South Dakota State wrestling finished sixth in the Big 12 Wrestling Championships on Friday and Saturday with eight placers and five wrestlers earning automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships in Cleveland.
Oklahoma State took first place, followed by Iowa State, Arizona State, Missouri and West Virginia rounded out the top five.
For the Jacks, this performance is slightly lower than the result last year, when the team finished third in the Big 12 Championships.
Last season, SDSU placed nine athletes on the podium and had seven athletes qualify for automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships.
Oklahoma State took first place with Senior Julian Tagg, redshirt junior Cael Swensen, redshirt sophomore Moses Espinoza-Owens, redshirt junior Bennett Berge, and redshirt junior Luke Rasmussen earned bids for the championships in Cleveland, Ohio.
Redshirt sophomore Brady Roark received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament on Tuesday, March 10.
Tagg medically forfeited his later matches after a loss to top-seeded Oklahoma State wrestler Sergio Vega. He finished sixth in the 141-pound class.
Swensen finished the highest out of all Jackrabbit wrestlers, placing fourth in the 157-pound class with a decision win over North Dakota State University wrestler Gavin Drexler and a loss to West Virginia University wrestler Ty Watters. Espinoza-Owens took an 8-5 decision loss to Iowa State University wrestler MJ Gaitan, then finished fifth in the 174-pound class after Riley Davis from the University of Wyoming medical forfeited.
Berge rebounded after a 4-1 decision loss to OSU wrestler Cody Merrill to finish fifth in the 197-pound class with a 5-1 decision over Arizona State University wrestler Colton Hawks. Rasmussen took home sixth in his class following a pair of decision losses to OU wrestler Juan Mora and University of Missouri wrestler Jarrett Stoner.
Brady Roark, Cale Seaton, and Marcus Espinoza-Owens also placed in the conference championships. Roark finished sixth in the 125-pound class after taking an 11-3 major decision loss to No. 6 Ezekiel Witt from NDSU in the semifinal round. In the fifth-place match, Roark lost to No. 5 Conrad Hendriksen out of the University of Oklahoma.
Seaton finished eighth in the 133-pound class following a pin by Sooner wrestler Carter Schmidt in the seventh-place match. He finishes his redshirt freshman season with a 16-11 overall record and a 7-8 dual record.
Espinoza-Owens took a pair of decision losses, losing 5-2 to University of Northern Iowa wrestler Ryder Downey in the semifinals and to Sloan Swan 8-1 in the fifth-place match. He finished sixth in the 165-pound class.
The bracket and seeding for the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championship will be announced on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Preliminary matches are scheduled for Thursday, March 19. Friday, March 20, will feature quarterfinal and semifinal matches. Consolation and championship finals will be held on Saturday, March 21. All matches will be broadcast on ESPN platforms.
