CEDAR FALLS - Dan Erekson didn't even need to win, he just couldn't afford to get pinned.

But the Iowa Hawkeyes don't win championships going backward.

Erekson flattened Cornell's Taylor Moore in 1 minute and 46 seconds to put an exclamation point on the Hawkeyes' fifth Cliff Keen NWCA National Duals championship Sunday at the UNI-Dome.

Erekson's pin at heavyweight gave top-ranked and defending tournament champion Iowa a 23-13 win over the third-ranked Big Red.

"I almost got him on his back (prior to the pin) and that is when I smelled blood," Erekson described. "That is when I got that bar arm. It feels good. We were only up by four there and it feels good to finish it strong."

The win gives Iowa back-to-back National Duals titles for the second time, it also did it in 1995 and 1996. The Hawkeyes improved to 14-0 on the season, and have won their last 28 matches.

"We had to fight, we actually had to fight all day today," Iowa coach Tom Brands said.

Top-ranked Wartburg College's march to a third-straight Cliff Keen NWCA National title ran into a brick wall built by arch nemsis Augsburg College Sunday at the UNI-Dome.

The Knights saw their 39-match win streak come to an end, when the Auggies used a pair of late pins to storm to victory, 21-20.

Wartburg was leading matches at 174 and 197, only to see Augsburg's Zach Molitor and Jared Massey reverse their own fortunate and record falls.

"That 174-pound match … he came back and got the fall that is all heart," first-year Auggie head coach Mark Matzek said. "Massey, he's a gamer and all the credit goes to him."

Massey's victory made it 21-17, requiring the Knights to get a technical fall or pin at heavyweight to pull out its fifth duals title.

Knight heavyweight John Helgerson won, but it was only a 3-1 decision over Andy Witzel.

It was the seventh time in championship history Augsburg and Wartburg faced each other in the finals, and the victory gave the Auggies a 4-3 advantage over the Knights.

Each program owns four NWCA duals titles, but But Augsburg used motivation from last year's third-place finish, the first time it had failed to reach the finals since the tournament went to separate divisions in 2002.

"We used it as motivation," Matzek said. "But we not only wanted to make it back to the finals, but to win it. The guys set that as a goal to do and we did it."

Upper Iowa took a step forward at the National Duals, but coach Heath Grimm would have preferred a leap.

With a 22-17 win over Mercyhurst in Sunday's Division II seventh-place meet, the Peacocks improved their standing by one place over last year's tournament, and Grimm was cautiously pleased with the improvement.

"We definitley thought we could have made the semifinals and be in the top four," Grimm said, "but when that didn't happen, the guys responded well today.

"Last year, we had some kids not make weight for Sunday, and we came out flat and got beat. This time we had a lot better approach."

The Peacock wrapped up the win over the middle weights, taking three straight from 133 pounds to 149.