The opening rounds at a wrestling tournament are mainly about avoiding bad results and putting yourself in position to achieve success. Tournaments aren't won in the opening rounds, but they can certainly be lost if too many losses mount up in the early going. Iowa largely avoided those pitfalls in the first session of the 2023 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament -- the Hawkeyes went 8-0 (plus two byes) in round one and followed that up with a 6-4 showing in the quarterfinals.

But the semifinal round is often where tournaments are decided. There are more points on the line in that round than any other round and success in the semis can either clinch a team victory outright or set up the victory. Failure in the semis can all but torpedo team championship aspirations.

Iowa went just 3-3 in the semifinal round on Saturday night; meanwhile, Penn State went 6-1 in the semis and Nebraska went 5-for-5 in semifinal matches. As a result, Iowa is staring up at Penn State in first place in the team race -- and fighting off a challenge from Nebraska in order to hold onto second place.

Here's a summary of what happened in the semifinals:

The semifinal round started well, as Spencer Lee absolutely rolled through Patrick McKee. Lee got a takedown and quickly tilted McKee for a 4-point near fall that opened up a 6-0 lead. It seemed like he may have pinned McKee during that sequence, but the officials did not see it that way. No matter -- Lee added another takedown and a few more tilts in the second period to polish off a thoroughly dominant 20-2 technical fall win. Just more incredible stuff from one of the most incredible wrestlers to wear an Iowa singlet.

Real Woods made it 2-for-2 for Iowa in the semifinals with a 3-0 win at 141 that highlighted Woods' elite defense. Woods escaped a deep attack from Tal Shahar in the first period and displayed ace defensive skills in stuffing Tal Shahar's attacks the rest of the match. An escape and a late takedown were enough to ice the win.

Max Murin was unable to make it 3-for-3 for Iowa in the semifinals; he dropped an 8-2 decision to top seed Sammy Sasso at 149 lbs. Murin had some good attacks and got in deep on a few shots -- but he was never able to penetrate Sasso's defense and finish any of those attacks. Worse, Sasso was able to turn those attacks into points of his own off re-shots or scrambles.

Patrick Kennedy earned Iowa's third and final semifinal win at 165 lbs, 3-2 over Michigan's Cameron Amine. After a scoreless first period, Kennedy and Amine traded escapes. Finally, late in the match, Kennedy was able to get in deep on Amine's leg and, after a bit of fighting, dropped Amine to the mat for the match-winning takedown.

Iowa's final two semifinalists were at 197 and 285, where Jacob Warner and Tony Cassioppi were facing familiar foes from Penn State. That familiarity didn't do them any favors in the matches, though; Warner dropped another match to Max Dean, 3-1, after Dean got an escape and takedown in the second period. Warner's own attacks couldn't penetrate Dean's defense. Cassioppi dropped a 5-0 decision to Greg Kerkvliet; Kerkvliet got a first period takedown and a second period reversal and simply rode the hell out of Cassioppi whenever he had the chance.

The four wrestlers who lost in the quarterfinals -- Brody Teske, Cobe Siebrecht, Nelson Brands, and Abe Assad -- all wrestled in the consolation rounds on Saturday night, with mixed results. All four won their first matches in the wrestlebacks; unfortunately, they went 1-3 in their second matches in the wrestlebacks. Nelson Brands was the only wrestler to win both consolation matches, thanks to a narrow 3-2 decision win over Max Maylor (Michigan) and a 3-1 sudden victory win over Indiana's Donnell Washington.

Teske got routed by Northwestern's Chris Cannon, Siebrecht dropped a tight match with Northwestern's Trevor Chumbley, and Assad got pinned in under a minute by Rutgers' Brian Soldano. All three will wrestle for 7th place on Sunday.

Both Lee and Woods will face Nebraska wrestlers in the Big Ten Tournament finals; wins there would go a long way to keeping Nebraska at bay in third place and prevent them from catching the Hawkeyes for second place. Lee beat Cronin with a 38-second pin at the dual earlier this season, while Woods won a tight 6-4 decision over Hardy at the dual. Woods is wrestling much better lately than he was back then -- but Hardy also looks improved from that match. Kennedy lost a tight 4-3 decision to Hamiti at the dual earlier this season.

Murin, Brands, Warner, and Cassioppi can all finish third at their respective weights, although they need to win their first matches (listed above) in order to make the 3rd place match. If they lose in the match listed above, they'll wrestle for 5th place.

The consolation round semifinals and 7th place matches start at 12 PM CT on Sunday and will be streamed on BTN+. The finals (and 3rd and 5th place matches) will start at 3:30 PM CT and will be televised on BTN (with 3rd and 5th place mats streamed on BTN+).