After placing second for the three straight years at the Midlands Championships, Jon Reader finally came out on top.

The senior, who had moved up to the 174-pound weight class after three years at 165, defeated Central Michigan’s Ben Bennett in a 9-4 decision in the 174-pound finals of the two-day tournament at the Ryan-Welsh Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Reader is now 18-0 on the season.

After finishing second at last season’s tournament, the Cyclones turned out a weaker team finish in eighth place with 63.5 points. Missouri won the team competition with 103.5 points, while Iowa, which had won the competition for three straight seasons prior to this year’s tournament, finished in fourth with 91 points.

Senior Chris Drouin made it to the semifinals of the 141-pound championship bracket, where he would fall to Illinois’ Jimmy Kennedy, 4-1, to drop him to the consolation round.

In the ensuing match, Drouin defeated Missouri’s Todd Schavrien, 3-2, to land in the third-place match. It was there that he was pinned by Pittsburgh’s Tyler Nauman to place fourth.

Chris Spangler, Iowa State’s third wrestler in the semifinals, took two medical forfeits in the 165-pound bracket to place sixth.

Three Cyclones came up just short of placing in the tournament.

Nate Carr Jr., who had advanced to the quarterfinals of the 149-pound championship bracket, lost two straight matches to fall just falling short of placing in the tournament.

The senior from Gray, Ga., is now 11-3 on the season after the two losses that knocked him out of the tournament.

True freshman Michael Moreno saw his dominance come to an end after dropping a 9-4 decision to American’s Bubby Graham. After a first-round loss to No. 1 Andrew Howe of Wisconsin, Moreno reeled off three straight victories, two of which were pins, en route to his loss to Graham.

Heavyweight Matt Gibson saw his chance to place come to an abrupt end after being taken down at the buzzer against Wartburg’s John Helgerson to lose, 4-3. Helgerson had defeated another ISU heavyweight, Kyle Simonson, earlier in the tournament, eliminating him as well.

Iowa State’s next competition will be in Cedar Falls at the NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals on Jan. 8 and 9.