ST. LOUIS — Mark Perry earned a return trip to the finals of the NCAA wrestling championships, and this time it'll be a victory lap. Iowa won three semifinal matches tonight and clinched its first title since 2000 a day early.

The Hawkeyes' exceptional depth piled up 102 points, ensuring the school's 21st overall title. Ohio State (71) was a distant second followed by Iowa State (68), Penn State (63), Central Michigan (61.5), Michigan (61), Nebraska and Oklahoma State (58), Cornell (57.5) and Minnesota (56.5).

Fifteen schools will be represented in a diverse championship round on Saturday night, but it's been the Hawkeyes' weekend.

Their return to prominence is especially satisfying for the 165-pound Perry, a senior and national runnerup last year who missed the Big Ten season recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Five wrestlers made it to the semifinals and top-seeded Brent Metcalf (149) and Joey Slaton (133) also advanced to the finals.

"This is what I expected, for there to be thousands and thousands of fans and for us to be in the hunt every year," Perry said after a narrow 4-2 victory over Missouri's Nick Marable. "The first couple of years were hard and this is definitely what I've been looking forward to for a long time."

Iowa led by one point after the first round, three points after the second round and 19.5 after the quarterfinals.

Ohio State also will have three wrestlers in the finals, while Penn State and Ohio State qualified two each. Top-seeded Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan will face Perry, the No. 2 seed, in the 165-pound final, and teammate Steve Luke followed him to the mat, and into the finals, at 174 against undefeated top seed Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh.

"It seems every time he wins, I go out and win," Luke said. "After I saw Eric won, I felt pretty good."

Gavin, who never finished better than third place as a Pennsylvania high schooler, is 26-0 after a lackluster 3-2 victory over Iowa's Jay Borschel.

"It took me a while to get where I'm at," Gavin said. "I'm pretty methodical."

Top-seeded 125-pound Angel Escobedo of Indiana, who missed two months with a torn labrum in his left shoulder, wore a brace for the first time during his 4-1 victory over Iowa's Charlie Falck and is 3-0 against Jayson Ness of Minnesota, his opponent in the final.

"It's confident but it's not overconfident," Escobedo said. "We've had great battles."

The top two seeds were upset at 133, with Iowa's Slaton beating No. 1 Franklin Gomez of Michigan State 3-1 with a takedown in overtime, and No. 3 Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State knocking off No. 2 James Kennedy of Illinois 4-2.

Jordan Leen of Cornell, a No. 8 seed who upset top-seeded Gregor Gillespie of Edinboro in the quarterfinals at 157, beat 12th-seeded Josh Zupancic of Stanford to reach the final. The lowest seed to make the finals, he'll face No. 2 seed Michael Poeta of Illinois.

Jake Varner of Iowa State, the top seed at 184, won his second tight match of the day with a 4-2 victory over Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan. Top-rated heavyweight Dustin Fox of Northwestern had a pair of one-point decisions, beating Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State in the semifinals.

Iowa won its first three bouts in the quarterfinals, all by one point, and made it a 4-for-4 start when Perry needed only 37 seconds to pin Michael Cannon of American. In his first three matches, Perry had two pins and a 12-2 decision.

Perry said his semifinal opponent, Missouri's Marable, was the type content to win low-scoring matches. As he ran off the mat he savored vociferous booing from a large Missouri contingent protesting the takedown ruling on a cradle move, blowing them a kiss.

"Obviously, wrestling in the United States is not like football or basketball, but this is what I've wrestled my whole life for," Perry said. "I don't really understand the whole booing concept in general when half of the people probably have never been on the mat before.

"I would like them to be on my side, but it's all fun and games."

No defending champions remain after 197-pound Joshua Glenn of American and 125-pound Paul Donahoe of Nebraska both fell.

Arizona State's Anthony Robles, born with one leg, fell one match shy of All-America status at 125 pounds after losing in wrestlebacks. Robles received a standing ovation from a crowd of 16,004 as he left the mat.