Oklahoma State sends eight to the finals to lead Big 12 Tournament after day one
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by Seth Duckworth
Konner Doucet hand raise against NC State
Oklahoma State had a six-point lead over Iowa State heading into the semifinal round at the Big 12 Tournament.
Oklahoma State sent nine to the semifinals, and Iowa State sent eight.
The team race remained competitive for a bit into the semifinal round between Oklahoma State and Iowa State. Both teams opened with wins at 125 pounds, and Stevo Poulin and Troy Spratley will meet in the finals tomorrow night in a rematch of the dual between ISU and OSU. OSU widened its lead a bit with a win at 133 pounds, but even without Evan Frost, ISU kept within striking distance as they picked up a win on the consolation side of the bracket with Garrett Grice.
At 141 pounds, both Iowa State and Oklahoma State won again, with Sergio Vega and Anthony Echemendia both picking up decisions. Then, Oklahoma State started to open up the team score a bit. At 149 pounds, Casey Swiderski picked up a 16-3 major decision while UNI’s Caleb Rathjen upset ISU’s Jacob Frost. Oklahoma State then picked up another win with Landon Robideau at 157 pounds to take a 27-point lead in the team race.
Robideau spoke about the competitiveness of the team.
“All our guys are wrestling hard. We’re trying to beat each other. I got three takedowns, Dee’s going to try and go get four, Facundo’s going to get five.”
OSU continued that momentum, but not before some other interesting developments.
The tournament was suspended due to a tornado warning. That’s right, in the middle of several ongoing matches, the tournament was paused for about an hour due to a tornado warning in the area. Connor Euton and Ladarion Lockett had started their match before the tornado warning, had a long stoppage for concussion protocol before the warning, and finished the match after the tornado delay in possibly the longest wrestling match of all time.
Lockett won, followed by Alex Facundo and Konner Doucet for Oklahoma State. When the smoke and chaos cleared, the Cowboys had a 33-point lead over second-place Iowa State at the end of the semifinal round.
To go with Poulin and Echemendia, Iowa State had semifinal wins at 197 pounds with Rocky Elam, and 285 pounds with Yonger Bastida as well. This gave the Cyclones four finalists for tomorrow.
Evan Frost was a late scratch for the Cyclones due to injury, and Vinny Zerban was forced to medically forfeit following a possible concussion in the opening round of the tournament.
In the absence of Frost, Iowa State got quite the performance out of Garrett Grice at 133. Grice lost to #1 seed Jax Forrest to open the tournament before rattling off three straight wins to make the consolation semifinals and secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Kevin Dress felt that Grice “found some toughness” this weekend.
“He’s done a good job. You know, he got thrown into this. We all know Garrett is talented, but to excel at this level, you have to dig in and find some toughness. I think he did.”
Arizona State finished the day in third place and had three finalists with the Larkins and Nicco Ruiz.
Missouri’s Cam Steed and Aoeden Sinclair, along with Eddie Neitenbach and Joey Novak of Wyoming, round out the other finalists of the tournament.
The consolation semifinals start tomorrow at 12 p.m. CT. The finals start tomorrow at 7 p.m. All matches can be streamed live on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
