Greg Hansen: Gallick brothers wrestle to No. 1

Nate, 22, is the captain of the Iowa State wrestling team, a two-time All-American who won a gold medal at the 2005 World University Games and possibly America's top collegiate wrestler.

Nick, 19, is a freshman, an Iowa State redshirt with a reputation. At Sunnyside High School, Nick was a four-time state champion, perhaps the best wrestler in Arizona prep history. How good?

He was 117-0.

A few days before Christmas, the Gallick boys are posing for a photo shoot near their grandparents' foothills home. A neighbor stops to watch.

"Who are these boys?" he asks.

"Nick and Nate Gallick," he is told.

"What did they do?"

"What didn't they do?"

In 2005, the Gallick brothers combined for a 61-1 record: Nate was 30-1 at ISU; Nick was 31-0 at Sunnyside. Nate won the Big 12 championship and finished second at the NCAA championships. Nick breezed to his fourth state championship and was second at the Junior National Greco-Roman championships.

That is the short version of what they did in '05, a clear choice No. 1 in the Arizona Daily Star's annual Top 100 Tucson Sports list.

Initially, Nick and Nate Gallick wanted to be baseball players.

"It's funny how this all got started," said Justin Gallick, 28, the first of the wrestling Gallick brothers, a state champion at Catalina Foothills in the 1990s. "I was a sophomore at Foothills, and I had really never wrestled before. One day a bunch of guys were talking about going out for wrestling. I said, 'I'm not wearing one of those monkey suits.' But eventually I did. After that, it just snowballed."

Justin, one of four sons of Morty and Jodi Gallick, is now married and has a young daughter. He works in Tucson's real estate industry. His brothers are far from the ready-to-settle-down mode.

Both want to win NCAA championships and wrestle on the U.S. Olympic team. That could take them into their 30s, which is sometimes the prime of a wrestler's life.

"My immediate goal is to be at the World Championships in China this summer," said Nate, currently ranked No. 1 or No. 2 collegiately, depending on the poll. "I would like to hit my prime a little sooner than most wrestlers, before I get all beat up.

"I think my goals are attainable. I'm right there."

Nick's official status this season is "idle," but that is in error. He is essentially Nate's day-to-day wrestling partner, sort of like a tackling dummy. But for Nate to stay sharp, his daily workouts must be competitive and, at times, intense.

At about 145 pounds, the Gallick brothers are indeed that.

"He holds his own," Nate said. "He gives me all I can handle. A year from now, he'll be ready to rock and roll."

Nick laughs at his brother's definition of their workouts.

"It's usually me hitting the floor," he said.

A more accurate evaluation of Nick is that, like his brother in 2001, he was one of the nation's leading recruits.

Iowa State wrestling coach Bobby Douglas, his sport's equivalent to basketball's Mike Krzyzewski or Lute Olson, made the Gallick brothers a recruiting priority.

He beat Pac-10 powerhouse Arizona State on both, a considerable victory. ASU is coached by another former Sunnyside state champion, Thom Ortiz, who had hoped to build a national champion with a core of ex-Blue Devils such as 2004 All-American Eric Larkin, an Olympic hopeful who is now a Sun Devil assistant coach.

The Gallicks chose to wrestle in Iowa, in part, as Nate said, because "the culture of wrestling there is big time." It is not unusual for the Cyclones to draw 10,000 fans to a dual meet. At ASU, the Sun Devils struggle to draw 1,000.

"Virtually all freshmen redshirt at Iowa State, no matter who you are," Nick said. "It's not too bad. All the older guys took their lumps first."

Nate said: "Nick's just being modest. He'll be there. He'll have a better career than me. He'd better — or I'll kick his butt."