Northern Iowa’s Wyatt Voelker awarded bronze medal from 2023 U20 Greco-Roman World Wrestling Championships

Wyatt Voelker is now a World medalist.

The University of Northern Iowa national qualifier and former West Delaware two-time state champion will receive hardware from his experience at the 2023 United World Wrestling U20 Greco-Roman World Championships in Amman, Jordan.

USA Wrestling announced Friday that Voelker has been awarded the 87-kilogram bronze medal after an anti-doping rules violation by one of his opponents.

“It means a lot to get my first world medal,” Voelker said in a text message with The Gazette. “Obviously, not the way you want to get it, but it’s still a big deal.”

Voelker placed fifth, originally, with a 3-2 record. He lost to Abolfazi Choubani, of Iran, in the quarterfinals and dropped the bronze-medal match to Armenia’s Vigen Nazaryan.

According to USA Wrestling, Choubani has been disqualified. Nazaryan will be awarded the silver medal, allowing Voelker to move into third. He was also an U20 Pan American Greco-Roman champion in 2023.

Voelker has been a member of Big Game Wrestling Club in North Liberty run by former Iowa City West state champion and Iowa wrestler Dylan Carew, who was an accomplished Greco-Roman wrestler and award-winning coach in that discipline.

Voelker praised his UNI Coach Doug Schwab and his club coaches.

“It’s Big Game’s first World medal, so to get to call Dylan and celebrate that with those guys is awesome,” said Voelker, a member of the 2024 U23 World team. “Without UNI and Doug, along with Dylan traveling there and helping me, it would have never been possible.

“Like I said not the way you want to earn the medal but, at the same time, I won the matches and was still in the medal match. None the less, it’s good that they are checking those results so the right things happen. First of many to come.”

Voelker is a two-time NCAA qualifier at 197 pounds for UNI, winning the Big 12 title last season. Voelker confirmed he will compete at heavyweight this season.

The redshirt junior and Scholar All-American owns a 47-14 career record with the Panthers.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com