Alex Marinelli beats No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph, but Iowa falls to Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The good news, Iowa's No. 4 Alex Marinelli took out Penn State's No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph, 9-6, to give Iowa a 13-9 lead midway through the dual Saturday night in the sold-out Bryce Jordan Center.

The bad news, the top-ranked Nittany Lions responded with back-to-back pins by No. 2 Mark Hall and No. 1 Bo Nickal, and Penn State bounced the seventh-ranked Hawkeyes, 28-13.

'It unraveled in a hurry,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. 'We have to do a better job in those situations that are mismatches on paper. We can tell them that all day long, they can tell themselves that all day long, but if they don't have a presence when they walk out there ...”

Penn State (13-0, 9-0 Big Ten) clinched the Big Ten title last week with a 19-18 win over Ohio State, but the win over Iowa (11-3, 6-3) gave it the crown outright, and it was seen by 15,998 fans, the third-highest attended dual in NCAA history.

Iowa opened the dual with a pin by freshman No. 3 Spencer Lee, who decked Carson Kuhn in 2:06.

PSU then earned three straight decisions by Corey Keener (133), No. 8 Nick Lee (141) and No. 1 Zain Retherford (149).

That set up No. 4 Marinelli vs. No. 1 Joseph.

Marinelli trailed 5-3 in the third period when he came up with a 6-point move, taking Joseph down and then putting him on his back.

Marinelli, a redshirt freshman, improved to 13-0. Joseph fell to 16-1.

'I was dreaming of this last night,” Marinelli said.

'We love Marinelli,” Tom Brands said. 'He's what we need and he's a workmanlike mentality.”

Iowa returns to action next weekend with a 2 p.m. Sunday showdown with Iowa State in Ames.