OMAHA, Neb. — At the Big 12 wrestling tournament, heavyweight Scott Coleman did something no one has done this year.

He didn’t defeat top-ranked Steve “The Bear” Mocco, but he did become the first to score offensively on the powerhouse from Oklahoma State.

Coleman, a senior, scored a takedown on Mocco in the second period, but was unable to overpower the 2003 national champion.

“I lost, so I can’t feel that good,” Coleman said.

“I closed the gap a little, so I feel motivated about that.”

The Cyclones crowned two champions and finished second behind top-ranked Oklahoma State in what head coach Bobby Douglas said would be the most competitive Big 12 tournament to date.

“We’re not pleased,” Douglas said. “Even though it was a good performance, I feel we could have wrestled much better. We made some mistakes we shouldn’t have, but I need to take responsibility for that.”

The Cyclones earned five entries to the national tournament and were granted three additional wild card spots.

Kurt Backes and Nate Gallick led the way for the Cyclones. Backes pinned second-ranked Travis Pascoe of Nebraska in the first period to earn his first Big 12 title.

“It feels good,” Backes said. “I was relaxed and I wanted to have a good tournament. I wanted to be a Big 12 champ and get a ‘W.'”

Backes countered a throw by Pascoe and rolled him to his back to earn the victory in the 184-pound championship match.

“It was an outstanding performance by Kurt Backes,” Douglas said.

“He turned a bad situation into a good situation.”

Assistant coach Cael Sanderson has worked closely with Backes in practice. Sanderson said Backes possesses all of the tools to win a national championship.

“He pretty much knows what he needs to do,” Sanderson said.

“He’s very coachable and it’s fun to work with him. Basically, he just needs to do what he does. He needs to stay focused in every match because he’s good — he’s good in every position.”

Gallick, the nation’s top wrestler at 141 pounds, defeated second-ranked Teyon Ware 4-3 by sudden victory to earn his second consecutive title at 141 pounds.

The win gives Gallick his second this year against Oklahoma’s Ware and pushed his overall record to 25-0.

“A win is a win,” Gallick said. “He’s a tough competitor. He has good defense and if I feel I can score, I’ll score, but I try not to force anything.”

Ware said he thought he had won the match because he felt he escaped quicker than Gallick in the second phase of the overtimes.

“He got me,” Ware said. “I thought I escaped faster and thought I had won. “[Losing like that] is terrible. [Gallick] wrestled tough, but he shouldn’t come out with a win like that.”

Ware said he didn’t like the way the rules were written and said he felt the officials were influenced by ISU fans to give him an unwarranted stalling call early in the match. “He’s up 4-0 on me,” Ware said. “The way I see it, the ball is in his hands. [For him] to win like that is pathetic.

“What really kills me is that he’s not doing anything [on the mat]. The refs hear these fans out here and think I’m not doing anything and hit me with a stalling call.”

Junior Jesse Sundell surprised Cyclone fans with a third-place finish at 133 pounds. Sundell lost to Oklahoma’s Joe Comparin in the first round before beating Comparin 6-4 in the third-place match.

Assistant coach Chris Bono said the Cyclones should perform better at the national tournament, but Sundell’s performance was key in the Big 12 tournament.

“[The team] lost some tough matches but we won some more tough ones,” Bono said. “Sundell wanted to go to the national tournament.”