After day one, Iowa State leads field at Big 12 Championships, Northern Iowa in fifth

Eli McKown, Des Moines Register

After the first day of the Big 12 Championships, Iowa State is in the lead with eight qualified for the NCAAs and five finalists.

Northern Iowa also had a solid outing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, qualifying five for NCAAs and sending three to the finals.

Evan Frost (133 pounds), Anthony Echmendia (141 pounds), Cody Chittum (157 pounds), David Carr (165 pounds) and Yonger Bastida (285 pounds) all reached the finals for Iowa State, helping them take a solid team lead over second-placed Oklahoma State. Kysen Terukina (125 pounds), Casey Swiderski (149 pounds), MJ Gaitan (174 pounds) each did enough to earn auto-bids and remain alive in consolations to earn more team points as well.

The lone Cyclones to not qualify for NCAAs with auto-bids were Will Feldkamp and Julian Broderson. Feldkamp will have two more matches tomorrow. If he wins one of those, he will qualify for the NCAAs and make it nine with at least a fifth-place or higher finish. Feldkamp draws Air Force No. 6 seed Sam Wolf first and will face either the No. 3 Bennett Berge of South Dakota State or No. 4 seed Colton Hawkes of Missouri in the following round.

Broderson, however, will have to wait and see if he has done enough to earn a at-large bid with two losses on day one.

As for Northern Iowa, Cael Happel (141 pounds), Ryder Downey (157 pounds) and Parker Keckeisen all reached the finals. With Happel and Downey reaching the finals, that sets up for contentious rematches from the UNI-ISU dual between Downey-Chittum and Happel-Echemendia from earlier this year. Both matches were down to the wire and flashed rivalry-like potential.

Trever Andersen (125 pounds), Julian Farber (133 pounds), Adam Allard (149 pounds), Jared Simma (174 pounds) and Tyrell Gordon (285 pounds) will all need to earn at-large bids to make the NCAAs, but Jack Thomsen (165 pounds) and Wyatt Voelker (197 pounds) have both qualified for NCAAs alongside UNI's finalists to make to five in total headed to Kansas City officially.

Team results from first day of Big 12 Championships

  • 1st - Iowa State - 129.5

  • 2nd - Oklahoma State - 119.5

  • 3rd - Missouri - 96

  • 4th - South Dakota State - 92.5

  • 5th - Northern Iowa - 85

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State, Northern Iowa thrive in day one of Big 12 Championships

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