DETROIT — University of Iowa senior Jacob Warner dropped a 3-2 decision to Penn State’s top-seeded Max Dean in the 197-pound finals of the 2022 NCAA Championships on Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena. 

Warner and Dean traded escapes in the second and third periods before Dean countered a Warner shot and finished the deciding takedown with 36 second in the third. Warner added an escape in the final seconds for the final 3-2 score.

“I took a shot. He scored a go-behind. I have to follow through. I have to face him. I have to turn,” Warner said. “I still thought I was going to win that match. I thought I was going to get an escape to a takedown. I was going to go score to score. That is the mindset I need to have. It didn’t happen but I didn’t falter.

Warner advanced to his first NCAA finals and finished the tournament a four-time All-American. He placed seventh in 2019, fourth in 2021 and was a first-team All-American in 2020.

“I have what it takes. That is what this weekend proved to me. I can be on the top of that podium. I won a lot of hard matches this weekend and I just didn’t win the last one.

“I want to be on the top of that stand bad. I have gone up on the podium every year, seventh, fourth, second. There is only one spot left.”

Warner was one of five Hawkeyes to reach the medal stand. He advanced to the championship match by outscoring his four previous opponents 19-5. His appearance in the championship round extended Iowa’s streak of NCAA finalists to 32 consecutive tournaments.

Iowa placed third in the team race with 74.0 points and won a team trophy for the 13th time in the last 14 NCAA Championships.

Warner will return to the Iowa lineup in 2022-23 with three-time All-American Tony Cassioppi, three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee, 2020 All-American Abe Assad, and former NCAA qualifiers Drake Ayala, Max Murin and Nelson Brands.

University of Iowa wrestlers Austin DeSanto, Alex Marinelli, Michael Kemerer and Tony Cassioppi finished their respective 2022 NCAA tournaments with All-America honors Saturday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena. 

DeSanto placed third at 133. Kemerer placed fourth at 174. Marinelli placed fifth at 165 and Cassioppi placed seventh at 285. The quartet went 5-2 in the medal round to move Iowa into third place in the team race.

DeSanto won a pair of matches in the medal round to place third for the second straight year. He recorded four takedowns in a 10-6 win in the consolation semis and used two first-period takedowns to win, 7-4, in the consolation finals.

“Wrestling at Iowa has changed my life in the best way possible,” DeSanto said. “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else on the planet. Iowa is the place to be. Tom and Terry would do anything for me. They have made me a better person. Not just in wrestling but in life.”

Kemerer split a pair of matches to place fourth and finished the tournament with his fifth All-America honor. He is the only wrestler in program history with five All-America honors. His 6-4 win in the consolation semis was the 100th of his career. He fell to fourth place following a 12-4 loss in the consolation finals.

“I’m a competitor and I hate losing, and it’s tough to put that aside but at the same time the other voice inside me is trying to tell me how much I have to be thankful for and how good my college career has been,” Kemerer said. “All of the good things I’d tell someone else I am trying to tell myself. It’s a little battle there.”

Marinelli won by medical forfeit in the fifth-place match. He finished his career a four-time Big Ten Conference champion and four-time All-American.

“My goal and my word that I like to describe myself is a champion,” Marinelli said. “If I don’t get what I want I can still be a champion off the mat. I can still be a champion the way I carry myself. I will be a champion for Christ. I will be a champion for my wife, my teammates, my friends, my family. In the future I’d love to coach. I’d love to lead someone to a victory, and I’ll be a champion for them.”

Cassioppi finished his tournament a three-time All-American with a 2-0 win in the seventh-place match. He won his final match with a second-period rideout and third-period escape.

“I didn’t necessarily have the results I had last year,” Cassioppi said. “I took third last year and seventh this year, but I am a lot better wrestler than I was last year. I have improved a lot and I need to keep that going on the mat. I need to keep movement on the mat.”