Cowboys send three to Big 12 finals

Mar. 7—TULSA — Oklahoma State wrestling kept taking body blows with upsets on the first day of the Big 12 Conference Championships at the BOK Center in Tulsa.

But one of the biggest upsets the Cowboy program was a part of went in their favor.

With OSU in a dogfight among the team standings, it was looking as though Oklahoma State would have just two finalists for Sunday's championship round, which will be televised on ESPN2.

Not long after top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Travis Wittlake was beat in sudden victory in his semifinals at 165 pounds, Oklahoma State true freshman AJ Ferrari upset the No. 1 seed in possibly the deepest weight (197 pounds) at the Big 12 Championships.

Ferrari, ranked No. 9, knocked off Tanner Sloan of South Dakota State in convincing fashion — winning by 7-1 decision. He will face Wyoming's Stephen Buchanan, the sixth-ranked wrestler who beat No. 7-ranked Noah Adams in the other semifinal match.

"I thought he wrestled well. I thought he did a good job with just dictating the pace of the match," Cowoby coach John Smith said. "He did a good job on top, putting pressure on his opponent. ... I think the match really kind of swung in his direction because of his effort."

While Ferrari beat the No. 1 seed and fifth-ranked wrestler in the country, senior leader Boo Lewallen wouldn't go as far as calling it an upset for the freshman who was the top overall recruit in high school a year ago.

"He showed that wasn't an upset," Lewallen said. "The guy rode out the entire third period, showed that he can get away from the guy and really just wrestled hard. He showed that he's mature in his wrestling, and I'm super proud of him. He wrestled tough."

The freshman phenom joins Oklahoma State's veteran top seeds Daton Fix and Lewallen in the primetime event of the tournament.

Both Oklahoma natives will get a Bedlam matchup in the finals, which could prove important in the team standings as OU leads the field by 10 points — with OSU 11 points behind the Sooners after the first day.

Fix, wrestling near his hometown of Sand Springs, will wrestle Oklahoma's Tony Madrigal, who was unseeded and slipped past the Nos. 3, 6 and 7 seeds on his way to the finals.

Lewallen, a Yukon native, will get a Bedlam rematch with Mitch Moore, who Lewallen beat in both duals this season. It will mark his last college match in his home state, a notion — Bedlam for an Big 12 title — that has the five-year senior excited.

"I hadn't thought about that, that's pretty cool," Lewallen said. "I'm pretty excited. That's a good way to end my college career in the Big 12."

The Cowboys still have four other wrestlers alive in the consolation brackets.

Due to reaching the semifinals of their respective weights, Trevor Mastrogiovanni, Dakota Geer and Wittlake are already in the consolation semifinals with all three losing in the semifinals — the only upset being Wittlake to the No. 4-seeded wrestler at 165 pounds.

No. 3 seed Dustin Plott was upset in his second match by the sixth seed at 174 pounds, but he responded with back-to-back wins in the consolations to reach the consolation semifinals. Based on seeding, all four will be considered favorites in those matches with the only rematch being between Plott and Air Force's Cody Surratt, the No. 5 seed who Plott beat 5-3 in the dual earlier this year.

"Consolations is a dogfight," Smith said. "All of a sudden, everybody gets pretty tough. And we're gonna need to get tough, we're gonna need to make sure we show up and be ready to go. Put the energy out for what it's going to take for us to try to win the conference title."

No. 5-seed Wyatt Sheets, who has been battling with a knee injury that Smith said would need surgery in the offseason, won his preliminary match at 157 pounds, but followed it with back-to-back losses to end his tournament.

Fellow fifth seed Austin Harris met a similar fate as Sheets. After winning his opening match at heavyweight, he lost back-to-back — including a major decision loss to No. 6 seed Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force in his first consolation match.

Both Sheets and Harris will have to hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, which could be difficult considering how deep their weight classes already were within the conference. The selection show for the entire NCAA field is scheduled for Thursday.

Kaden Gfeller made it as far as Sheets and Harris in his first time in the starting lineup this season.

Cutting down to 141 pounds from 157 — after injuries to Kaid Brock and Dusty Hone — Gfeller lost his preliminary match to the No. 3 seed before getting a win in the consolation. He then lost in the tiebreaker to No. 8 seed Chase Zollman of Wyoming to end his season as he needed to earn an automatic bid through the conference championship due to lack of matches at the weight in the regular season.

Big 12 Conference Championships

Team Standings — Oklahoma 107, Wyoming 97, Oklahoma State 96, Iowa State 94, North Dakota State 69, Northern Iowa 68, Northern Colorado 57.5, South Dakota State 57.5, South Dakota State 52, Utah Valley 49, West Virginia 43.5, Air Force 25, Fresno State 22.

Oklahoma State results

Preliminaries and quarterfinals

125 — No. 3 Trevor Mastrogiovanni major dec. Anthony Molton, Fresno State 15-4; Mastrogiovanni sudden victory 1 No. 6 Cody Phippen, Air Force SV-1 6-4.

133 — No. 1 Daton Fix major dec. Kellyn March, North Dakota State 19-7; Fix major dec. No. 8 Ty Smith, Utah Valley 16-4.

141 — Kaden Gfeller lost by dec. to No. 3 Clay Carlson, South Dakota State 8-4.

149 — No. 1 Boo Lewallen major dec. Hunter Marko, South Dakota State 13-5; Lewallen dec. No. 8 Jaden Van Maanen, North Dakota State 10-3.

157 — No. 6 Wyatt Sheets major dec. Nick Knutson, Northern Colorado 12-4; Sheets lost by dec. to No. 3 Jared Franek, North Dakota State 7-5.

165 — No. 1 Travis Wittlake fall Vincent Dolce, Air Force 2:10; Wittlake major dec. No. 8 Colten Carlson, South Dakota State 12-4.

174 — No. 3 Dustin Plott dec. Austin Brenner, North Dakota State 14-9; Plott lost by dec. to No. 6 Jackson Hemauer, Northern Colorado 5-2.

184 — No. 3 Dakota Geer major dec. Michael Nelson, North Dakota State 20-7; Geer major dec. No. 6 Anthony Carman, West Virginia 12-4.

197 — No. 4 AJ Ferrari dec. No. 5 Jake Woodley, Oklahoma 8-4.

285 — No. 5 Austin Harris fall Randy Gonzalez, Fresno State 0:51; Harris lost by dec. to No. 4 Josh Heindselman, Oklahoma 2-1.

Semifinals

125 — No. 3 Trevor Mastrogiovanni lost by dec. to No. 2 Taylor LaMont, Utah Valley 5-3

133 — No. 1 Daton Fix tech. fall No. 5 Mosha Schwartz, Northern Colorado 21-5 (6:53)

149 — No. 1 Boo Lewallen dec. No. 4 Triston Lara, Northern Iowa 7-4

165 — No. 1 Travis Wittlake lost in sudden victory 1 to No. 4 Luke Weber, North Dakota State SV-1 5-3

184 — No. 3 Dakota Geer lost by dec. to No. 2 Tate Samuelson, Wyoming 6-2

197 — No. 4 AJ Ferrari dec. No. 1 Tanner Sloan, South Dakota State 7-1

Consolation results

141 — Kaden Gfeller major dec. Jeffery Boyd, West Virginia 12-3; Gfeller lost in tiebreaker to No. 8 Chase Zollman, Wyoming TB-1 5-4

157 — No. 6 Wyatt Sheets lost by dec. to Alex Hornfeck, West Virginia 6-3

174 — No. 3 Dustin Plott dec. Scott Joll, West Virginia 5-1; Plott dec. No. 7 Cade King, South Dakota State 8-1

285 — No. 5 Austin Harris lost by major dec. to No. 6 Wyatt Hendrickson 13-3

Sunday's schedule

Consolation semifinals (11 a.m. ESPN+)

125 — No. 3 Trevor Mastrogiovanni vs. No. 4 Killian Cardinale, West Virginia

165 — No. 1 Travis Wittlake vs. No. 7 Austin Yant, Northern Iowa

174 — No. 3 Dustin Plott vs. No. 5 Cody Surratt, Air Force

184 — No. 3 Dakota Geer vs. Sam Colbray, Iowa State

Finals (5 p.m. ESPN2)

133 — No. 1 Daton Fix vs. Tony Madrigal, Oklahoma

149 — No. 1 Boo Lewallen vs. No. 3 Mitch Moore, Oklahoma

197 — No. 4 AJ Ferrari vs. No. 2 Stephen Buchanan, Wyoming