Photo courtesy of Iowa Athletics: Former Fort Dodge Dodger state champion Drake Ayala works his way toward a victory over defending national champion Lucas Byrd at the NCAA Wrestling Tournament in Cleveland on Friday night.

CLEVELAND — For the third consecutive year, Drake Ayala has secured a spot on the podium at the NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships.

Ayala, a three-time state champion at Fort Dodge Senior High, earned a Top-8 finish at 133 pounds when he easily handled Maximilian Leete of American in the consolation fourth round here on Friday.

The Iowa Hawkeye senior followed up that performance by knocking off defending national champion Lucas Byrd from Illinois, 10-4, to advance into the consolation semifinals on Saturday morning. Last year, Byrd bested Ayala for the title in an epic finals matchup.

Ayala will meet Aaron Seidel of Virginia Tech for a spot in the third-place match. Seidel is the No. 4 overall seed, having lost to finalist Jax Forrest of Oklahoma State in the semifinals.

Iowa did get one of its three semifinal wrestlers through to the championship round in Mikey Caliendo, as the 165-pounder will take on rival Mitchell Mesenbrink from Penn State. It marks the 36th consecutive season the Hawks have had at least one finalist.

Both Patrick Kennedy and Angelo Ferrari lost in the semis and will compete in the consolations.

The Hawkeyes enter the final day fourth overall behind Penn State, Oklahoma State and Nebraska.

Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida remained undefeated on the year, earning a spot in the heavyweight finals with a win over AJ Ferrari of Nebraska in the semis. He will take on fellow unbeaten Isaac Trumble of NC State for the title.

Ayala had no trouble scoring on Leete, claiming an 8-3 decision after earning a pair of takedowns in the second period and an escape in the third before earning riding time.

Ayala took the same approach vs. Byrd, feeling him out before securing a takedown early in the second period. Ayala added an escape and two more takedowns in the third for his decision.

Earlier in the day, Ayala fell to Penn State’s Marcus Blaze in the quarterfinals, 5-3. The 133-pound finale will pit top-seed Forrest against No. 2 Ben Davino of Ohio State.

For his career, Ayala is now 25-11 in postseason matches, including a 13-5 record at the NCAAs.

Ryder Block, a state champion at Waverly-Shell Rock, earned a surprise spot in the Top-8 at 149 pounds as the No. 15 seed with a fourth consecutive win on the consolation side, including the last two in sudden-victory. Gabe Arnold, the 27th seed at 197, also won four straight to earn an unexpected medal before falling to Camden McDanel of Nebraska in the consolation fifth round.

Ben Kueter, a former Iowa City High state champion like Arnold, rebounded from a loss in the quarters to earn All-American honors in consecutive seasons at heavyweight. Kueter was a four-time undefeated high school state champion for the Little Hawks.

The seven All-Americans for Iowa is the most since 2021, and the fifth time they have had at least that many under head coach Tom Brands.

Iowa State also got Anthony Echemendia and MG Gaitan to the podium for head coach Kevin Dresser, a former state champion wrestler at Humboldt.

All five of Northern Iowa’s qualifiers were eliminated in Julian Farber, Caleb Rathjen, Ryder Downey, Jared Simma and Nick Fox.