IOWA WRESTLING RECRUITING: JUSTIN MEJIA FLIPS COMMITMENT FROM ILLINOIS TO IOWA

The addition of Mark Perry to the Hawkeye Wrestling Club is already paying dividends.

One month after Perry left an assistant coaching position at Illinois, the prized recruit of the Illini’s wrestling class, Justin Mejia, has flipped his commitment from Illinois to Iowa.

Mejia is a four-time state champion out of Clovis, CA, and is the No. 22 wrestler in the class of 2017 per InterMat. He’s been wrestling at 126 lbs, but is expected to wrestle at 133 with No. 1 overall recruit in the nation Spencer Lee coming in at the same weight. Mejia finished high school with a 167-1 record.

Iowa and Mejia have a history on the recruiting trail. Mejia committed to the Hawkeyes back in 2014, but re-opened his recruiting in 2016. Shortly after he committed to Illinois.

While Mark Perry’s arrival in Iowa City likely had something to do with Mejia’s flip back to the good guys, a lot could probably be attributed to the stupidity of the Illini admissions office, which accidentally denied him admission to the school. We can joke about the ineptitude of the bureaucracies that go on within Iowa’s administrations, but this was a mishap that there are no words for.

And that’s that. The addition of Mejia to a class that already includes Lee, Jacob Warner, Aaron Costello and Max Murin make this the best recruiting class Tom Brands has pulled in recent memory.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Mejia. We look forward to you helping Iowa end Penn State’s reign of terror.