Four Cyclones Advance to Big 12 Finals

Friday, March 6

Tulsa, Okla.

5:00 PM

Iowa State

Big 12 Championship (Session II)

Yonger Bastida celebrates a win at the 2026 Big 12 Championships

Photo by: Randi Yeager

Four Cyclones Advance to Big 12 Finals

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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, ISU 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 Anthony 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 Rocky 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 Yonger Bastida picked up his second pin of the season, and the 10^th 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.

UP NEXT
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.

Session 4, the finals, will begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

MATCH-BY-MATCH RESULTS
*No. 2 Stevo Poulin (125)
R16 – W-MD vs. Anee Vigil (ASU), 14-3
QF – W-Inj. Def. vs. No. 7 Trevor Anderson (UNI), 0:36
SF – W-D vs. No. 6 Ezekiel Witt (NDSU), 9-3
Finals – vs. No. 1 Troy Spratley (OKST)

*Garrett Grice (133)
R16 – L-TF vs. No. 1 Jax Forrest (OKST), 15-0 (2:59)
Consis. Rd. 1 – W-D vs. Tristan Daugherty (NDSU), 5-2
Consis. Rd. 2 – W-MD vs. No. 7 Luke Willochell (WYO), 11-2
Consis. Rd 3 – W-MD vs. Carter Schmidt (OU), 17-8
Consis. Rd. 4 – vs. No. 5 Julian Farber (UNI)

*No. 2 Anthony Echemendia (141)
R16 – W-TF vs. David Saenz (WYO), 22-6 (6:33)
QF – W-D vs. No. 7 Carter Nogle (AF), 11-4
SF – W-D vs. No. 6 Tyler Wells (OU), 2-1
Finals – vs. No. 1 Sergio Vega (OKST)

No. 2 Jacob Frost (149)
R16 – WBF vs. Kenneth Evans (UNCO), 6:52
QF – W-TF vs. No. 7 Paul Kelly (CBU), 19-4 (6:32)
SF- L-D vs. No. 6 Caleb Rathjen (UNI), 4-3
Consis. Rd. 4 – vs. No. 8 Gabe Willochell (WYO)

No. 3 Vinny Zerban (157) - DNP
R16 – W-D vs. Daishun Powe (UNCO), 7-2
QF – L-MFF vs. No. 6 Cael Swensen (SDSU)
Consis. Rd. 2 – L-MFF vs. Drayden Morton (CBU)

No. 5 Connor Euton (165)
R16 – Bye
QF – W-D vs. No. 4 Max Mayfield (MIZ), 8-6
SF – L-MD vs. No. 1 LaDarion Lockett (OKST), 11-2
Consis. Rd. 4 – vs. No. 7 Sloan Swan (WYO)

*No. 4 MJ Gaitan (174)
R16 – W-MD vs. Murphy Menke (UNCO), 12-3
QF – WBF vs. No. 5 Jared Simma (UNI), 4:40
SF – L-D vs. No. 1 Alex Facundo (OKST), 7-3
Consis. Rd. 4 – vs. No. 6 Moses Espinoza-Owens (SDSU)

*No. 7 Isaac Dean (184)
R16 – W-MD vs. Brock Fettig (SDSU), 11-2
QF – W-Inj. Def. vs. No. 2 Zach Ryder (OKST), 3:15
SF – L-D vs. No. 3 Eddie Neitenbach (WYO), 5-1
Consis. Rd. 4 – vs. No. 8 Aidan Brenot (NDSU)

*No. 1 Rocky Elam (197)
R16 – W-D vs. Colton Hawks (ASU), 5-0
QF – W-MD vs. No. 8 Devin Wasley (NDSU), 9-1
SF – W-D vs. No. 5 DJ Parker (OU), 9-4
Finals – vs. No. 2 Joey Novak (WYO)

*No. 1 Yonger Bastida (285)
R16 – W-TF vs. Brock Kehler (WVU), 24-6 (5:23)
QF – W-TF vs. Rylan Kuhn (AF), 22-6 (4:49)
SF – WBF vs. No. 4 David Szuba (ASU), 1:57
Finals – vs. No. 2 Konner Doucet (OKST)

*Denotes NCAA Qualifier

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