Oklahoma State, led by four champions, won its sixth straight Big 12 team title with UNI in second
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by Roger Moore, Special to TheMat.com
Oklahoma State team photo courtesy of Big 12 Conference
TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma State ran away with another Big 12 Conference Championship Sunday, outdistancing second place Northern Iowa by 40 ½ points inside the BOK Center. The Cowboys, winners of six straight league crowns, crowned four champions and had two others reach the finals. Nine members of head coach John Smith’s squad will wrestle in Cleveland, Ohio, at the 2018 NCAA Championships. Northern Iowa, Wyoming, and South Dakota State crowned two champions each.
“We had some guys who really looked like they were alive tonight,” Smith said. “What an exciting way to start the event with Nick Piccininni getting that pin. You end up in a scramble and when you have an opportunity to cinch someone up and pin them, you want to see that. We had four champions and I really thought we wrestled well at 133 and 141. Those are good quality matches, good wrestlers that will represent our conference at nationals. You enjoy your conference victories. People ask if it ever gets old? Try losing one.”
An entertaining Sunday night started off with a bang.
OSU’s Nick Piccininni (21-3) caught West Virginia’s Zeke Moisey, an NCAA finalist back in 2015, in a funky situation after a low-level single-leg attack and shocked the Mountaineer with a pin at 1:11 at 125 pounds. Moisey tried to counter the shot by diving over the top, but the Cowboy sophomore, now a two-time league champion, trapped Moisey on his back for the pin.
“It was a crazy scramble and I was fortunate to end up on top,” said Piccininni, a native of New York. “He kind of fell into a position and I knew I had to pressure into him; it was sort of like a cradle without anything really hooked up. It was one of those situations you kind of mess around with, rolling around in practice.
“It’s an adrenaline rush, great feeling to end a match that way. You never really expect it to end that way.”
Piccininni had one career pin entering Sunday’s match.
Another OSU sophomore, Boo Lewallen (26-6) overturned an overtime loss to Northern Iowa All-American Max Thomsen during the regular season with a 9-3 decision at 149 pounds. Chandler Rogers (20-3) used a six-pointer in the opening moments to jump out against North Dakota State’s Andrew Fogarty and cruised to 12-9 decision to win the 165-pound title. Junior heavyweight Derek White (23-2) finished off the evening and tournament with a dominant win over Fresno State rookie AJ Nevills.
Wyoming’s Bryce Meredith improved to 30-1 and denied OSU’s Dean Heil a chance at a fourth Big 12 crown. Meredith ended Heil’s 55-match win streak back in December, and on Sunday night, leading 6-3, the 2016 NCAA finalist gave up a late takedown and fought off one last attempt at a turn and won 6-5. Heil, a two-time NCAA champion, won the first three meetings with Meredith, but along with the two-tiebreaker win in Cheyenne, the Wyoming product has two straight. Big 12 coaches voted Meredith the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler.
Mark Branch’s Cowboys also crowned senior 157-pounder Archie Colgan (32-7), who edged top-seeded Clay Ream of North Dakota State.
South Dakota State’s Seth Gross (24-1) won an action-packed 133-pound final over OSU’s Kaid Brock, who also lost to Gross in the 2017 Big 12 final. After a back-and-forth five-plus minutes, Gross scored the decisive takedown late in the third period; 1:17 of riding time gave the Jackrabbit an 8-5 win.
“You have to wrestle hard in every position (against Brock). He is going to get to your leg, and if he hits that explosive stuff and gets you off your feet he’s tough. I love the matches against (Brock) because you have to really be focused and ready to go hard.
“I’m ready to go. The experience from last year is going to help me. (Getting to the finals) really motivates me and I know I have to go (to St. Louis) and control the things I can control, not let anything bother me.”
Northern Iowa crowned Taylor Lujan (27-5), a winner over SDSU’s David Kocer at 174 pounds, and All-American Drew Foster (25-4), who bested Northern Colorado’s Dylan Gabel at 184 pounds. It was Gabel’s second-straight runner-up finish.
Joining Gross at the top of the medal stand for SDSU was 197-pounder Nate Rotert, a Big 12 runner-up two seasons ago. Rotert (25-3) and West Virginia’s Jake Smith wrestled the maximum 11 minutes through two tiebreakers with the Jackrabbit senior holding :01 of riding time for the victory. Officials originally raised Smith’s hand, but the SDSU coaching staff, along with the scorer’s table, made sure the right mat was awarded the gold.
Entering Sunday’s first session, 27 of the 40 allocated spots for the NCAA Championships were accounted for, meaning, from the opening whistle, everyone was on point. Ten of the 12 teams had already secured at least one ticket for Cleveland. Right out of the gate, North Dakota State’s Paul Bianchi and Fresno State’s Sean Williams wrestled for seventh place at 125 pounds, with Bianchi, a redshirt-freshman, earning the weight class’ final allocated berth to the NCAAs.
UNI started the second day 18 ½ points behind OSU with the Panthers sending six to the mat in consolations. The lead ballooned to 31 ½ after the Cowboys’ Jacobe Smith, Keegan Moore, and Preston Weigel each advanced to the bronze medal match, Smith scoring a fall and Weigel, a two-time Big 12 champ, scoring a dominant 13-0 major decision. A trio of victories in the third-place matches, highlighted by Smith’s action-packed 6-4 win over OU’s Yoanse Mejias, wrapped up the team title, OSU’s 50th conference crown dating back to a 1917.
UNI boss Doug Schwab, like all his Big 12 brethren, knows that in order to compete with the power of the Big Ten all involved have to continue to improve.
“Missouri has been a heck of team and we’ve created a little bit of a rivalry with them,” said Schwab, whose program joined the Big 12 this year after a short stint in the Mid-American. “Oklahoma State is a great team and I know other teams are going to continue to get better; Oklahoma and Iowa State, you know they are going to get better. Fresno State starting up again … everything is going to continue to elevate.
“Everyone always talks about the Big Ten and they say, ‘oh, they really grind on each other, wear each other out,’ but what they are doing is getting prepared for March; that is what we want to do (in the Big 12). To get to that point, we all have to elevate our game.”
Every school qualified at least one wrestler for the NCAA Championships. Utah Valley, with four qualifiers, equaled traditional powers Oklahoma and Iowa State and their four combined total. The Cyclones, in major rebuild mode under first-year head coach Kevin Dresser, qualified just one, 149-pounder Jarrett Degen, who was third at 149 pounds. The NCAA will release at-large selections this Wednesday.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Tulsa, Okla.
125
1st - Nick Piccininni (Oklahoma State) pin Zeke Moisey (West Virginia), 1:11
3rd - Taylor Lamont (Utah Valley) DEC Jay Schwarm (Northern Iowa), 6-4
5th - Connor Brown (South Dakota State) DEC Christian Moody (Oklahoma), 8-3
7th - Paul Bianchi (North Dakota State) DEC Sean Williams (Fresno State), 9-4
133
1st - Seth Gross (South Dakota State) dec. Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State), 8-5
3rd - Montorie Bridges (Wyoming) DEC Matt Schmitt (West Virginia), 2-1
5th - Cam Sykora (North Dakota State) TF Rico Montoya (Northern Colorado), 17-2 2:21
141
1st - Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) dec. Dean Heil (Oklahoma State), 6-5
3rd - Josh Alber (Northern Iowa) DEC Henry Pohlmeyer (South Dakota State), 5-3
5th - Ian Parker (Iowa State) DEC Mike Longo (Oklahoma), 2-1
149
1st - Boo Lewallen (Oklahoma State) dec. Max Thomsen (Northern Iowa), 9-3
3rd - Jarrett Degen (Iowa State) TF Sam Turner (Wyoming), 20-5 6:41
5th - Dane Robbins (Air Force) DEC Davion Jeffries (Oklahoma), 8-4
157
1st - Archie Colgan (Wyoming) dec. Clay Ream (North Dakota State), 4-3
3rd - Luke Zilverberg (South Dakota State) DEC Chase Straw (Iowa State), 2-0
5th - Logan Ryan (Northern Iowa) DEC Alex Mossing (Air Force), 3-2
165
1st - Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State) dec. Andrew Fogarty (North Dakota State), 12-9
3rd - Branson Ashworth (Wyoming) TF Keilan Torres (Northern Colorado), 18-0 2:46
5th - Dawaylon Barnes (Oklahoma) MD Demetrirus Romero (Utah Valley), 15-2
7th - Isaiah Patton (Northern Iowa) NC Skyler St. john (Iowa State)
174
1st - Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) dec. David Kocer (South Dakota State), 6-3
3rd - Jacobe Smith (Oklahoma State) DEC Yoanse Mejias (Oklahoma), 6-4
5th - Kimball Bastian (Utah Valley) MD Parker Vonegidy (West Virginia), 9-1
184
1st - Drew Foster (Northern Iowa) dec. Dylan Gabel (Northern Colorado), 5-1
3rd - Keegan Moore (Oklahoma State) MD Martin Mueller (South Dakota State), 13-5
5th - Chaz Polson (Wyoming) TF Dane Pestano (Iowa State), 16-0 2:43
197
1st - Nate Rotert (South Dakota State) dec. Jake Smith (West Virginia), 3-2
3rd - Preston Weigel (Oklahoma State) DEC Jacob Holschlag (Northern Iowa), 8-4
5th - Josh Hokit (Fresno State) DEC Andrew Dixon (Oklahoma), 3-1
285
1st - Derek White (Oklahoma State) dec. AJ Nevills (Fresno State), 13-6
3rd - Dustin Dennison (Utah Valley) DEC Marcus Harrington (Iowa State), 6-5
5th - Dan Stibral (North Dakota State) F Carter Isley (Northern Iowa), 9:00
Team Standings
1 Oklahoma State 137
2 Northern Iowa 96.5
3 South Dakota State 94
4 Wyoming 82.5
5 North Dakota State 57
6 Oklahoma 52
7 Iowa State 51
8 Utah Valley 50.5
9 West Virginia 50
10 Northern Colorado 30.5
11 Fresno State 26.5
12 Air Force 22.5
NCAA qualifiers
9 – Oklahoma State
6 – Northern Iowa, South Dakota State
5 – Wyoming
4 – North Dakota State, Utah Valley
3 – West Virginia, Oklahoma
2 – Northern Colorado
1 – Iowa State, Fresno State, Air Force
Individual qualifiers (45)
125 (7) – Piccininni (Oklahoma State), Moisey (West Virginia), LaMont (Utah Valley), Brown (South Dakota State), Schwarm (Northern Iowa), Moody (Oklahoma), Bianchi (North Dakota State)
133 (5) – Gross (SDSU), Brock (OSU), Bridges (Wyoming), Schmitt (WV), Sykora (NDSU)
141 (3) – Heil (OSU), Meredith (WYO), Alber (UNI)
149 (5) – Thomsen (UNI), Lewallen (OSU), Turner (WYO), Degen (ISU), Robbins (Air Force)
157 (3) – Ream (NDSU), Colgan (WYO), Zilverberg (SDSU)
165 (6) – Fogarty (NDSU), Rogers (OSU), Romero (UVU), Torres (UNC), Barnes (OU), Ashworth (WYO)
174 (5) – Lujan (UNI), Kocer (SDSU), Mejias (OU), Smith (OSU), Bastion (UVU)
184 (4) – Foster (UNI), Gabel (UNC), Moore (OSU), Mueller (SDSU)
197 (4) – Smith (WVA), Rotert (SDSU), Weigel (OSU), Holschlag (UNI)
285 (3) – White (OSU), Nevills (FSU), Dennison (UVU)
TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma State ran away with another Big 12 Conference Championship Sunday, outdistancing second place Northern Iowa by 40 ½ points inside the BOK Center. The Cowboys, winners of six straight league crowns, crowned four champions and had two others reach the finals. Nine members of head coach John Smith’s squad will wrestle in Cleveland, Ohio, at the 2018 NCAA Championships. Northern Iowa, Wyoming, and South Dakota State crowned two champions each.
“We had some guys who really looked like they were alive tonight,” Smith said. “What an exciting way to start the event with Nick Piccininni getting that pin. You end up in a scramble and when you have an opportunity to cinch someone up and pin them, you want to see that. We had four champions and I really thought we wrestled well at 133 and 141. Those are good quality matches, good wrestlers that will represent our conference at nationals. You enjoy your conference victories. People ask if it ever gets old? Try losing one.”
An entertaining Sunday night started off with a bang.
OSU’s Nick Piccininni (21-3) caught West Virginia’s Zeke Moisey, an NCAA finalist back in 2015, in a funky situation after a low-level single-leg attack and shocked the Mountaineer with a pin at 1:11 at 125 pounds. Moisey tried to counter the shot by diving over the top, but the Cowboy sophomore, now a two-time league champion, trapped Moisey on his back for the pin.
“It was a crazy scramble and I was fortunate to end up on top,” said Piccininni, a native of New York. “He kind of fell into a position and I knew I had to pressure into him; it was sort of like a cradle without anything really hooked up. It was one of those situations you kind of mess around with, rolling around in practice.
“It’s an adrenaline rush, great feeling to end a match that way. You never really expect it to end that way.”
Piccininni had one career pin entering Sunday’s match.
Another OSU sophomore, Boo Lewallen (26-6) overturned an overtime loss to Northern Iowa All-American Max Thomsen during the regular season with a 9-3 decision at 149 pounds. Chandler Rogers (20-3) used a six-pointer in the opening moments to jump out against North Dakota State’s Andrew Fogarty and cruised to 12-9 decision to win the 165-pound title. Junior heavyweight Derek White (23-2) finished off the evening and tournament with a dominant win over Fresno State rookie AJ Nevills.
Wyoming’s Bryce Meredith improved to 30-1 and denied OSU’s Dean Heil a chance at a fourth Big 12 crown. Meredith ended Heil’s 55-match win streak back in December, and on Sunday night, leading 6-3, the 2016 NCAA finalist gave up a late takedown and fought off one last attempt at a turn and won 6-5. Heil, a two-time NCAA champion, won the first three meetings with Meredith, but along with the two-tiebreaker win in Cheyenne, the Wyoming product has two straight. Big 12 coaches voted Meredith the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler.
Mark Branch’s Cowboys also crowned senior 157-pounder Archie Colgan (32-7), who edged top-seeded Clay Ream of North Dakota State.
South Dakota State’s Seth Gross (24-1) won an action-packed 133-pound final over OSU’s Kaid Brock, who also lost to Gross in the 2017 Big 12 final. After a back-and-forth five-plus minutes, Gross scored the decisive takedown late in the third period; 1:17 of riding time gave the Jackrabbit an 8-5 win.
“You have to wrestle hard in every position (against Brock). He is going to get to your leg, and if he hits that explosive stuff and gets you off your feet he’s tough. I love the matches against (Brock) because you have to really be focused and ready to go hard.
“I’m ready to go. The experience from last year is going to help me. (Getting to the finals) really motivates me and I know I have to go (to St. Louis) and control the things I can control, not let anything bother me.”
Northern Iowa crowned Taylor Lujan (27-5), a winner over SDSU’s David Kocer at 174 pounds, and All-American Drew Foster (25-4), who bested Northern Colorado’s Dylan Gabel at 184 pounds. It was Gabel’s second-straight runner-up finish.
Joining Gross at the top of the medal stand for SDSU was 197-pounder Nate Rotert, a Big 12 runner-up two seasons ago. Rotert (25-3) and West Virginia’s Jake Smith wrestled the maximum 11 minutes through two tiebreakers with the Jackrabbit senior holding :01 of riding time for the victory. Officials originally raised Smith’s hand, but the SDSU coaching staff, along with the scorer’s table, made sure the right mat was awarded the gold.
Entering Sunday’s first session, 27 of the 40 allocated spots for the NCAA Championships were accounted for, meaning, from the opening whistle, everyone was on point. Ten of the 12 teams had already secured at least one ticket for Cleveland. Right out of the gate, North Dakota State’s Paul Bianchi and Fresno State’s Sean Williams wrestled for seventh place at 125 pounds, with Bianchi, a redshirt-freshman, earning the weight class’ final allocated berth to the NCAAs.
UNI started the second day 18 ½ points behind OSU with the Panthers sending six to the mat in consolations. The lead ballooned to 31 ½ after the Cowboys’ Jacobe Smith, Keegan Moore, and Preston Weigel each advanced to the bronze medal match, Smith scoring a fall and Weigel, a two-time Big 12 champ, scoring a dominant 13-0 major decision. A trio of victories in the third-place matches, highlighted by Smith’s action-packed 6-4 win over OU’s Yoanse Mejias, wrapped up the team title, OSU’s 50th conference crown dating back to a 1917.
UNI boss Doug Schwab, like all his Big 12 brethren, knows that in order to compete with the power of the Big Ten all involved have to continue to improve.
“Missouri has been a heck of team and we’ve created a little bit of a rivalry with them,” said Schwab, whose program joined the Big 12 this year after a short stint in the Mid-American. “Oklahoma State is a great team and I know other teams are going to continue to get better; Oklahoma and Iowa State, you know they are going to get better. Fresno State starting up again … everything is going to continue to elevate.
“Everyone always talks about the Big Ten and they say, ‘oh, they really grind on each other, wear each other out,’ but what they are doing is getting prepared for March; that is what we want to do (in the Big 12). To get to that point, we all have to elevate our game.”
Every school qualified at least one wrestler for the NCAA Championships. Utah Valley, with four qualifiers, equaled traditional powers Oklahoma and Iowa State and their four combined total. The Cyclones, in major rebuild mode under first-year head coach Kevin Dresser, qualified just one, 149-pounder Jarrett Degen, who was third at 149 pounds. The NCAA will release at-large selections this Wednesday.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Tulsa, Okla.
125
1st - Nick Piccininni (Oklahoma State) pin Zeke Moisey (West Virginia), 1:11
3rd - Taylor Lamont (Utah Valley) DEC Jay Schwarm (Northern Iowa), 6-4
5th - Connor Brown (South Dakota State) DEC Christian Moody (Oklahoma), 8-3
7th - Paul Bianchi (North Dakota State) DEC Sean Williams (Fresno State), 9-4
133
1st - Seth Gross (South Dakota State) dec. Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State), 8-5
3rd - Montorie Bridges (Wyoming) DEC Matt Schmitt (West Virginia), 2-1
5th - Cam Sykora (North Dakota State) TF Rico Montoya (Northern Colorado), 17-2 2:21
141
1st - Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) dec. Dean Heil (Oklahoma State), 6-5
3rd - Josh Alber (Northern Iowa) DEC Henry Pohlmeyer (South Dakota State), 5-3
5th - Ian Parker (Iowa State) DEC Mike Longo (Oklahoma), 2-1
149
1st - Boo Lewallen (Oklahoma State) dec. Max Thomsen (Northern Iowa), 9-3
3rd - Jarrett Degen (Iowa State) TF Sam Turner (Wyoming), 20-5 6:41
5th - Dane Robbins (Air Force) DEC Davion Jeffries (Oklahoma), 8-4
157
1st - Archie Colgan (Wyoming) dec. Clay Ream (North Dakota State), 4-3
3rd - Luke Zilverberg (South Dakota State) DEC Chase Straw (Iowa State), 2-0
5th - Logan Ryan (Northern Iowa) DEC Alex Mossing (Air Force), 3-2
165
1st - Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State) dec. Andrew Fogarty (North Dakota State), 12-9
3rd - Branson Ashworth (Wyoming) TF Keilan Torres (Northern Colorado), 18-0 2:46
5th - Dawaylon Barnes (Oklahoma) MD Demetrirus Romero (Utah Valley), 15-2
7th - Isaiah Patton (Northern Iowa) NC Skyler St. john (Iowa State)
174
1st - Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) dec. David Kocer (South Dakota State), 6-3
3rd - Jacobe Smith (Oklahoma State) DEC Yoanse Mejias (Oklahoma), 6-4
5th - Kimball Bastian (Utah Valley) MD Parker Vonegidy (West Virginia), 9-1
184
1st - Drew Foster (Northern Iowa) dec. Dylan Gabel (Northern Colorado), 5-1
3rd - Keegan Moore (Oklahoma State) MD Martin Mueller (South Dakota State), 13-5
5th - Chaz Polson (Wyoming) TF Dane Pestano (Iowa State), 16-0 2:43
197
1st - Nate Rotert (South Dakota State) dec. Jake Smith (West Virginia), 3-2
3rd - Preston Weigel (Oklahoma State) DEC Jacob Holschlag (Northern Iowa), 8-4
5th - Josh Hokit (Fresno State) DEC Andrew Dixon (Oklahoma), 3-1
285
1st - Derek White (Oklahoma State) dec. AJ Nevills (Fresno State), 13-6
3rd - Dustin Dennison (Utah Valley) DEC Marcus Harrington (Iowa State), 6-5
5th - Dan Stibral (North Dakota State) F Carter Isley (Northern Iowa), 9:00
Team Standings
1 Oklahoma State 137
2 Northern Iowa 96.5
3 South Dakota State 94
4 Wyoming 82.5
5 North Dakota State 57
6 Oklahoma 52
7 Iowa State 51
8 Utah Valley 50.5
9 West Virginia 50
10 Northern Colorado 30.5
11 Fresno State 26.5
12 Air Force 22.5
NCAA qualifiers
9 – Oklahoma State
6 – Northern Iowa, South Dakota State
5 – Wyoming
4 – North Dakota State, Utah Valley
3 – West Virginia, Oklahoma
2 – Northern Colorado
1 – Iowa State, Fresno State, Air Force
Individual qualifiers (45)
125 (7) – Piccininni (Oklahoma State), Moisey (West Virginia), LaMont (Utah Valley), Brown (South Dakota State), Schwarm (Northern Iowa), Moody (Oklahoma), Bianchi (North Dakota State)
133 (5) – Gross (SDSU), Brock (OSU), Bridges (Wyoming), Schmitt (WV), Sykora (NDSU)
141 (3) – Heil (OSU), Meredith (WYO), Alber (UNI)
149 (5) – Thomsen (UNI), Lewallen (OSU), Turner (WYO), Degen (ISU), Robbins (Air Force)
157 (3) – Ream (NDSU), Colgan (WYO), Zilverberg (SDSU)
165 (6) – Fogarty (NDSU), Rogers (OSU), Romero (UVU), Torres (UNC), Barnes (OU), Ashworth (WYO)
174 (5) – Lujan (UNI), Kocer (SDSU), Mejias (OU), Smith (OSU), Bastion (UVU)
184 (4) – Foster (UNI), Gabel (UNC), Moore (OSU), Mueller (SDSU)
197 (4) – Smith (WVA), Rotert (SDSU), Weigel (OSU), Holschlag (UNI)
285 (3) – White (OSU), Nevills (FSU), Dennison (UVU)
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