Iowa 3rd after day one at Big Ten wrestling

The University of Iowa is off to a strong start at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships.

The Hawkeyes advanced nine wrestlers to Saturday night's semifinal, and have all 10 wrestlers in the field, of the Big Ten tournament at University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. Iowa had 79 points, leading runner-up Penn State by 17. Minnesota was in third with 49.

Iowa is already assured of nine national qualifiers for the NCAA Division I Championships March 21-23 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Things get tougher for the Hawkeyes, who have the most semifinalists. Penn State has six and Minnesota and Ohio State have five each.

Iowa and Penn State have two head-to-head matches in the semifinals, while the Hawkeyes and Gophers face-off in three. Iowa is only favored in four of their semifinals, according to seeds, and Penn State and Minnesota are favored in five each.

"I'm not sure where we're at but I know we won some big matches," Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. "We've got to keep it going and we've got to get tougher. We have big matches coming up and we need to solidify some things next round."

Iowa's top-seeded Matt McDonough overcame a 4-1 deficit in the first to beat Northwestern's Dom Malone, 5-4, in a 125-pound quarterfinal. Tony Ramos followed with a decision over Purdue's Cashe Quiroga at 133.

Mark Ballweg (141) and Derek St. John (157) added decisions to advance.

Nick Moore provided some dramatics, scoring a takedown with a little more than 20 seconds to go to beat Minnesota's Cody Yohn, 5-4, in a 165-pound quarterfinal.

Not to be out-done, freshman Nathan Burak provided the Hawkeyes' biggest upset of the quarterfinals. Burak, scored a takedown with 23 seconds remaining for a 3-2 victory over defending Big Ten champion and third-seeded Marion Gonzalez at 197.

Ethen Lofthouse was the only other Hawkeye with an upset, according to seeds, beating No. 4 seed John Rizqallah, of Michigan State, 2-1, in a semifinal at 184.

Mike Evans added bonus points to the Hawkeyes' total with a 12-3 major decision at 174 over Purdue's Chad Welch. Heavyweight Bobby Telford capped the perfect quarterfinal round with a 4-0 win over Michigan State's Mike McClure.

The tournament opened as well as possible for Iowa, which earned pins in its first three wins.

Ramos recorded a 2:02 fall over Michigan State's Brandon Fifield at 133. Ballweg followed with a first-period pin over Indiana's Alex Gregory. Top-seeded St. John decked Michigan's Collin Zeerip at 157.

The Hawkeyes' only loss in their first four matches came at 149. Josh Dziewa, who moved up to 149 after serving as Ballweg's backup at 141 all season, lost a 3-2 decision to Penn State's No. 5-seed Andrew Alton, who scored a first-period takedown and an escape in the third. Dziewa escaped in the second and forced a point for stalling late in the final :10, getting in on a takedown attempt as time expired.

Before the quarterfinal run and his upset win, sixth-seeded Burak needed a second tiebreaker to beat Nebraska's #11 Caleb Kolb, 4-3. The pair exchanged escapes in regulation and the first tiebreaker periods. Burak had a :05 advantage in riding time in the first tiebreaker and then rode Kolb for about :24 in the second tiebreaker. Burak escaped earlier in the following 30-second period and won with a 19-second riding time advantage.