PHILADELPHIA — ISU wrestler Jon Reader advanced to the 174-pound championship match, earning All-America status for the third time in his career on Friday at the NCAA Championships.

After outscoring his opponents, 34-5, in his first three matches of the tournament, Reader held on to a 4-3 victory over No. 5 Chris Henrich of Virginia to advance.

“I think I shut down way too early, I think I was a little excited before the match,” Reader said. “I kind of felt it walking out there, but those are things you learn [from] and you progress forward.”

Reader, the No. 1 seed at 174 pounds, will face No. 7 Nick Amuchastegui of Stanford in the championship bout Saturday night, and can become the 11th Cyclone to win a national title in the past decade.

“I worked my tail off all year, and you get to this part of the season and it really is about you,” Reader said. “You’ve got to be selfish. This isn’t just a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and I live the life.”

The three other Cyclones who began the day still in contention for placing were all eliminated by the end of the day.

Senior Chris Drouin saw an end to his collegiate career after getting beaten by a 17-0 technical fall in the second round of the consolation bracket at 141 pounds.

“We’re a little disappointed that we lost our 141-pounder,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. “We thought he was really capable of doing well here. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”

Drouin, who appeared distraught after the match, declined comment.

In the second round of the consolation bracket, 197-pounder Jerome Ward favored a nifty single-leg attack that helped him to a 14-5 major decision over North Carolina’s Zach Bennett.

“It’s all about consistency with him,” Jackson said of Ward. “If he competes at a high level and tries to score points, he ends up performing pretty well.”

Ward, a junior, has registered two victories at the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career after two 1-2 showings in previous years.

“He’s due to become an All-American,” Jackson said. “He’s in his junior year and time’s a’wasting.”

Ward’s path to All-America status was favorable for him, containing two wrestlers he had previously beaten this year — Boston’s John Hall and Iowa’s Luke Lofthouse.

After surviving a takedown at the end of the buzzer that did not count to hang on in a 3-2 decision over Hall, Ward fell one match short of becoming an All-American, losing to Lofthouse, 3-1.

In that match, Ward did not fire off an attack until the final 10 seconds, an effort that went for naught as the clock ticked to zero to end his season.

Heavyweight Kyle Simonson redeemed himself after a 2-0 loss to No. 7 Blake Rasing of Iowa yesterday by pinning Michigan State’s Joseph Razqallah with 57 seconds remaining and the score knotted at 4-4 in the third period.

“The difference between yesterday and today was he didn’t have a guy [Rasing] who weighed 285,” Jackson said. “To be realistic, Kyle’s not the biggest of heavyweights, he’s a smaller heavyweight, and [Rasing] used his 65 pounds to keep him down and really he beat him by 10 seconds of riding time.

“I think [Simonson] didn’t do anything different today besides win and have a different opponent.”

Simonson’s success came to an end when he defaulted against Maryland’s Spencer Myers to eliminate himself from the tournament.

At one point in the match, Simonson required medical attention when he re-aggravated a back injury he had had earlier in the season. The re-aggravation was what ultimately led to the injury default.

Session VI, which features the 10 championship matches, will begin Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.