Wrestling: Big 12 Championships Day 2

It was a pretty good first day for the Cyclones in Tulsa. The team has all but wrapped up 2nd place in the team race, all ten guys are still in contention, and four have reached the finals. It wasn’t all rosy - Coleman took a loss that mean’s he’ll likely need an at large, Gomez lost to #13 Bridges and Parker lost to #16 Demas. But overall the positives outweighed the negatives and the team has a lot of momentum going in to the medal matches today.

Where: Bok Center, Tulsa, OK

Stream: Flowrestling ($$)

Live Brackets/Scores: FloArena (Free)

Schedule

• Session 3 (Consolation Semifinals, 3rd & 5th Place Matches) - 12:00 PM-2:00 PM, Sunday, March 10th
• Session 4 (Finals) - 7:00 PM-9:00 PM, Sunday, March 10th

Team Standings After Day 1

Finals Breakdown

149

In Iowa State’s first final of the night, #11 Degen will take on #8 Gfeller of Oklahoma State. When Iowa State went to Stillwater for a dual Gfeller was out of the OSU lineup so these two have not met. A win would here to give Degen a little extra boost for seeding but Degen is the underdog here so loss wouldn’t hurt him too much.

157

Straw came in to this tournament knowing that he had to win it to go to Pittsburgh and on Day 1 he kept himself on track to make that happen. In the finals he will face #26 Justin Thomas of Oklahoma in the finals. These two have met three times over the past two years with Thomas holding a 2-1 edge. This one is likely to be a nailbiter.

184

#11 Colbray gets a rubber match against #10 Foster in the finals at 184. In their first meeting back in November Foster steamrolled Colbray 14-0, but when they met in West Gym a few weeks back Colbray came away with an 8-5 win. Colbray has quietly been putting together a really solid season and another win over Foster tonight would solidify him as someone in the conversation to reach the podium in Pittsburgh.

197

#5 Miklus will also face an Oklahoma State wrestler that wasn’t in the lineup when the Cyclones made the trip to Stillwater. He’ll face #4 Preston Weigel, who came back recently after missing a chunk of the season from injury. Though these two have not met this season they did wrestle each other last year, when Miklus was still wearing a Missouri singlet. Miklus came away with a 10-4 win in that one. With luck we’ll see a similar result tonight

Consolations Semifinals Matchups

• 125 - #22 Alex Mackall vs #24 Jay Schwarm (UNI)
• 133 - #10 Austin Gomez vs. UR Gary Joint (Fresno State)
• 141 - #12 Ian Parker vs. UR Caleb Rea (West Virginia)
• 165 - UR Logan Schumacher vs. #12 Bryce Steiert (UNI)
• 174 - #23 Marcus Coleman vs. #12 Kimball Bastain (Utah Valley)
• 285 - #26 Gannon Gremmel vs #25 Brian Andrews (Wyoming)

3rd and 5th place matchups, once determined, will be updated in the comments.

Prediction

When all is said and done I think that Iowa State will have two Big 12 champions, at 184 and 197, and qualify 8 to NCAAs with Straw having to wait it out in hopes of an at large. I’d like to see Straw prove me wrong and get a win in the finals but the whole reason he didn’t earn an allocation is that he hasn’t been able to put together a string of good wins so I don’t see him being able to pick up his fourth one in a row tonight.

Next Up

The NCAA Championships kick off next Thursday in Pittsburgh. We’ll have a preview up once brackets are announced.