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SPORTS SHORTS: ISU, UNI cancel summer tailgate tours

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major American sporting events to grind to a complete halt over the past week. The coronavirus has also changed plans for Iowa’s collegiate athletic programs, including this week’s cancellations of the UNI Summer Caravan and the Cyclone Tailgate Tour among others.

UNI’s Caravan was supposed to hit the cities of Sioux City, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, Decorah, Swisher and Cedar Falls in 2020 to celebrate Panthers athletics. The same cities will be used in the 2021 edition of the Caravan given the extraordinary circumstances, although UNI said dates and venues will be announced in the spring of 2021.

Iowa State had to cancel two events due to coronavirus concerns — the Tailgate Tour and Cy’s House of Trivia. The Tailgate Tour, which was to take place between May 11-13 and May 18-20, would have visited Carroll, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Okoboji, Sheffield, Clear Lake, Iowa Falls, Waterloo, Muscatine, Bettendorf, Dubuque and Cedar Rapids with appearances from various coaches and athletics director Jamie Pollard. It is unknown if the same cities will be on the schedule for the 2021 tour.

Cy’s House of Trivia, scheduled for April 18, would have taken place at Hilton Coliseum.

UNI’s Schwarm is nation’s top pinner

INDIANAPOLIS — Northern Iowa senior 125-pound wrestler Jay Schwarm was named the NCAA Division I Fall Award winner after leading the country with 16 pins against D-I competition.

Schwarm, a Bettendorf native, finished with two more pins than the nearest competitors — Cornell’s Ben Darmstadt and Central Michigan’s Matt Stencel — headed into the since-canceled NCAA Championships.

Schwarm also recorded a pin against a D-II opponent, Tyshawn White of Clarion College, to run his season total of 17 pins. Three falls came against ranked opponents and four were against NCAA qualifiers as he finished the season 21-10.

Schwarm tallied double-dig pin totals in each of the last three seasons, with 15 as a sophomore and 12 as a junior. His 52 career pins as a Panther puts him fifth on the all-time list, one behind John Kriebs (1984), the athletic director at Marshalltown Community College.

Cyclones add 3-star 2021 linebacker

Iowa State football is still getting commitments during the national dead period.

Aidan Ralph, a low three-star linebacker from De La Salle Institute in Chicago, announced Tuesday that he was committing to the Cyclones. The story was first reported by Alex Halsted of 247Sports. The 2021 recruit is a 6-foot, 3-inch, 195-pound prospect and was early in the process when choosing Iowa State — his first Power Five offer. Ralph had visited Ames earlier in March.

He is the fifth commitment in Iowa State’s 2021 class.

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