TULSA, Okla. – North Dakota State had seven placing finishers at the 2022 Big 12 Wrestling Championships held at the BOK Center, led by
Jared Franek's runner up finish at 157 pounds.
Franek faced the No. 1 overall wrestler in the country, Derek Carr of Iowa State, in the final a rematch of last season's 157 final. Franek recorded a pair of escapes but fell to Carr 8-2 to finish as the runner-up for the second-straight season.
With the runner-up finish, Franek earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in two weeks in Detroit.
As a team, the Bison finished tied for seventh overall in the team standings with 62 points, equal with West Virginia. Missouri won the team title with 131.5 points.
The Bison had a pair of fourth place finishers, who also finished in the Big 12 allocations to earn spots at the NCAA Championships.
At 141 pounds,
Dylan Droegemueller earned a spot in the third-place match with a win over No. 1 seed #4 Ian Parker of Iowa State, winning by a 5-3 decision. However, Droegemueller fell to #7 Clay Carlson 7-5 to finish fourth overall.
In the 165-pound bracket,
Luke Weber moved on to the third-place match with a 7-1 win over #31 Isaac Judge of Iowa State. Weber would fall in the placing match 5-4 to Northern Iowa's #16 Austin Yant.
Owen Pentz would earn the other automatic bid for the NCAA Championships with a sixth-place finish at 197 pounds. Pentz would not wrestle on Sunday with a pair of medical forfeits, but earned sixth after his results in Saturday's matches.
DJ Parker would also pick up a sixth-place finish on Sunday at 184 pounds, but the Big 12 was only allocated four spots for the NCAA Championships in the weight class. Parker fell to #7 Marcus Coleman of Iowa State to slide into the fifth-place match where he battled #12 Dakota Geer of Oklahoma State in a thriller but ultimately fell by a 13-10 decision.
The Bison had two wrestlers in the seventh-place match. At 149 pounds,
Gaven Sax defeated West Virginia's Jeff Boyd by a 12-5 decision for seventh overall. Heavyweight
Brandon Metz fell in a final second takedown to #23 Michael Wolfgram of West Virginia, losing 3-1 to finish eighth.
The Bison will now await the NCAA Championship selection committee to see if any other Bison will receive at-large bids to join the four automatic bids.
125 | Lucas Rodriguez | 0-2
L to #12 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (Oklahoma State); Dec 7-1
L to #21 Kysen Terukina (Iowa State); Dec 6-2
133 | Kellyn March | 0-2
L to Garett Lautzenheiser (West Virginia); Dec 9-5
L to Connor Brown (Missouri); SV-1 11-9
141 | Dylan Droegemueller | 2-2 | 4th Place | 10.5 pts
W over Jacob Butler (Oklahoma); Dec 4-2
L to #11 Allan Hart (Missouri); MD 14-1
W over #4 Ian Parker (Iowa State); Dec 5-3
L to #7 Clay Carlson (South Dakota State); Dec 7-5
149 | Gaven Sax | 2-2 | 7th Place | 4.5 pts
L to #13 Kaden Gfeller (Oklahoma State); MD 9-0
W over Christopher Sandoval (Northern Colorado); Dec 12-5
L to #22 Josh Edmond (Missouri); Dec 11-6
W over Jeff Boyd (West Virginia); Dec 12-5
157 | Jared Franek | 2-1 | 2nd Place | 14.0 pts
W over Derek Holschlag (Northern Iowa); Dec 8-4
W over #14 Justin Thomas (Oklahoma); Dec 5-4
L to #1 David Carr (Iowa State); Dec 8-2
165 | Luke Weber | 3-2 | 4th Place | 11.5 pts
W over Nick Knutson (Northern Colorado); Dec 6-2
W over #11 Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State); Dec 4-0
L to #2 Keegan O`Toole (Missouri); MD 12-3
W over #31 Isaac Judge (Iowa State); Dec 7-1
L to #16 Austin Yant (Northern Iowa); Dec 5-4
174 | Riley Habisch | 1-3
L to #12 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State); MD 14-4
L to #25 Joel Devine (Iowa State); Dec 5-2
W over Jackson Hemauer (Northern Colorado); MD 10-1
L to #32 Sam Wolf (Air Force); MD 13-5
184 | DJ Parker | 2-3 | 6th Place | 8.0 pts
L to #4 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa); MD 12-4
W over Jacob Armstrong (Utah Valley); Dec 13-6
W over Anthony Carman (West Virginia); MD 9-1
L to #7 Marcus Coleman (Iowa State); TF 18-2 6:59
L to #12 Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State); Dec 13-10
197 | Owen Pentz | 1-3 | 6th Place | 7.0 pts
W over #17 Jake Woodley (Oklahoma); Dec 6-4
L to #6 Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State); MD 8-0
L to #8 Rocky Elam (Missouri); M. For.
L to #7 Yonger Bastida (Iowa State); M. For.
285 | Brandon Metz | 1-3 | 8th Place | 3.5 pts
L to #21 Sam Schuyler (Iowa State); SV-1 3-1
W over Chase Trussell (Utah Valley); SV-1 3-1
L to #19 Zach Elam (Missouri); Fall 1:47
L to #23 Michael Wolfgram (West Virginia); Dec 3-1
