By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
Wesleyan, Daniels Prepare for UMAC Scheduling Changes:
The closure of MacMurray University has left UMAC football officials scrambling as the season rapidly comes into focus.
The solution: schools will play a home-and-home with the institution that was closest to them in the 2019 football standings.
For Iowa Wesleyan, that means a double-dip against Crown College — their homecoming opponent — and their final game of the year.
Head Coach M.D Daniels explains the process.
“We’re going to play Crown College twice, but only one of the games against them will count towards UMAC standings. The first game we play [here] in Mount Pleasant will count towards the UMAC, the other won’t.”
Wesleyan will open up their season on Saturday, September 5th at 7:00 p.m. at home against Cornell College.
John Deere Classic Remains On for July 9-12:
The PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic will remain July ninth through the 12th near the Quad Cities. The Tour released a revised schedule that includes the Masters moving to November. Clair Peterson is tournament director of the John Deere Classic.
“If we had an earlier date we’d probably be more at risk. We just understand that the Open Championship, where we have traditionally flown people overseas for is postponed our field is going to change too.”
What he means by that: the John Deere Classic expects more of the tour mainstays to play in this year’s tournament.
“Over the years a lot of players have played here but didn’t come back. You can’t predict who’s going to be here but the criteria in their mind of why they will play or why they won’t play is certainly going to change.”
Even still, Peterson mentioned that several tournaments in May and June are in wait and see mode and could be forced to move again.
Brands Honored as NWCA Coach of the Year:
The National Wrestling Coaches Association announced Wednesday that University of Iowa head wrestling coach Tom Brands has been named 2020 NWCA National Coach of the Year.
The NWCA coaching honor is the second of Brands’ career. He first won the award in 2008 following Iowa’s national championship.
The 2020 Hawkeyes were favored to win their fourth NCAA title under Brands.
Iowa entered the 2020 NCAA Championships with three top seeds, including Hodge Trophy winner Spencer Lee, nine wrestlers seeded eighth or better, and another seeded 11th.
A team title would have been the 24th in program history.
The Hawkeyes were ranked at the top of every national poll this season, posting a 13-0 dual record and 9-0 Big Ten Conference record.
The Hawkeyes won the 2020 Big Ten Championships, crowing three individual champions and scoring 157.5 points, its highest total since 1995.
Brands was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, and Lee was named Big Ten Wrestler of the Year.
The NWCA honor is Brands’ second coach of the year award this season.
He was also named 2020 InterMat Coach of the Year.