Mark your calendars, wrestling fans, Spencer Lee is about to take the mat.On Feb. 26, the three-time NCAA champion for the Hawkeyes will face Japan’s Masanosuke Ono in an exhibition match at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The match was announced as a part of a “FloWrestling Night in America” event, with a matchup between Penn […]
Mark your calendars, wrestling fans, Spencer Lee is about to take the mat.On Feb. 26, the three-time NCAA champion for the Hawkeyes will face Japan’s Masanosuke Ono in an exhibition match at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The match was announced as a part of a “FloWrestling Night in America” event, with a matchup between Penn State four-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks and two-time NCAA champion Zahid Valencia of Arizona State also on deck, according to a news release.
Also registered for the Zagreb Open in Croatia are Iowa State alum David Carr as well as Macey Kilty, Kennedy Blades and Kylie Welker of Iowa women’s wrestling.
While the match vs. Ono will not have the rankings implications of the Zagreb Open or the return to France (where Lee has deep family connections), the Coralville match against Ono is a terrific matchup between two Olympic-level wrestlers.Lee, a three-time age-group World champion, announced the match on the Flowrestling Radio Live podcast on Monday. Lee has not competed since taking silver at the Olympics and expressing initial disappointment in the result.
Ono won a Senior-level World championship at 61 kilograms in October 2024, and he was also a U20 World champion in 2024. Lee lost to Japan’s Rei Higuchi in the 57-kilogram finals of the Olympics. Now he will now get a chance to wrestle against another Japanese star in Ono, who is only 20 years old.Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.
Lee is slated to compete in the Henri Deglane Grand Prix of France on Jan. 17-19; in the Zagreb Open on Feb. 5-9; and in the Feb. 26 exhibition vs. Ono.
