The Nebraska wrestling team entered the NWCA National Duals ranked 10th nationally and in need of a breakout performance.

When the Huskers left Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Sunday, they were squarely in the midst of the national title picture.

Nebraska knocked off defending national champion Minnesota 24-13 in the semifinals before losing 24-6 to second-ranked Iowa in the championship Sunday.

On Saturday, the Huskers took down No. 9 Northwestern 25-9 and top-ranked Penn State 19-13.

Coach Mark Manning said his team probably won’t be overlooked anymore.

“We definitely made a statement,” Manning said. “Our team has always believed we should be there (ranked among the top teams). We’re trying to get across that we have to prove it every time we step out on the mat and not let the ranking determine our worth. We have to earn it.”

It is the third time in the 17 years of the National Duals that a Husker squad has finished runner-up (also in 1993 and 1996, both in Lincoln).

In the finals, Iowa won the first five matches to take a 15-0 lead before NU’s Stephen Dwyer stopped the slide with an 8-6 win at 165 pounds.

The Hawkeyes then won the next two matches to wrap up the team title.

“There were a lot of positives, but we’ll use the match against Iowa to learn from,” Manning said. “I’d be just as disappointed if we had lost 19-18 because a loss is a loss. But this whole tournament, we competed well and competed against the best. We want to be there, but we’re not there yet.”

This year’s Husker squad entered the National Duals ranked 10th despite a 6-1 record. The only loss was a 25-13 defeat at Minnesota a month ago.

On Sunday, the Huskers turned things around.

The Golden Gophers, however, took the advantage early when third-ranked Jayson Ness knocked off NU’s 125-pound national champion Paul Donahoe with a takedown in the sudden-victory period.

That started a three-match Gopher winning streak that put NU behind 9-0.

Husker Jordan Burroughs recorded a 24-9 technical-fall win at 149 to make the score 9-5.

Minnesota’s C.P. Schlatter earned a major decision over Chris Oliver at 157 to put the Gophers up by eight points.

After that, it was all Nebraska.

Dwyer and Brandon Browne (174) each earned decisions to cut Minnesota’s lead to 13-11.

Then Vince Jones put a jolt through the Huskers when he pinned second-ranked Roger Kish with four seconds left in the 184-pound match. That gave Nebraska the lead for the first time, 17-13.

“That was pretty exciting,” Dwyer said. “Everybody got so excited and got so crazy. When things settled down, we noticed that everything was all wet, all the water got tipped over, chairs were thrown back.”

A major-decision win by Craig Brester at 197 sealed the dual win and senior Jon May ended things with a decision at heavyweight.

Dwyer said the weekend was a little bittersweet for the Huskers.

“We’re happy with the performance, but we know we have to get better,” Dwyer said. “We came in wanting to win and we did better than other people expected us to. Our expectations are different than the rankings, and we are focused on the only rankings that count and those come at the end of March.”

Briefly

* Dwyer was the only Husker to win all four of his matches over the weekend. 

* Donahoe’s losses on Sunday were his first two since winning the national title last March.

* Brester, ranked fourth nationally at 197, lost on Saturday to the Nos. 2 and 3 wrestlers, but won both of his Sunday matches.

* In the Division II tournament, Nebraska-Omaha lost to Minnesota State-Mankato 19-17 in the finals and Nebraska-Kearney fell to Central Oklahoma 21-19 in the third-place match.

* The Huskers are back in action next Sunday in a nationally televised dual against No. 3 Oklahoma State (6 p.m. on ESPNU, cable 235). The meet will be held in Oklahoma City at the same time as a match between Oklahoma and Wisconsin.