Takedown Report

Big 12 Championships

Iowa State Wins First Big 12 Title Since 2009
TULSA, Okla. – Iowa State clinched its first Big 12 title since 2009 Sunday night inside the BOK Center. The Cyclones crowned two champions and finished the weekend with 152.5 team points, the fourth-most in a tournament in league history and the most ever by an ISU team in the Big 12 era.
The team title marked ISU’s 18^th conference championship in program history and snapped Missouri’s two-year winning streak in the tournament. The Cyclones prevailed in a tight team race throughout the entire weekend and bested Oklahoma State’s 141.5 points.
Anthony Echemendia won his first individual Big 12 title courtesy of a 4-2 decision over UNI’s Cael Happel at 141 pounds. He is the fifth Cyclone to win a conference title at 141 pounds and the first since Ian Parker did so in 2020.
Yonger Bastida was victorious in one of the most anticipate matches of the season against Air Force’s Wyatt Henrickson. Bastida hit a crafty counter while Hendrickson was in on a leg for a six-point move which proved to be the difference in a 10-7 decision. Bonus points were key for Iowa State throughout the tournament as the Cyclones registered six falls, six tech falls and seven major decisions for 28 extra points. The Cyclones’ bonus-point tally was the difference in the team race as the Cowboys finished with just 13 bonus points.
Head coach Kevin Dresser was named Big 12 Coach of the Year for the second time in his seven-year stint at Iowa State. Three other Cyclones were unsuccessful in their title bids. At 133 pounds, Evan Frost was outmatched against Oklahoma State’s No. 1 Daton Fix. Frost secured a late takedown to cut his deficit to 8-5 but it wasn’t enough to dethrone the four-time defending conference champion … story at … Cyclones.com/Iowa-state-wins-first-big-12-title-since-2009
And …

Daton Fix Becomes First Five-Time Champion in Big 12 History
Cowboys finish second as a team with the highest runner-up point total in tournament history.
Final Brackets
TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma State 133-pounder Daton Fix became the first and only wrestler in Big 12 history to claim five individual conference titles Sunday night, defeating second-seeded Evan Frost of Iowa State, 8-5, in front of a hometown crowd at the BOK Center. Already holding the 133-pound titles from 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023, Fix took advantage of an extra year of eligibility provided by the NCAA in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to add a fifth and final conference championship in 2024.
The top-seeded Fix made it look easy, too. He jumped out to a 7-1 lead with a takedown in each of the first two periods and then cruised to an 8-5 win to move to 17-0 on the year.
He was already just the 10th wrestler in Oklahoma State history to win four conference titles, and now he is the only one to win five. With the addition of the title, OSU now has 121 Big 12 individual championships and 296 conference individual championships in its wrestling history.
As a team, the Cowboys finished in second place with 141.5 points to mark the highest score for a runner-up team in the history of the Big 12 Championships and the seventh-highest total for any team in tournament history. Iowa State claimed the team title with 152.5 points. “By no means did we lose the tournament – Iowa State won it,” coach John Smith said. “We score a lot of points. If you told me we were going to score in the 140’s, I would have told you we won the tournament.” In addition to Fix, three other Cowboys reached Sunday night’s finals, including Troy Spratley at 125 pounds, Jordan Williams at 149 pounds and Dustin Plott at 184 pounds. … story at … OKstate.com/Cowboy-wrestling-daton-fix-becomes-first-five-time-champion-in-big-12-history
And …

Five Thoughts on the Big 12 Wrestling Championships
On a disappointing night, reassuring afternoon and more.
TULSA — Oklahoma State finished the Big 12 Wrestling Championships in second place with one champion in Daton Fix, who I wrote about here. The Cowboys were in a tight team race with Iowa State until an overall disappointing Sunday night at the BOK Center.
Here are five thoughts on the final day of the Big 12 Wrestling Championship.
1. Worst Way to End
It was an intense team race all weekend and OSU 149-pounder Jordan Williams was in the midst of capping a dramatic turnaround season, but these two storylines had a Game of Thrones-esque ending Sunday night.
After losing his starting job and winning it back this season as a redshirt freshman, Jordan Williams made a run to the finals in his first Big 12 Wrestling Championships. Williams upset top seed Casey Swiderski of Iowa State 8-7 in the semis to get to the finals, but near the end of the match he injured his shoulder. With an obviously injured Williams down 7-0 the next night, West Virginia’s Ty Watters slammed Williams to the mat. That ultimately ended his tournament, as he injury defaulted in the second period of that bout. The injury not only ripped an individual Big 12 championship from Williams, but also ended OSU’s chances at ending its two-year drought without a team title. With Troy Spratley losing OSU’s first finals appearance at 125 and Daton Fix winning at 133, the Cowboys needed both Williams and Dustin Plott to win to have any chance of surpassing Iowa State in the team standings. But the loss clinched the team title for the Cyclones instead. … story at … Pistolsfiringblog.com/Five-thoughts-on-the-big-12-wrestling-championships

March 19, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized