TULSA, Okla. — Iowa State pushed four wrestlers through to the Big 12 finals during session two of the Big 12 Wrestling Championships Friday night inside the BOK Center. Stevo Poulin (125), Anthony Echemendia (141), Rocky Elam (197) and Yonger Bastida (285) will wrestle for conference titles on Saturday night.

Ultimately, Iowa State went 4-4 in the semifinal round as Jacob Frost (149), Connor Euton (165), MJ Gaitan (174) and Isaac Dean (184) were unsuccessful in their semifinal matches and dropped to the consolation semifinals Saturday afternoon.

Garrett Grice (133) and Poulin punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships during Session 2, running Iowa State’s number of national qualifiers up to seven. After losing his first match of the day, Grice won three-straight matches on the consolation side, including two by major decision, to qualify for his first national championships.

In the team race, Oklahoma State (154.5) widened its lead on the second-place Cyclones (122.5) during the session. Arizona State sits in third place with 78.5 points. Iowa State scored 22 bonus points on day one thanks to three falls, two injury defaults, four tech falls and six major decisions.

At 125 pounds, Poulin controlled NDSU’s Ezekiel Witt from start to finish as he secured a 9-3 decision. Poulin recorded a takedown and four near fall points in the opening period to jump out to a commanding lead in the match. Poulin makes his second career Big 12 finals appearance and will wrestle for his second conference title.

In a low scoring bout at 141 pounds, No. 2 Echemendia was unable to finish a shot attempt on Oklahoma’s No. 6 Tyler Wells. Echemendia’s high pace and attack rate earned him the deciding stall point in a 2-1 decision. The Cyclone makes his second career Big 12 finals appearance and will wrestle for his second league title.

Despite allowing the first takedown, top-seeded Elam dispatched of Oklahoma’s No. 5 DJ Parker, 9-7, in the 197-pound semifinals. Elam makes his third Big 12 finals appearance and will wrestle for his second Big 12 title and third conference title (also was a 2021 MAC champion).

No. 1 Bastida picked up his second pin of the season, and the 10th of his career, against the No. 4 David Szuba (ASU). Szuba tried an upper-body lock on Bastida, but the Cuban used his freestyle background to put the Sun Devil on his back for a first period fall. Bastida will try for his second Big 12 title in as many finals appearances.

Iowa State is back for Session 3 of the Big 12 Championships Saturday at noon on ESPN+. Consolation semifinals and placing matches will be wrestled. The finals will begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Nine Hawkeye women claim All-America honors

CORALVILLE — The second-ranked University of Iowa women’s wrestling team advanced seven wrestlers to the semifinals with two left on the backside at the NCAA Championships on Friday at Xtream Arena. All nine Hawkeyes left in the competition have secured All-America honors.

The Hawkeyes are currently in second place with 91.5 team points. McKendree leads the standings (94), while North Central (Ill.) is in third (73).

Iowa will be represented in the semifinals by No. 2 Valarie Solorio (103 pounds), No. 5 Nyla Valencia at 110, No. 5 Brianna Gonzalez at 117, No. 4 Lilly Luft at 138, top-ranked Reese Larramendy at 145, No. 1 Kennedy Blades at 160, and No. 1 Kylie Welker at 180.

Panthers qualify two for NCAA Championships

TULSA, Okla. — The Northern Iowa wrestling team locked up a pair of NCAA qualifying spots on Friday during the opening day of the Big 12 Championships at BOK Center, with three athletes still in contention for placement heading into Saturday.

Julian Farber (133 pounds) and Caleb Rathjen (149) both secured their spots with automatic qualifying spots at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, with Rathjen upsetting two of the top-three seeds to reach the 149-pound final on Saturday. Farber, along with Ryder Downey (165) and Nick Fox (184) will continue action in the consolation brackets tomorrow as well.

After the first day of action, the Panthers sit in ninth place in the team race with 41 points.