KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Iowa men’s wrestling team had a solid start to the NCAA Championships on Thursday after finishing fourth at the Big Ten Tournament on March 9-10.

After winning the conference team title for the second straight season, Penn State entered as a heavy favorite to repeat as national champions.

125-pounder Drake Ayala set the tone for the Hawkeyes, earning a 10-2 major decision against Elijah Griffin out of Cal Baptist. Braeden Davis scored the Nittany Lions’ first points of the day in an 8-1 decision against Michigan State’s Tristan Lujan.

There was an upset in the opening round at 125, with Wyoming’s fifth-seeded Jore Volk losing 5-3 to No. 28 Diego Sotelo out of Harvard.

Brody Teske followed suit at 133 for Iowa with a major decision, beating Derrick Cardinal of South Dakota State 12-4.

Aaron Nagao was the first Penn State wrestler to lose in the championship bracket. The No. 10 seed fell to Virginia’s Marlon Yarbrough, 16-7.

Real Woods kept the momentum going at 141 for the Hawkeyes with a 15-0 tech fall in his first-round match against Kai Owen. Woods came out aggressive, scoring a takedown in the first 10 seconds of the match and staying on top for the rest of the bout.

Beau Bartlett got the Nittany Lions back on track with a 6-1 win in his first-round match at 141.

At 149 pounds came Iowa’s first loss. Caleb Rathjen lost to Oklahoma State’s Jordan Williams 12-5 after a takedown and a near fall by Williams in the final seconds. That wasn’t the only upset in the opening round at 149, as Penn State’s seventh-seeded Tyler Kasak lost to Stanford’s No. 26 Jaden Abas, 4-2.

Jared Franek eked out a 3-2 win for the Hawkeyes at 157 in his match against Purdue’s Joey Blaze. The pair went into the tiebreakers, and Franek survived with a four-second riding time advantage.

Michael Caliendo got Iowa’s fourth bonus point victory of the day with an 11-2 major decision over Minnesota’s Blaine Brenner at 165 pounds. Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole showed why he entered the day as the favorite at 165, as he pinned Northern Iowa’s Jack Thompson in 2:55 to begin his run at a national title.

Iowa State’s David Carr and Penn State’s Mitchell Messenbrink showed why they’re contenders in the weight class as well, each earning a tech. fall to start.

The Hawkeyes lost their second match of the day at 174 with North Carolina’s No. 21 Tyler Eischens upsetting Iowa’s No. 12 Patrick Kennedy, 9-7.  Eischens scored a takedown with under 30 seconds left to win the match.

174 saw another surprising upset, with UNI’s 28th-seed Jack Simma beating Harvard’s fifth-seed Phillip Conigliaro, 7-0.

Iowa did not have a wrestler qualify at 184 pounds as Aiden Riggins did not place at the conference tournament or receive an at-large bid.

In a battle of military academies, Navy’s 25th-seed David Key beat Air Force’s eighth-seed Sam Wolf 4-1 as the crowd gave both wrestlers applause for their service.

Iowa’s most surprising result of session one came at 197 pounds. Seventh-seed Zach Glazier lost 4-1 to Virginia Tech’s No. 26 Andy Smith in sudden victory. Glazier was the lone Iowa finalist at the Big Ten Tournament, where he lost to Penn State’s Aaron Brooks, a three-time national champion.

Brooks continued his winning ways for the Nittany Lions on Thursday with a tech fall in round one against Northwestern’s Evan Bates.

Bradley Hill made up for Glazier’s upset loss at heavyweight with an upset of his own, beating North Carolina State’s eighth-seeded Owen Trephan, 4-2. Hill scored a takedown midway through the third and kept Trephan at bay for the remainder of the match to secure the win.

Heavyweight favorites Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State and Yonger Bastida of Iowa State earned early stoppages in the first round. Kerkvliet earned a tech fall against Nick Willham, and Bastida pinned Bennet Tabor in under two minutes to finish the Cyclones’ first session.

Team scores after Session I

1st Penn State- 15.5

2nd Nebraska- 14.0

3rd Michigan- 13.5

4th Iowa State- 13.0

5th Ohio State- 12.5

6th Virginia Tech- 11.5

7th Cornell- 11.0

7th NC State- 11.0

9th Iowa- 10.5

10th Oklahoma State- 10.0