What seemed like a sure thing quickly turned into a probability that easily slipped through the Cyclones’ fingers like jelly.

Iowa State (13-2, 4-0 Big 12) was edged out by Oklahoma State (15-2-1, 3-1-1) for the Big 12 conference team title, ending the Cyclones’ three-year winning streak of the title.

“We are disappointed,” ISU coach Kevin Jackson said in a press release. “We had a chance to take care of our own destiny and didn’t wrestle and do the things we knew we had to do.”

Iowa State held a two-point lead over Oklahoma State after session one, as both teams had six wrestlers each heading into the championship matches of their respective weight classes.

Redshirt freshman Andrew Long was poised to continue his recent dominance in the tournament against Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson in the 125-pound championship match. Long headed into the third period trailing 3-2 and was given the choice of the position to begin the period. Instead of choosing the down position, Long chose to start from the neutral position, a decision that cost him the match as Patterson proceeded to take Long down to enforce the 5-3 upset.

Seniors Nick Fanthorpe and Mitch Mueller were the next Cyclone wrestlers to lose their championship matches. Fanthorpe lost by a 6-2 decision to Oklahoma State’s Jordan Oliver in the 133-pound match, giving the Cowboys the lead in the team scoring. Mueller, who has yet to win a conference title in his career at Iowa State, fell to Oklahoma’s Kyle Terry by a decision of 4-2 in the 149-pound championship match. Terry is now 4-0 all-time against the Cyclone senior from Iowa City.

After the five-match intermission, all eyes were set on Iowa State’s Jon Reader as he faced Missouri’s Nicholas Marable for the fifth time of his career.

Reader managed to escape from a takedown by Marable with 1:26 left to go in the third period, tallying the score at 6-5 in Marable’s favor. The Cyclone All-American attempted to use the remaining time to score a takedown to edge out Marable for the second time this year and to put the Cyclones back in contention for the team scoring title. However, Marable held on to Reader’s ankle for dear life as Reader failed to gain the proper position for the takedown, resulting in a 6-5 victory for Marable.

After Oklahoma State’s Clayton Foster defeated Missouri’s Maxwell Askren by a decision of 10-6 in the 184-pound match to put three points on the board for the Cowboys, Oklahoma State’s score increased to 70.5 points. Realistically, the Cyclones, who had 63 points with two matches left, were out of reach of their fourth consecutive title. However, that didn’t stop the teams’ two seasoned veterans from putting up a respectable fight.

ISU senior Jake Varner notched a 5-2 victory over Nebraska’s Craig Brester in his sixth career match against his archrival. Varner’s victory avenged last year’s 197-pound championship match at the Big 12 championships, in which Brester defeated Varner by a decision of 4-3 in his only victory against the would-be national champion. Varner is now 26-0 on the season and is 5-1 all-time against Brester.

“I was impressed with Varner’s match,” Jackson said. “He rode Brester throughout the match and was real quick on his takedowns.”

This is Varner’s second Big 12 title, with his first coming in 2008. That year, he won the conference title at 184 pounds as a sophomore after defeating Oklahoma’s Josh Weitzel by a decision of 4-1.

“It feels good, as a senior, to have another conference title,” Varner said. “But this isn’t the big one. That is in two weeks and that is what I’ve been training all season for. That is the title I’m after.”

Varner’s victory put the Cyclones in second place with 66 points, leapfrogging Oklahoma, which had finished the night with 64 points. Only one match was left, and although it ultimately would not affect the team scoring situation, it still resonated as a big deal to ISU senior David Zabriskie.

A battle of the beasts ensued as Zabriskie took on Oklahoma State’s Jared Rosholt, who was ranked No. 1 at heavyweight. Despite the discrepancy of scoring throughout the match, the two juggernauts sparred violently before heading into the sudden victory period with the score tied, 1-1.

After a sudden victory period and two tiebreaker periods of no scoring, both wrestlers were worn down heading into the second sudden victory period, in which Zabriskie held a slight advantage.

“It was really hot and we both were sweating,” Zabriskie said. “I wanted to come out aggressive, because he had clubbed me in the dual meet and I got down early. We were both tired, but I kept up the pace the whole match.”

With Zabriskie’s conditioning playing to his advantage, the “Beast of the East” took down an exhausted Rosholt with 19 seconds left in the second sudden victory period to win by a 3-1 decision, winning his third career conference title.

“I am starting to worry less about Dave Zabriskie in these overtime matches,” Jackson said. “You always worry when it comes down to that in overtime at the NCAA Tournament, but what can I say — he beat two of the nation’s best heavyweights to win a third Big 12 title. Very impressive.”

Zabriskie is now 6-3 all-time against Rosholt.

Nine Cyclone wrestlers earned automatic bids for the NCAA Tournament, the only exception being sophomore Jerome Ward, who lost both his matches to finish last at 184 pounds. However, Ward is still eligible for an at-large bid in a national pool, which will be announced by an NCAA committee Wednesday.

The Cyclones will be heading to the final destination of the 2009-2010 wrestling season, the NCAA national tournament in Omaha, Neb., beginning March 18 and concluding March 20.