There’s no question that Friday night’s dual in Iowa City, Iowa was the dual of the year in college wrestling, and it lived up to the hype without a doubt.
In the end, Penn State extended its winning streak to 25-straight duals as the top-ranked Nittany Lions took down No. 2 Iowa on their home floor, 19-13.
Going by the numbers, this was Penn State’s third win in their last four and fourth in their last six duals against Iowa and Friday might have been the sweetest of the bunch.
The best bout of the night ended up being the 197-pound matchup between No. 2 Max Dean of Penn State and No. 4 Jacob Warner of Iowa. After the first two periods, Warner had a 3-0 lead over Dean and momentum was favoring the Hawkeyes.
At the time, the team score was 16-10 Penn State, so two decision victories in the final two bouts or a major victory thrown in would’ve given Iowa a dramatic comeback win.
Dean wasn’t going to allow that as he put together an eight-point third period to win an 8-3 decision and secure the overall victory for the Nittany Lions.
Overall, Penn State won six of 10 bouts in the dual and their four top-ranked wrestlers in their individual weight classes all won decision victories.
No. 1 Nick Lee (141 pounds) won a 6-4 sudden victory decision over No. 2 Jaydin Eierman in their bout and the other close bout of the No. 1s for Penn State was Carter Starocci (174 pounds) who won a 2-1 tiebreaker victory over No. 2 Michael Keremrer.
After Iowa tied up the Nittany Lions 10-10 through the first six bouts, Penn State came up big late, winning three of its final four bouts to take the win.
The Nittany Lions improve to 14-0 on the year and 6-0 in Big Ten duals and they welcome Ohio State this Friday to the big stage at the Bryce Jordan Center. For the second-straight week, Penn State will be on the Big Ten Network, with the broadcast starting at 7 PM EST.
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