Wrestlers fall to Iowa, place third

When the Penn State wrestling team handed Iowa its first home loss since 1988 earlier this month, the Nittany Lions made a statement -- we can beat the best in their own backyard.

At this weekend's Cliff Keen/N.W.C.A. National Duals, the host Hawkeyes made a statement of their own -- not twice in two weeks, you can't.

Iowa, recipient of a much talked about 25-17 loss to the Lions on Jan. 3, made its revenge as sweet as possible by eliminating Penn State from the front draw with an inspired 23-9 shellacking on Saturday night.

The Hawkeyes -- working before a highly partisan Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd of 7,653 -- outmuscled the Lions from start to ugly finish, jumping out to a 14-0 lead and never looking back in their lopsided win.

The loss sent Penn State to the back draw, where the Lions coasted past West Virginia 25-13, and Michigan State 26-10 to take a bittersweet third place yesterday afternoon.

Iowa's win landed the Hawkeyes in the finals, where they fell 18-17 to favorite Minnesota on a last-bout pin -- sending scores of Iowa fans out the door at the sight of two home losses in two weeks, something considered a natural disaster in Hawkeye country.

Against Penn State, Iowa won seven of the meet's 10 bouts, including the first four to take control right off the bat. Clint Musser (150), John Lange (158) and Ross Thatcher (177) were the only Lions able to put their Hawkeye opponents at bay.

While Iowa and its crowd owned the meet's early stages, Penn State still had a fighting chance after its two middleweight wins. With the Lions down 14-6, the meet moved to the 167-pound bout between the Hawkeyes' Joe Williams and Penn State's Glenn Pritzlaff.

Pritzlaff took Williams, the nation's top-ranked 167-pounder, to overtime before relinquishing a takedown and dropping a tough 3-1 decision. And though Thatcher followed with a win at 177, the Lions' fate was all but settled. The remaining two weight classes went in Iowa's favor and the meet was history.

Once the Iowa ordeal was out of the way, however, Penn State settled down and got back to the solid wrestling that characterized the Lions coming into the National Duals.

Penn State, which had beaten Northern Iowa, then-No. 2 Iowa, then-No. 4 Michigan and Michigan State in its four dual meets entering this weekend, rifled through West Virginia and Michigan State with surprising ease, salvaging some of the weekend after the Lions' huge loss to the host team.