CEDAR FALLS - Northern Iowa's wrestling team finished on the wrong side of a 29-10 dual Sunday to second-ranked Iowa State at the McLeod Center, but it wasn't one- sided.

One-sided was the 40-3 thrashing UNI took Thursday in Iowa City against top-ranked Iowa, leaving Panther head coach Brad Penrith steaming.

Penrith had a more optimistic outlook after Sunday's dual, although he says the light at the end of the tunnel is still miles away.

"We definitely had a better performance than we did at Iowa," Penrith said. "There are some factors we've got to work on as a team.

"I think I can count five, six, seven, eight times where we didn't sprawl. We've got some things we're going to have to work on over the break, definitely."

UNI scored three victories against ISU, including fifth-ranked Moza Fay over sixth-ranked Jon Reader at 165 pounds.

Just three days after Fay had lost by fall to defending champion Mark Perry of Iowa, the Panther junior won in an unconventional match with Reader.

Six reversals were scored in the bout - three by each wrestler - with Fay's final reversal with 44 seconds left proving to be the difference in his 9-6 victory.

"I thought Moza wrestled unbelievable," Penrith said. "Any time you wrestle a top kid and win, and win in that fashion … both of those guys were exhausted and put it on the line. That was a good match for him (Fay)."

Reader entered the match with an 11-0 mark.

The Panthers also received a 16-6 major decision win from Alex Dolly at 174 over Chris Pursel, and a 6-4 win by redshirt freshman Nick Pickerall at 149.

"Was it a better performance than Iowa? Yeah," Penrith said. "We had the No. 2 team in the nation here … they should be dominating every match. At least we were being competitive in some of them. I'm not happy about losing them, but there are things we need to work on."

Like Penrith, Iowa State head coach Cael Sanderson took numerous mental notes on each of his 10 starters. The Cyclones sat regular 149-pound starter Mitch Mueller for team reasons. Sanderson plans to use those calculations over the next two weeks as the Cyclones prepare to defend their Midland Championship from a year ago.

"The team looked good," Sanderson said. "I'm happy. We obviously have got to take something from this and get ready for Midlands.

"We weren't thinking too much about the team score, obviously we want to win, but I'm more interested in each individuals performance and how they are doing. I think we are where we want to be, but no matter how well or how poorly we are doing, we always have something to work on."

ISU got pins from Cyler Sanderson at 157 and David Bertolino at 197, and major decisions from Jake Varner at 184 and David Zabriskie at heavyweight.

Bertolino's victory came in one of the other marquee matches, as he pinned UNI's Andrew Anderson in 2:48.

Anderson came into the match 8-1 and was coming off a victory over fourth-ranked Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin.

Anderson went up early, 2-0, countering a deep single-leg attack by Bertolino.

Bertolino escaped 10 seconds later and scored a takedown with 47 seconds left in the period. He then cradled Anderson to his back for the fall.

"It was a big win," Bertolino said. "I didn't want to go into the holidays thinking about a loss."

Bertolino got the takedown and cradle during a scramble.

"I get in a lot of situations like that wrestling Cael," Bertolino said. "I like to scramble and it was just there (the cradle), and Cael was screaming it from the corner. I'm really not a cradle guy at all … but after I locked it up, I wasn't going to let go."

Both squads are off until competing at the Midland Championships in Evanston, Ill., on Dec. 29-30.

Contact Jim Nelson at (319) 291-1521 or jim.nelson@wcfcourier.com

157 - Cyler Sanderson (ISU) pinned Jarion Beets, 2:12; 165 - Moza Fay (UNI) dec. Jon Reader 9-6; 174 - Alex Dolly (UNI) dec. Chris Pursel 16-6; 184 - Jake Varner (ISU) dec. Danny Dunning 10-0; 197 - David Bertolino (ISU) pinned Andrew Anderson, 2:48; Hwt. - David Zabriskie (ISU) dec. Dustin Bauman 12-4; 125 - Mark Kist (ISU) dec. Caleb Flores 5-3; 133 - Nick Fanthorpe (ISU) dec. Trent Washington 4-2; 141 - Nick Gallick (ISU) dec. C.J. Ettelson 6-2; 149 - Nick Pickerell (UNI) dec. Adam Ketcher 6-4.

Referee - Mike Allen.