—Photo courtesy of Hawkeye Sports fort dodge graduate Drake Ayala will compete in his final NCAA tournament for Iowa starting Thursday.

CLEVELAND — It will be a battle of former Iowa high school state wrestling champions in the first round of the NCAA Div. I Championships here on Thursday, as Drake Ayala squares off with Marcel Lopez.

Ayala, a three-time state champion for the Dodgers and a two-time national runner-up for the Iowa Hawkeyes, is the No. 6 seed at 133 pounds. Ayala will face Lopez of SIU Edwardsville in the opening round when wrestling begins on Thursday from Rocket Arena.

Lopez was a four-time state champion while competing at New London, going 217-4 overall, including a perfect 55-0 record. At the time, he was the 30th member of the four-timers club, which has now grown to 34 with Fort Dodge’s Dreshaun Ross joining this past season.

Joining Ayala are eight of his Hawkeye teammates. Six of them earned Top-10 seeds.

Dean Peterson, Nasir Bailey, Michael Caliendo, Patrick Kennedy, Angelo Ferrari and Ben Kueter were seeded among the Top-8 at their respective weights. Ryder Block and Gabe Arnold are the other qualifiers for Tom Brands and Iowa.

The Hawkeyes have sent at least nine wrestlers to 14 consecutive NCAA Championships.

Ayala, a senior, entered the season with a record of 65-16, including a 21-3 mark last year on his way to a second consecutive appearance in the NCAA finals. He is 13-8 this season, finishing third this past weekend at the Big Ten Championships — highlighted by a victory over defending national champion Lucas Byrd of Illinois.

Iowa State will have 10 wrestlers in action at the event, led by No. 1 seed Yonger Bastida at heavyweight. Rocky Elam is the No. 2 at 197 pounds, and Anthony Echemendia is No. 4 at 141.

Nine of the 10 Cyclone qualifiers earned Top-16 seeds. Stevo Poulin, Garrett Grice, Jacob Frost, Vinny Zerban, Connor Euton, MJ Gaitan and Isaac Dean are the other qualifiers for former Humboldt state wrestling champion and current ISU head coach Kevin Dresser.

Northern Iowa is sending four grapplers to nationals. Ryder Downey is the No. 11 seed at 165 pounds, Caleb Rathjen is the No. 14 at 149, Jared Simma the No. 17 at 174, and Nick Fox the No. 29 at 184.

Wrestling will air live on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, with all eight mats available on ESPN+.