Euton, Gaitan Highlight Medal Round at Big 12 Championships

Saturday, March 7

Tulsa, Okla.

Noon

Iowa State

Big 12 Championship (Session III)

Connor Euton celebrates a win 2026 Big 12 Championships

Photo by: Randi Yeager

Euton, Gaitan Highlight Medal Round at Big 12 Championships

03.07.2026 | Wrestling

Brackets Team Scores Kevin Dresser Interview

TULSA, Okla. – Iowa State wrapped up Session 3 of the Big 12 Wrestling Championships Presented by Allstate Saturday afternoon inside the BOK Center with five Cyclones finding their place on the podium during the session. No. 5 seed Connor Euton (165) and No. 4 seed MJ Gaitan (174) highlighted the afternoon with third-place finishes to outperform their seed.

Additionally, Euton and Jacob Frost (149), punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships, pushing Iowa State's number of national qualifiers to nine. Vinny Zerban is the lone Cyclone awaiting an at-large bid on Tuesday after his medical withdraw from the conference championship.

This marks the eighth-consecutive season under head coach Kevin Dresser Iowa State has sent eight-plus qualifiers to the national tournament.

The Cyclones are second in the team race with 136 points, trailing first-place Oklahoma State (159) with only the finals remaining. With four left to wrestle in tonight's finals, four of the six Cyclones whose Big 12 tournament has concluded wrestled above their seed this weekend in Tulsa.

Garrett Grice (133) and Isaac Dean (184) both medically withdrew from the tournament prior to Session 3 and finished in 6^th Place. Both automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. Frost, Euton and Gaitan all won their first matches of the day in the consolation semifinals to advance into the third-place match.

Both Euton and Gaitan avenged regular season dual losses to top-10 opponents in their placing matches, but Frost fell to No. 10 ranked David Evans (UVU) in his final match.

In the 165-pound third-place match, Euton earned the highest ranked win of his career with a thrilling 13-12 decision over UNI's No. 6 Ryder Downey. The Cyclone fell into an early 6-0 hole in the first period but rattled off three-straight takedowns to climb back into the match. Downey would get a takedown late in the third but Euton managed to fend off a late Panther push for the win.

At 174 pounds, Gaitan gutted one out in overtime against Oklahoma's No. 8 Carter Schubert. The Sooner was in deep on a shot in overtime but Gaitan, as he often does, managed to scramble out of the attack to secure the winning takedown.

UP NEXT
The final session of the Big 12 Wrestling Championships starts at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Four Cyclones – Stevo Poulin, Anthony Echemendia, Rocky Elam and Yonger Bastida – will wrestle for Big 12 titles.

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) – 6^th Place
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 – L-MFF vs. No. 5 Julian Farber (UNI)
5^th-Place Match – L-MFF vs. No. 6 Gage Walker (MIZ)

*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) – 4^th Place
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 – W-D vs. No. 8 Gabe Willochell (WYO), 11-4
3^rd-Place Match: L-D vs. No. 3 David Evans (UVU), 12-5

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) – 3^rd Place
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 – W-MD vs. No. 7 Sloan Swan (WYO), 12-2
3^rd-Place Match – W-D vs. No. 2 Ryder Downey (UNI), 13-12

*No. 4 MJ Gaitan (174) – 3^rd Place
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 – W-D vs. No. 6 Moses Espinoza-Owens (SDSU), 8-5
3^rd-Place Match – W-D vs. No. 2 Carter Schubert (OU), 5-2 SV-1

*No. 7 Isaac Dean (184) – 6^th Place
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 – L-MFF vs. No. 8 Aidan Brenot (NDSU)
5^th-Place Match – L-MFF vs. Mahonri Rushton (UNCO)

*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