This season, a spotlight has been placed on the one-two punch Iowa packs at the top of its lineup. At 125 and 133 pounds, respectively, two-time national champion Spencer Lee and All-American Austin DeSanto have been dominant at burying teams without giving them a chance. 

The Hawkeyes like to start out with the lightweight duo every chance they get, but against Penn State on Jan. 31 it was clear that starting at 125 gives Iowa more than just one advantage. For opponents, it’s just as difficult to end a meet against Iowa on a win as it is to begin with one. 

Enter Tony Cassioppi. 

The Iowa redshirt freshman heavyweight was passed the torch from an icon of the program, Sam Stoll, with ease. He has what head coach Tom Brands calls a “jack-o-lantern” smile and was predicted to be a fan-favorite before the season even began.

It’s easy to see why. He always has that giant smile on his face — well, except maybe when he’s dominating the best heavyweights the country has to offer. 

“I’m not like some guys on the team where the entire day leading into the match, they’re super serious,” Cassioppi said. “If you mess with DeSanto a little bit while he’s getting fruit after weigh-ins, it’s not fun, he’s not happy. But me, I’m cracking jokes, even when I’m warming up. 184, maybe I start to focus into my match more, but I still stay pretty relaxed the entire time.”

He’s the first to step up when he can improve while also honing into the mentality that you always have to move forward. 

That, along with everything else, makes him stand out. 

“He’s got great balance so he’s a good athlete,” Brands said. “I’ve liked some of the things I’ve learned about him over the past two years he’s been here . . . he is a competitor. He’s a nice guy but he is a competitor. Wrestling is a sport where you can get immediate feedback from yourself, and he does that very well.”

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His matches have been somewhat overshadowed by the fact that Iowa has steamrolled a majority of its opponents this season. By the time it gets to heavyweight, the match is mathematically sealed. 

But last Friday, when Iowa strolled into the final match trailing by two, Cassioppi proved to a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd and a Big Ten Network record-setting audience that he can put the entire team on his shoulders. 

“Cassioppi lives for that,” Brands said. “I don’t think we had to find out if he can handle that — he lives for that.”

And he can do it without blinking an eye. With a 7-0 win over Penn State’s Seth Nevills, Cassioppi gave Iowa its first lead since Lee’s meet-opening technical fall for the win. 

“It’s just another wrestling match,” Cassioppi said. “I wrestle on a black-and-gold mat every day. It didn’t change anything.”

That relaxed attitude is not uncommon from the No. 3 heavyweight in the nation, and it’ll be important in the next two weeks. When Iowa faces Michigan on Saturday and Minnesota one week later, he will face the only heavyweights topping him in this week’s rankings. 

“One match at a time,” Brands said. “He has great perspective and he’s wrestling well. We’ve just got to keep him wrestling well.”

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.