Penn State Wrestling has a long and storied career in the annals of collegiate wrestling.

But so too does Iowa Wrestling.

And at this point, it would be fairly easy to argue they have the richer history … a total of 24 NCAA team titles tends to do that.

However, the Nittany Lions are starting to nip at the heels of the Hawkeyes.

With their most recent team title in the 2025 NCAA Championships, Cael Sanderson has now led Penn State Wrestling to the promised land in 12 of the past 14 NCAA’s. And along with the Nittany Lions’ first team title back in 1953, it gives them a total of 13 all-time.

So it got us at NittanyCentral thinking to ourselves, “What does the complete history look like between Penn State Wrestling and Iowa?”

Which was a much better question than pondering whether or not the NBA Lottery was rigged or trying to figure out what people eat non-dairy bread.

Don’t worry, readers, we’re always here to ask the tough questions.

So with that, let’s dive into the full history of dual meets between the Nittany Lions and the Hawkeyes!

Prior to Penn State joining the B1G in June of 1990, the Nittany Lions already had a handful of dual meets under their belt against the Hawkeyes.

The first meeting between Penn State Wrestling and Iowa dates back to December 6, 1982.

And while the Nittany Lions had a very respectable squad that year, they simply weren’t on the same planet as Iowa.

Dan Gable and the Hawkeyes were in search of their sixth straight NCAA team title. Conversely, Head Coach Rich Lorenzo was looking to bounce back from an underperformance from his team in the 1982 NCAA Championships.

During their 1981-1982 campaign, the Nittany Lions owned a 12-3 dual meet record and they took home an EWL Conference Championship. But unfortunately, they sputtered a bit in the NCAA’s and finished in a disappointing 14th place with 20.3 team points.

So you can now get a sense of the state of each program.

One was trying to become only the second D1 program to win at least six straight NCAA team titles (Oklahoma State 1937-1946). And the other one was battling hard but essentially spinning their tires.

First Penn State/Iowa Matchup

So yeah, it should come as no surprise that Iowa spanked the Nittany Lions to the tune of 34-9 in front of the home fans at Rec Hall.