TULSA — Wyoming finished eighth at the Big 12 Wrestling Championships on Saturday at the BOK Center, totaling 67.5 points and sending two wrestlers to championship matches.
Oklahoma State won the team title with 176 points. Iowa State finished second with 144 points, while Arizona State placed third with 94.
Eddie Neitenbach at 184 pounds and Joey Novak at 197 pounds each reached the finals for Wyoming. Neitenbach, the No. 3 seed, lost an 8-1 decision to top-seeded Aeoden Sinclair of Missouri, while Novak, seeded second, dropped a 5-4 decision to No. 1 Rocky Elam of Iowa State.
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“In those finals matches, those guys wrestled really hard, but we exposed our legs,” Wyoming coach Mark Branch said. “You have to have better head and hand defense to not let those guys touch your legs. Those are adjustments we have to make. Like anything else, this is a learning experience. It gives us a lot of information, and that’s the most important thing.”
Wyoming also secured an automatic NCAA Championships berth at 149 pounds from Gabe Willochell, who placed fifth. The eighth seed earned a 14-5 major decision over fourth-seeded Max Petersen of North Dakota State in the fifth-place match in a weight class that had five NCAA allocations.
Sloan Swan also finished fifth at 165 pounds, defeating eighth-seeded Marcus Espinoza-Owens of South Dakota State by decision, 8-1. That weight class had four NCAA allocations, leaving Swan awaiting a potential at-large bid.
“We had some guys that were really gritty,” Branch said. “Gabe did what he had to do, and that was an impressive win for him today. For Sloan, after coming out and not wrestling the way I wanted to see him wrestle, for him to flip that switch and get a big win was huge.”
Riley Davis placed sixth at 174 pounds after injuring his knee Friday and medically defaulting in both of his matches Saturday. Davis had already secured an NCAA berth on Friday.
Jared Hill placed eighth at 157 pounds in a weight class with five NCAA allocations.
Christian Carroll at heavyweight and Luke Willochell at 133 pounds did not place but could still receive at-large bids when the NCAA Championships field is announced Tuesday. Brackets will be seeded Wednesday.
The NCAA Wrestling Championships are scheduled for March 19-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.
