Injury can’t pin ambition of Iowa high school wrestler
With help from orthopedic experts at University of Iowa Health Care, star wrestler Eve Skrocki has returned from injury — and is dominating.
As she grappled with her competitor in the semifinals of the Iowa high school state wrestling tournament in February 2024, Eve Skrocki felt a “pop” in her elbow.
Daunted yet determined, the freshman from Wahlert Catholic High School in Dubuque, Iowa, continued wrestling but lost the match. Although in pain, she insisted her coaches tape up her arm so she could meet her next opponent. Less than a minute into the match, however, the pain was so intense that she was forced to medically forfeit.
“I could bend my arm and had pretty good range of motion, but it hurt a lot to straighten and bend it completely, especially if I put pressure on it,” Skrocki says. “I think in my mind I was trying to downplay it and convinced myself that it wasn’t that bad and that I would be OK.”
The diagnosis, however, was a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the elbow, an injury generally seen in sports that involve throwing — and the same injury that sidelined NFL quarterback and former Iowa State athlete Brock Purdy in 2023.
Skrocki was referred to Brian Wolf, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at University of Iowa Health Care who recommended surgical repair of the UCL with internal bracing. The procedure was developed in 2013 as a more palatable alternative to a complete reconstruction, often called Tommy John surgery, which can require a full year of recovery.
Although the prognosis was good and the prescribed treatment came with a shorter, six-month recovery period, it was tough news for Skrocki, who had started wrestling a year earlier and already had made a name for herself.
“After the injury, I was super down in the dumps. I didn’t really want to do anything, and I didn’t want to talk to anybody. But the reassurances that Dr. Wolf gave me at the first appointment brightened my spirits and helped me look at the positive side of everything and see an opportunity to better myself in other areas,” Skrocki says. “He said if we did the surgery, I would most likely make a full recovery and be back to my normal self, if not stronger in my left elbow.”
Thanks to the orthopedic expertise of Wolf and the Iowa care team, Skrocki was able to start wrestling again almost six months to the day after her surgery, and it appears she has come back stronger than ever. Among the titles the young athlete has since claimed are Iowa Class 1A state champion at 145 pounds, 16U Folkstyle Nationals champion, Tallinn Open champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman, and Girls National High School Recruiting Showcase champion. In July 2025, she won a Fargo Nationals freestyle title, making her a USA Wrestling Triple Crown winner.
Getting athletes back in the game
Although Skrocki’s injury is not a common one, Wolf says Iowa is well equipped to fix them when they do happen.
“We do a high volume of these surgeries at Iowa — I do 40 or 50 a year — so we’re very comfortable with the injury process and the treatment algorithms that we can provide patients to optimize their outcome,” says Wolf, who is the medical director for UI Sports Medicine and the head team physician for UI Athletics. “And we don’t always recommend surgery, because sometimes the best thing is to let things heal and get the patient into therapy. Most of my patients are athletes, however, and they want to get back to doing what they love. If I tore my UCL, I wouldn’t have surgery on it, because I don’t need to throw and I’m not wrestling.”
A torn UCL is an injury most often experienced by baseball players due to repeated overhead throwing, and Wolf estimates that close to a third of MLB pitchers have had UCL surgery. But he says he is seeing more of these injuries in female wrestlers as the sport grows in popularity, a trend he suspects may be attributed to the female body’s increased laxity and a slightly different angular build in the elbow.
Skrocki’s goal was to get back on the mat as soon as possible. Empowered by Wolf’s confidence, she approached her recovery with grit and determination, going to physical therapy and attending practices to be part of her club team. Even though she couldn’t wrestle, she worked with her private coach on mental conditioning and footwork.
“The nice thing about orthopedics, in general, is that we often see patients with a problem that can be fixed, and that’s what we did with Eve,” says Wolf, who completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at Iowa. “She’s very driven, so we had to provide a lot of guidelines and set expectations of time frames, because like most high-level athletes, if you tell them six months, they’ll hear four months. But she was very invested in her recovery and doing all the right things to optimize her outcome, and she’s done great.”
A new elbow, a new outlook
In addition to getting her elbow fixed, Skrocki says she has gained valuable perspective.
“It’s taught me to not stress too much about what’s happening,” she says. “I think that God has a plan for my life, and I need to be willing to adjust to the bumps along the way. No matter where you go, no matter what path you take in life, there will be bumps, so being able to adjust to those and recover is important.”
Skrocki says she now takes things one match, and one tournament, at a time and tries to focus on what got her there.
“I wrestle because I enjoy it,” she says. “I don’t do it because somebody else wants me to. I do it because I love the sport and it’s something that I have fun doing. I think this experience has really helped me to not put too much pressure on the moment and just have fun with it.”
And with an improved UCL from Iowa, Skrocki, who recently completed her sophomore year, is set up to have more fun — and more championships.
Photos courtesy of Tim Schoon and the Skrocki family
Treating orthopedic injury
When athletes in Iowa and the surrounding area need treatment for fractures, damaged joints, and soft tissue injuries, University of Iowa Health Care is a top destination.
Aaron Skrocki, of Dubuque, Iowa, injured his acromioclavicular joint in a bicycle accident and quickly learned that Brian Wolf at UI Health Care was the person to see.
“Dr. Wolf is the go-to guy for top-level athletes at the University of Iowa and for athletes across the state — and probably the region — who have these types of injuries,” Skrocki says. “His reputation precedes him.”
So, when Skrocki’s daughter, Eve, a promising high school wrestler, also suffered an orthopedic injury, they came to Iowa City. Since having a surgical repair done in 2024, she became Iowa’s 1A 2025 state champion at 145 pounds and is a national freestyle and folkstyle champion.
Wolf, medical director for UI Sports Medicine and head team physician for UI Athletics, and his orthopedics and rehabilitation peers at Iowa have extensive experience treating everything from tennis elbow to complex fractures that need surgery. They have access to the most advanced and effective diagnostic and treatment options for elbow pain and are one of the few teams in the region to offer ultrasound as a diagnostic tool.
Services are available in UI Health Care’s new North Liberty campus, offering 36 inpatient beds, 84 clinical exam rooms, 14 emergency care rooms, and 12 operating rooms.
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