Missouri after the 2022 Big 12 Championships (photo courtesy of Mark Lundy; LutteLens.com)In March, we wrapped up another wrestling season. Here, I thought I'd take a look at some highs, and some lows, for every team in the Big 12 this past year.
Air Force
High Point-Wyatt Hendrickson wins Big 12
Low Point-Air Force does not get an All-American in 2022
Wyatt Hendrickson made history for Air Force wrestling this season becoming the first Big 12 Champion in program history and finishing the regular season and Big 12 tournament with an unblemished record.
Conversely, all the hype and excitement surrounding Wyatt's performance to that point, had most Air Force fans looking for their first All-American since 2003, when Kevin Hoy finished as the NCAA runner-up. That didn't happen, and though Hendrickson's performance during the season and Big 12 tournament was incredible, the NCAA tournament left a bit of a bad taste.
Utah Valley
High Point-Second Best Attendance Ever vs. Oklahoma State
Low Point-Losing Demetrius Romero to Injury
Setting attendance marks is something all programs constantly strive to do. On December 20th, when Oklahoma State traveled to Utah Valley, the Wolverines had their second-best crowd ever on hand with 3,522, only behind a Penn State dual in 2012 where a return to Utah for Cael Sanderson topped this.
Losing Demetrius Romero to injury was a dagger for Utah Valley this season. I personally had him picked to win the Big 12 in my preseason predictions. Just really tough to see a program miss out on a guy like him that could set historical marks for their team.
West Virginia
High Point-Hall finishes as All-American
Low Point-6-8 Dual Season
West Virginia had two great postseason performances. Killian Cardinale won the Big 12 tournament and Peyton Hall finished as an All-American for the Mountaineers.
On the flipside, their dual season wasn't great. They went 6-8 on the year and 1-6 in the Big 12. They seem to have the guys that can win big things, the conference tournament, All-American honors, etc.… But they haven't developed the kind of depth that wins a lot of duals yet.
Oklahoma
High Point-The Big 12 tournament
Low Point-Dom Demas Enters Portal
I don't know what it is about Lou Rosselli's teams, but they always seem to wrestle their best in Tulsa at the Big 12 tournament. After bringing home a share of the conference tournament in 2021, they finished runner up to Missouri in 2022 and received automatic bids for nine of their wrestlers.
The Sooners lost one of their top guys this season. After filling in briefly at 149, Dom Demas missed the rest of the year then entered the transfer portal in February. Tough for the Sooners to lose a two-time All-American and their “Most Outstanding Wrestler†from the 2020 season.
Iowa State
High Point-Dual Season
Low Point-Postseason
In a year where the Big 12 team race was as wide open as it's been in the last decade, Iowa State emerged as the favorite heading into the tournament after an undefeated conference dual season and a 15-1 overall record with their only loss coming to then #1 Iowa.
With the lofty expectations created by their regular season, the postseason was a bit of a disappointment. They finished third in the Big 12 tournament behind Missouri and OU, both who they beat in duals during the season. Then the NCAA tournament was marred by an early loss for David Carr, who many had pegged as one of the heaviest favorites to repeat as a National Champion.
South Dakota State
High Point-Dual win over Missouri
Low Point-Central Michigan loss
In January, South Dakota State went to Missouri and knocked off the eventual Big 12 Champions 21-12 in one of the bigger dual wins in program history.
The next day, with all that momentum, hype, etc… they dropped a dual to Central Michigan in Edwardsville. This wasn't that bad of a loss. Central Michigan is good, matched up well with SDSU, and picked up a few key upsets to win. But the fact that it comes off one of the bigger wins in program history, is a tough pill to swallow.
North Dakota State
High Point-Win over Wyoming 22-14
Low Point-32-3 dual loss to South Dakota State
Wyoming and North Dakota State at Wyoming in January was one of the marquee duals for the conference at the time. A massive upset and pin for Owen Pentz over Stephen Buchanan was the catalyst that pushed NDSU over Wyoming to give them one of their biggest wins of the season.
On the flipside, the Bison were taken behind the woodshed when they wrestled their rivals South Dakota State to close out the dual season. A 32-3 loss to your biggest rival never goes over well.
Oklahoma State
High Point-Everything before January 24th
Low Point-January 24th and everything following
If there's a clear event that defined Oklahoma State's wrestling season, it's AJ Ferrari's rollover accident on January 24th. Thankfully, Ferrari ultimately walked away fine when considering the severity of the accident, but that was a clear turning point in the season for Oklahoma State.
They were 11-0 leading up to the accident and closed out the rest of the season with a 3-4 record including losses to Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, and Iowa, and one of the worst finishes in program history at the NCAA Tournament.
Northern Iowa
High Point-19-15 win over Oklahoma State
Low Point-4 Loss dual streak to start the season.
In many ways, Northern Iowa's season had the opposite pattern of Oklahoma State's. They faced a gauntlet of a dual stretch to start the season with Missouri, Virginia Tech, Cornell, and Penn State, then started to turn things around a bit before a historic win over then #3 Oklahoma State in Stillwater on January 29th. They picked up three more solid dual wins to close out the year, then qualified seven for the NCAA tournament and crowned one All-American.
Missouri
High Point-Big 12 Title
Low Point-Four dual losses
Missouri returned to the Big 12 with a bang by taking the conference title and crowning the 165-pound NCAA champion with Keegan O'Toole. Both could certainly be described as the high point of the season, but I went with the Big 12 because of the entire team effort in the process.
The low point was a bit of a lackluster dual season that included four losses to teams they reasonably could have beaten in Virginia Tech, NC State, South Dakota State, and Iowa State.
Wyoming
High Point-Stephen Buchanan's Season
Low Point-Loss of Brian Andrews
Wyoming came into the season with a lot of hype. They finished fourth at the Big 12 tournament last season, scoring their most points ever at the tournament. They also returned four Big 12 finalists and were considered a potential dark horse to win the Big 12 at the beginning of the season.
The loss of their heavyweight and last year's Big 12 runner-up Brian Andrews to injury started them off on a sour note that they never seemed to recover from, but the bright spot was Stephen Buchanan's Big 12 title and third place finish at the NCAA tournament.
Northern Colorado
High Point-Andrew Alirez's Big 12 Title
Low Point-Alirez's bloodround finish
With any wrestling program it's tough to make history, but Alirez did that for Northern Colorado by winning the program's first ever Big 12 title. He had a chance to make some more by becoming their first All-American since 2010, a few weeks later. He came just one match short of that, giving up a fall to Minnesota's Jakob Bergeland in the bloodround, after going up 2-0 early in the match.
It's a tough way to end the season for Alirez, but he'll have a chance to make some more history for the Bears next season and moving forward.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now