Updated at 12:15 a.m. CST March 6

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nate Gallick and Kurt Backes won Big 12 championships and Iowa State finished second in the team race Saturday at the conference wrestling tournament. The Cyclones will send eight wrestlers to national competition.

After rolling to the Big 12 wrestling championship for the third straight year, Oklahoma State coach John Smith said it wasn’t as easy as some might think.

The two-time defending national champions had seven individual title winners Saturday in racking up 95.5 points in the five-team field.

Iowa State was second with 49 points, followed by Nebraska with 47.5, Oklahoma 45 and Missouri 35. ISU head coach Bobby Douglas said before the meet that the other four schools would have to each wrestle strongly for any of them to challenge the Cowboys. It didn’t happen.

Oklahoma State had eight finalists, and the Cowboys qualified nine of their 10 wrestlers for the NCAA nationals, scheduled March 17-19 in St. Louis. They’ll be represented in all weight classes but 184 pounds.

“It was a battle today. Nothing came easy,” Smith said after the Cowboys won the team title for the fifth time in six years and the seventh time in the nine-year history of the Big 12.

Smith’s champions were Coleman Scott (125 pounds), Nathan Morgan (133), Zack Esposito (149), Kevin Ward (157), Johny Hendricks (165), Chris Pendleton (174) and Steve Mocco (heavyweight). Placing second was Jake Rosholt (197) and taking third was Daniel Frishkorn (141).

Scott, a No. 3 seed who improved his record to 25-7, pinned No. 2 Matt Keller of Nebraska and later ended the hopes of an undefeated season for Oklahoma’s Sam Hazewinkel, who was 34-0 before losing 2-1 in overtime. All three points in the match were scored with escapes.

Scott’s impressive performances earned him the tournament’s outstanding wrestler award in a vote of the coaches.

Other Big 12 champions were Iowa State’s Gallick (141) and Backes (184), and Nebraska’s B.J. Padden (197).

Backes notched the only pin of the championship round and Gallick (25-0) needed two overtimes to eke out a 4-3 decision over Oklahoma’s Teyon Ware, the decisive point coming on riding time. Gallick joins Mocco (32-0) as the only Big 12 unbeatens.

The top three in each weight class and six wild card choices — in a vote of the coaches — advance to St. Louis, where Oklahoma State will be favored once again. But Gallick isn’t conceding anything.

“The Big 12 is the second most important tournament of the year,” Gallick said. “They’ve got a lot of talent, but we’re going to try to give them a run (in St. Louis).”

Esposito and Pendleton both take 31-1 records to nationals.

“It’s great, a good accomplishment,” Esposito said of the Big 12 title. “We just have to keep it rolling — two more weeks.”

The only top seed to fall in the semifinals was Iowa State’s Trent Paulson at 157 pounds. He lost a 7-4 decision to Ward. It became a 3-0 day when Ward he beat Missouri’s Brad Cieleski in the final. Paulson later placed third by beating No. 2 seed B.J. Wright of Nebraska, who had lost to Cieleski.

Other top seeds falling in the finals were Nebraska’s Travis Pascoe (184), Missouri’s Tyron Woodley (165) and Rosholt.

For Iowa State, Grant Nakamura (125), Travis Paulson (165) and Nick Passolano (174) earned wild-card berths with fourth-place finishes. Nakamura will be making his third straight national tournament and Paulson, a 2004 All-American, will compete in his second national championships. Passolano qualified for his fourth NCAA Championships appearance in as many years.

“We had a good tournament, not a great tournament,” Douglas said. “Nate Gallick and Kurt Backes were outstanding. This is the toughest conference in the country and a great many of the placewinners will be All-Americans in two weeks.”

—ISU Media Relations contributed to this article.