The semifinals of the NCAA Div. III Nationals got off to a great start for the Iowa Conference, but it took quite a while before another league wrestler locked up a spot in tonight's finals.

Clayton Rush of Coe was the first to punch his ticket to the finals, but then the next five semifinalists from the conference lost, to make things look grim for the league. But a late rally in the final three weight classes gave the conference four finalists.

Evan Brown of Dubuque at 174, Byron Tate of Wartburg at 197 and Wartburg heavyweight John Helgerson will also battle for gold tonight.

Rush, the top seed at 125, made the finals for the second time in his three-year Kohawk career with a 10-3 victory over defending champion Jake Oster of Elmhurst.

Rush scored takedowns in the first and second periods for a 4-3 lead entering the third. The Kohawk, with 1:08 riding time, chose neutral to begin the third. There was no scoring until the closing seconds, when Oster attempted a desperate lateral drop and ended up on his back to give Rush a five-point move to close out the win.

The Kohawk junior said returning to the finals is great, but he has one more to win.

"I feel pretty good right now. Let it sink in a little and then focus on my opponent," he said. "My goal was to be a National champion. My goal is not met yet."

Rush said he knew he had to be careful against Oster, no matter the score.

"He could be losing by 14 and do some funk and the next thing you know, you're on your back. You just have to keep wrestling," he said.

Brown will also be making his second trip to the finals as he gets a chance to defend the tile he won last season, after a hard-fought 4-3 win over freshman Kyle Kwiat of Ohio Northern.

The Spartan appeared in complete control of the match after a duck under for a takedown 15 seconds into the match and a tough ride the remainder of the period. Brown chose top in the second and turned Kwiat for a quick two-count before the match was stopped for an injury timeout.

But later in the period, Brown got too high and Kwiat scored a reversal and rode Brown the rest of the period. Brown chose bottom in the third, but could not escape. He was called for stalling once, but came out on top, 4-3.

"It was a tough match, He wrestled me pretty hard," Brown said. "I kind of messed up in the second period and gave up that reversal. But you just have to get the job done."

Brown could have possibly earned more near fall points in the second period and perhaps a fall, but the ref stopped the match when Kwiat yelled out.

"The ref didn't give me much time to run it, but he's pretty flexible," Brown said.

The former Nevada prep hopes his experience from last season will help tonight.

"That will definitely be an advantage. The other guy hasn't been there before and maybe his nerves will get to him," he said.

Brown's win started a run of success for the league.

At 197, Tate knocked off undefeated defending champ Jared Massey of Augsburg, 2-1 in overtime.

The former Clinton State champ rode out Massey in the first tiebreaker and escaped midway through the second one, for the upset win.

The two had close matches earlier in the year, but Tate won when it really counted.

"I feel pretty good. We wrestled some close matches early in the season," he said. "I came here to make it count and try to win it."

Tate said he felt comfortable when the match went into the tiebreakers.

"I know I can go down and get the escape every time," he said.

Tate was joined in the finals about 10 minutes later by teammate Helgerson.

The Knight big man scored a takedown in the first period and took Jon Schmidt of UW Whitewater down to his back in the closing seconds to seal the 8-1 victory.

Helgerson finished third here last season, but came in this year as the No. 5 seed. That didn't stop him from reaching the title bout.

"Fifth seed was justified, but I knew I was better than that and could make the finals," he said.

The Knight added that watching his teammate pull off the win at 197 helped him entering his match.

"His win really lifted me up and I realized I could do this," Helgerson said.

The other five Iowa Conference semifinalists all lost by three points or less in a very entertaining round.

Falling short of the finals were Nick Nothern of Cornell at 133, Matt Kelly of Wartburg at 141, Jason Pyle of Luther at 149, Adam Weber of Wartburg at 157 and 165-pounder Nick LeClere of Coe.