PINDOX PROFILE: Mickey Griffith; DM Lincoln ‘22/Ubasa Wrestling Club/Iowa Hawkeyes (committed)
Mickey Griffith from Des Moines Lincoln. Talk about a kid who is making some rapid improvement in recent times. Way back in the day, Griffith used to be the type of kid who would qualify for AAU State, but usually get eliminated. Heck, when he was a 7th grader, he actually fell short of qualifying. I would say he made his first big “splash” when he was an 8th grader. He placed 3rd at AAU State that year as well as 4th at Grade School State and 2nd at Christmas Nationals.
Mickey’s HC at Lincoln is Dustin Roland. Roland, a 2X D3 AA for Central College is doing a great job with Mickey. I remember doing rankings for 3A in 2019 and Roland giving me a heads up to follow his talented Freshman, Mickey Griffith. He was at an upper-middle weight, a tough weight range for a Freshman, but in time, he was going to be outstanding. Dustin was right about that, and holy cow, it didn’t take long. Mickey did not qualify for state as a Freshman, and to be fair, not many Freshman 152 lbers do, but he came out with a bang the next year by starting things off winning the huge Indee Cliff Keen Classic and finishing off the season by winning state at 3A 170. He was a Sophomore 3A 170 state champ…pretty impressive. He only took two losses that year, both to the same guy, Logan Neils from Ankeny Centennial.
In 2021, he continued his reign of terror all the way until districts, where he was beaten in OT by Caleb Helgeson. This match was a rematch from earlier where Mickey won 9-2 and a preview for the state finals the next week. When they met in the finals, Helgeson won another close match.
After the season, Griffith placed 2nd at Folkstyle Nationals, another great accomplishment.
If this kid continues to improve at the rate that he has the past couple-few years then he will be scary good.
Recently, Mickey committed to wrestle collegiately for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He’s made comments in interviews about being a fan of the Hawkeyes in the past, so this is a dream come true for a great wrestler who is also, in turn a great pickup for the Hawks!
2020 3A-170
1st Place – Mickey Griffith of Des Moines – Lincoln
2nd Place – Ryan Plummer of Linn-Mar – Marion
3rd Place – Ashton Barker of IC West
4th Place – McCrae Hagarty of Waverly-Shell Rock
5th Place – Tim Nimely of Muscatine
6th Place – Bradley Hill of Bettendorf
7th Place – Zachary Campbell of North Scott – Eldridge
8th Place – Deveyon Montgomery of Southeast Polk
2021 3A-170
1st Place – Caleb Helgeson of Johnston
2nd Place – Mickey Griffith of Des Moines Lincoln
3rd Place – Ashton Barker of Iowa City, West
4th Place – Timothy Nimely of Muscatine
5th Place – Ivan Thomas of Xavier, Cedar Rapids
6th Place – Andrew Reed of Southeast Polk
7th Place – Trevor Summers of Ottumwa
8th Place – Tristen Duncan of Norwalk
