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); 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
Check out Bison Wrestling at gobison.com and on Twitter.