TOM’s 2010 Big 12 Wrestling Championships Preview

The 2010 Big 12 Wrestling Championship will be held on Saturday, March 6, at McCasland Field House in Norman, Okla. The University of Oklahoma last hosted the event in 2002. Doors open at 10 a.m. CT, with the first round beginning at 11 a.m. CT. All five nationally-ranked league squads will be in action for the 14th annual event.

TOM will be providing up to date coverage with a Live Blog when wrestling gets underway. Make sure you check back on Saturday for all the action.

• Tickets
• McCasland Field House
• Record Book (PDF)
• 2009 Recap

Placement points allocated by seeds put Iowa State on top with 67, Oklahoma State 2nd with 60, Oklahoma 45, Missouri 31 and Nebraska 27. The Cyclones split the title with Nebraska last year and will look to claim it outright this time around. They have had at least a share of the title the last 3 years. The Cowboys will look to score the upset and bring home their 9th Big 12 title, and first since 2006. The top 2 don’t have many head to head matches scheduled in the semi-finals so the other 3 teams have plenty of room to play spoiler. The most important thing is to get as many wrestlers through to Nationals as possible, but you can be sure that Kevin Jackson and John Smith will know where they stand all day long.

Team Race

#2 Iowa State
#3 Oklahoma State
#10 Oklahoma
#18 Missouri
Nebraska

125
1. Andrew Long – Iowa State (FR, 22-5)
2. Jarrod Patterson – Oklahoma (FR, 24-7)
3. Chris Notte – Oklahoma State (SR, 21-7)
4. David Klingsheim – Nebraska (FR, 14-14)
5. Eric Wilson – Missouri (FR, 12-10)

Andrew Long is the prohibitive favorite here and it would be a big surprise if the top 3 don’t pick up the automatic qualifying spots at this weight. Patterson and Notte will meet for the 4th time this season in the semi-finals. Patterson has won the last 2 match-ups after being defeated 15-3 in the first meeting.

133
1. Jordan Oliver – Oklahoma State (FR, 26-2)
2. Nick Fanthorpe – Iowa State (SR, 15-6)
3. Kendric Maple – Oklahoma (FR, 29-9)
4. CJ Napier – Nebraska (FR, 16-13)
5. Nathan McCormick – Missouri (FR, 18-14)

Only the finalists earn automatic bids here as Maple fell agonizingly short of earning a 3rd spot. Oliver defeated Fanthorpe 7-5 in the dual so look for a good finals match-up if the seeds hold. Fanthorpe defeated Maple 14-6 previously so its a solid bet that they will. Maple’s at large chances depend largely on how much the committee is allowed to factor in what he did at 141 in the first half of the year and, of course, how many upsets to highly ranked wrestlers occur at this weight.

141
1. Zack Bailey – Oklahoma (JR, 23-5)
2. Jamal Parks – Oklahoma State (SO, 26-5)
3. Todd Schavrien – Missouri (JR, 23-9)
4. Michael Koehnlein – Nebraska (JR, 18-13)
5. Dalton Jensen – Iowa State (SO, 12-12)

Bailey and Parks have split this year with Zack getting the most recent win to pick up the top seed. Schavrien is a reasonable upset pick as he gave Parks all he wanted in their dual match and Koehnlein looks to steal the qualifying spot that Jensen earned for the conference by beating him for the second straight time. 4 bids are on the line here.

149
1. Kyle Terry – Oklahoma (SR, 24-2)
2. Mitch Mueller – Iowa State (SR, 22-7)
3. Luke Silver – Oklahoma State (SO, 6-5)
4. Scott O’Donnell – Missouri (SO, 13-9)
5. Dustin Payne – Nebraska (FR, 0-2)

This weight is decidedly the top 2 and everybody else so the automatic bids loom to be spoken for. Terry has defeated Mueller 4-0 this season. We may see Quinten Fuentes for Oklahoma State instead of Silver, but with Silver owning victories over O’Donnell and Payne, he would be able to claim the 3 seed and be one big upset away from NCAAs.

157
1. Andrew Sorenson – Iowa State (SO, 24-6)
2. Neil Erisman – Oklahoma State (JR, 26-7)
3. Shane Vernon – Oklahoma (SR, 18-5)
4. Patrick Wright – Missouri (SO, 19-12)
5. Tuler Koehn – Nebraska (FR, 15-15)

Sorenson gets the #1 seed on the strength of his victory over Erisman who Vernon has split with this season. Sorenson and Vernon have not met this year as Chad Terry got the start and the victory for the Sooners against the Cyclones. All 3 of the top seeds have a legitimate chance to win the tournament and build momentum towards a run at All-American status. They will likely be the 3 qualifiers at this weight.

165
1. Jon Reader – Iowa State (JR, 21-3)
2. Nick Marable – Missouri (SR, 31-3)
3. Alex Meade – Oklahoma State (FR, 27-6)
4. Tyler Caldwell – Oklahoma (FR, 25-11)
5. James Nakashima – Nebraska (JR, 6-15)

This weight class could see some fireworks with 3 top notch wrestlers that had some fierce battles during the season. Meade has played giant killer a couple of times in his redshirt freshman campaign, but expect Marable and Reader to renew their rivalry in the finals. With 4 automatic spots, Meade should be safely in as well with Caldwell and Nakashima squaring off for the last bid (Caldwell won their only meeting 3-0).

174
1. Stephen Dwyer – Nebraska (SR, 22-3)
2. Mike Benefiel – Oklahoma State (SO, 30-3)
3. Jeff James – Oklahoma (JR, 21-8)
4. Duke Burke – Iowa State (SR, 12-11)
5. Dorian Henderson – Missouri (SO, 20-13)

Another weight class where the top 2 have separated themselves from the pack, but in this case all 5 guys are going to Nationals regardless. 3-5 will be interesting to watch, but 1 and 2 are pretty well set, at least as much as they can be in a conference tournament. Dwyer beat Benefiel in a somewhat controversial match and I fully expect him to win here too.

184
1. Max Askren – Missouri (SR, 19-1)
2. Clayton Foster – Oklahoma State (JR, 17-3)
3. Jerome Ward – Iowa State (SO, 18-8)
4. Josh Ihnen – Nebraska (FR, 14-12)
5. Eric Schmidtke – Oklahoma (FR, 13-14)

Askren is rested and ready having only wrestled 20 matches this season. He will look to begin his final post season run with his 3rd Big 12 title. It is important to remember here that Ward has beaten Phil Keddy twice and Mike Pucillo this year. Can he recapture that form and make a run at the podium in Omaha? A win over Foster here would be a step in the right direction, but that is a tall order. 4 wrestlers will earn automatic bids at this weight.

197
1. Jake Varner – Iowa State (SR, 22-0)
2. Craig Brester – Nebraska (SR, 25-1)
3. Eric Lapotsky – Oklahoma (SR, 22-5)
4. Brent Haynes – Missouri (FR, 24-11)
5. Alan Gelogaev – Oklahoma State (SO, 25-5)

Another round of Varner\Brester grabs the headlines, but there is plenty to watch on the backside of this bracket as well. All 5 competitors will go the NCAAs and all 5 will have designs on an All-American finish. Outside of one bad weekend in Virginia, Lapotsky has only lost to Varner and Brester this season, Haynes has had a very impressive freshman campaign and the Russian Gelogaev brings a dangerous, unorthodox style that could lead to big moves both for and against.

HWT
1. Jared Rosholt – Oklahoma State (SR, 29-1)
2. David Zabriskie – Iowa State (SR, 19-2)
3. Mark Ellis – Missouri (SR, 18-8)
4. Tucker Lane – Nebraska (SO, 20-9)
5. Nathan Fernandez – Oklahoma (JR, 20-10)

Possibly the most loaded weight in the Big 12 this season features the #1 ranked wrestler in the country (Rosholt) and the defending national champion (Ellis) as the 3 seed. Lane and Fernandez are top 15 wrestlers themselves, but are clearly 2nd tier here. Rosholt has beaten both Zabriskie and Ellis this season (as well as Lane and is 2-1 against Fernandez) so he is the clear favorite, but with so much talent in the bracket it will not be an easy road. All 5 wrestled in St. Louis last year and they will all head to Omaha this year.