why I chose them."
DeSanto will be reunited with former high school rival Spencer Lee, who won the 125-pound title for the Hawkeyes at the 2018 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in March. One year earlier, wrestling for Exeter High School in Reading, Pennsylvania, DeSanto upset Lee, who was going for his fourth consecutive PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) individual title and an unbeaten career at Franklin Regional High. After the match it was revealed that Lee had been wrestling with a torn ACL.
"In my mind it's awesome because I get a really, really good training partner to work with and so many other training partners who are going to make me better," DeSanto told Andy Hamilton. "They have a lot of lightweight workout partners. It's going to be awesome."
Trackwrestling.com reported that DeSanto had visited the Iowa campus the first week of April, during the 2018 World Cup held at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
A number of schools had been mentioned as possible new homes for DeSanto in addition to Iowa, including Penn State and Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey… all Big Ten schools.
NJ.com -- a website for a number of newspapers in New Jersey -- reported Sunday that DeSanto had visited the Rutgers campus two weeks ago; sportswriter James Kratch said, "there was mutual interest" in DeSanto, who was expected to move up to 141 pounds if he were to wrestle for the Scarlet Knights. Kratch went on to report that speculation is that Rutgers placed second in the battle for DeSanto's services.
Austin DeSanto could be a difference-maker for Iowa, possibly helping to propel the Hawkeyes beyond their third-place team finish at the 2018 NCAAs.
"Iowa certainly has a knack for developing and fielding extraordinary talent at 125 and 133, so the fit seems natural," according to Jordan Hansen of the Iowa fan website Black Heart Gold Pants. "The Hawkeyes had issue filling the 133-pound spot all year, as senior Philip Laux went 9-4 and sophomore Paul Glynn went 8-11."
"This was a spot Iowa desperately needed some help and to get a guy who went 30-7 last year is pretty great," Hansen continued. "DeSanto made it all the way to the round of 12 at the NCAA tournament last year, so I feel safe to say he's probably for real."
Prior to launching his collegiate career at Drexel in Philadelphia, DeSanto was a three-time Pennsylvania state championship medalist, having lost to Spencer Lee in the 2016 PIAA finals. A year later, DeSanto avenged that defeat by handing Lee his first high school career loss in the 126-pound title bout, which some have labeled as the greatest upset in PIAA championships history.
That upset vaulted DeSanto into the national spotlight. Sadly, an incident at the 2018 NCAAs may have done some damage to DeSanto's reputation.
Towards the end of a quarterfinal bout with Michigan's Steven Micic -- a match DeSanto was losing -- it appeared the Drexel freshman had applied a dangerous arm bar on his opponent before an official stepped in to break the hold. The seemingly unsportsmanlike incident stirred up much discussion among college wrestling fans in online discussion groups and in social media, much of it directed against DeSanto. Micic eventually placed second at 133.
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