Over this past weekend, Saturday, Mar. 8 and Sunday, Mar. 9, the UNI wrestling team competed at the Big 12 Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 10 different Panthers got the chance to compete at the event, and as a whole the team found success. The Panthers finished in a close second in the team standings behind Oklahoma State, and had three individual conference champions.
The Panthers had four wrestlers make it to the finals on Saturday night, but had six other wrestlers who competed as well. Trevor Anderson at 125, Jack Thomsen at 165 and Lance Runyan at heavyweight were all able to win their last matches of the weekend to finish in 7th place in their respective weight classes. At 174 pounds, Jared Simma took 6th place for the Panthers, going 3-3 on the weekend.
The other six Panther wrestlers were top three finishers in their weight classes. Julian Farber lost his first match of the tournament on Saturday, but rattled off four straight victories to get to the third place match at 133. In this match he faced Kade Moore from Missouri, winning by a 10-6 decision. Ryder Downey lost his second match of the weekend, and then made his way all the way to the third place match at 157 pounds. He won a close decision to secure third against Oklahoma State’s Caleb Fish.
After this it came down to the Panthers fighting for the championship on Sunday night. The first Panther was Cael Happel, fighting for the 141 pound championship. He faced off with Oklahoma State’s Tagen Jamison. The team scoring was getting close between the Panthers and the Cowboys, so head to head matchups could make a big difference. In what was a close and low scoring match, Happel was able to secure the first championship for the Panthers in overtime.
In the very next matchup of the night, at 149 pounds, was another Panther, Colin Realbuto. Realbuto matched up with Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson. In a rematch from a heated bout between the two last month, it was another close one. Realbuto had the lead late in the match, but Johnson secured a late takedown to get the 5-4 decision win.
The next wrestler for the Panthers was Parker Keckeisen at 184 pounds. Looking for his fifth consecutive Big 12 championship, Keckeisen had a rematch from last year’s championship with Oklahoma State’s Dustin Plott. He was able to win the rematch by a 7-1 decision. This gave him his fifth straight Big 12 title, and 55th consecutive win.
At 197 pounds UNI’s Wyatt Voelker matched up with Oklahoma State’s Luke Surber. A decision win here would tie the Panthers up with the Cowboys going into the final match of the night. It was a 1-1 match in the third, when Voelker got the winning takedown in the third period for the upset win.
The 4-1 decision tied up the team scoring between the Panthers and the Cowboys. At heavyweight the Cowboys had one more wrestler going, and he got the job done to give them the outright team victory. This meant that UNI got second place at the championships, but it was still a tremendous Performance by the Panthers. They had the most individual champions with 3.
Next up for the Panthers will be the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Mar. 20-22.
