Iowa's Michael Kemerer to have season-ending surgery

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- University of Iowa junior Michael Kemerer is scheduled to have surgery this week and will miss the 2018-19 NCAA wrestling season. The announcement came Tuesday from head coach Tom Brands.

“We always do what’s best for our athletes and this is what is best for Kemerer,” Brands said. “He is as good a wrestler as there is in the country, and that is a credit to him doing things the right way. I know he is driven to come back even stronger and we will do everything we can to help him along the way.

“I’m disappointed I won’t be on the mat with my teammates this season, but I am 100 percent committed to my rehab and recovery so I can return to the mat in 2019,” Kemerer said. “I have complete faith in my teammates, coaches, and medical staff, and they have faith in me. I will continue to give them all the very best that I have, on and off the mat.”

Kemerer is a two-time All-American from Murrysville, Pennsylvania. He placed third as a redshirt freshman and fourth as a sophomore at the NCAA Championships. He has a career record of 60-6, competing at 157 pounds in 2017 and 2018. He was projected to be Iowa’s starting 174-pounder in 2019.

Kemerer has not competed this season. He will seek a medical hardship waiver at the end of the season.

Iowa hosts Iowa State on Saturday at 2 p.m. (CT) in the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.