ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Defending national champion Iowa began Friday with a shot at its 22nd Division I wrestling championship.

When the day was over, the Hawkeyes fell hard … really hard.

Iowa had two all-Americans eliminated and will only see five of its nine qualifiers reach the podium after a rough day at the 79th NCAA meet at the Scottrade Center.

"I think it was a downer, and that is the mood, the feeling," Brands said.

The Hawkeyes aren't completely out of it, but will need a lot of help to catch Ohio State, which leads the Hawkeyes by 3 1/2 points, 84 1/2 to 81.

Iowa State is third with 71 1/2 points.

The Buckeyes have three finalists and one in the consolation bracket, while Iowa has defending national champion Brent Metcalf in the 149-pound finals and four wrestlers in the placing matches.

"Overall, it is like yesterday. We're down a bit," Brands said. "But we have to get up. We have to do more when it is tough and go. We weren't tough in tough situations consistently, and we've got to do that.

"We've got to get that done tomorrow and have everybody place as high as possible."

Iowa State had an equally frustrating day.

The Cyclones will have only Jake Varner in the finals, his third straight trip to the championship bout, but first at 197.

ISU will have three other all-Americans - Nick Gallick at 141, Jon Reader at 165 and David Zabriskie at heavyweight.

Reader and Zabriskie each dropped close semifinal bouts.

"That wasn't the plan," ISU head coach Cael Sanderson said. "Right now, it is a matter of pride and going out there and being the best you can be, being a man, really. We need to finish strong."

Iowa's other all-Americans include Daniel Dennis at 133 (wrestling for seventh place), while Phil Keddy at 184 and heavyweight Dan Erekson each has a chance to finish as high as third, as does Ryan Morningstar, who lost to Wisconsin's Andrew Howe, 2-1, in a 165-pound semifinal.

Metcalf beat Ohio State's Lance Palmer, 6-2, to move on to face North Carolina State's Darion Caldwell in the 149-pound finals.

"I wrestled smart and hard, got it done," said Metcalf of his semifinal win.

Caldwell handed Metcalf his only collegiate loss last year.

"It's going to be tough, but I like the way I'm wrestling," Metcalf said.

Iowa and Iowa State also stumbled during the quarterfinal round.

The Cyclones' Tyler Clark and Nick Fanthorpe lost consolation matches and were eliminated.

That was followed by quarterfinal losses by Gallick, who was pinned by defending national champion J Jaggers of Ohio State in 1 minute, 48 seconds at 141, and Cyler Sanderson, who lost to top-seeded Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska, 14-6, at 157.

Sanderson was later eliminated.

But Iowa State closed the morning session strong as Reader, Varner and Zabriskie all won, with Zabriskie using last-second heroics to win again. Tied with John Wise of Illinois at 1-1, Zabriskie registered a takedown with four seconds left to pull out a 3-2 victory.

Zabriskie, the top seed at heavyweight, won his first match of the tournament in sudden victory, and needed a last-second takedown of West Virginia's Dustin Rogers to advance to the quarterfinals.

Iowa's morning could've been worse, but Charlie Falck, who trailed Maryland's Brendan Byrne late in their 125 wrestleback, bearhugged the Terp to his back for pin at 6:30.

But it got worse before it got better as the Hawkeyes lost four of their six quarterfinal matches, with three of the losses by one point, and the other a sudden victory loss by Keddy at 184 where he gave up a bunch of desperation points in losing 8-4 to Doug Umbehauer of Rider.

Metcalf moved into the semifinals with a major decision over Oklahoma's Kyle Terry, while Morningstar survived three stall calls against him to beat Ohio State's Colt Sponseller, 4-2, in sudden victory.

"The official was kind of dictating the match a little bit and I just had to keep wrestling and keep wrestling in all positions and wrestle harder," Morningstar said. "It was huge for me to get that takedown."

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