[PRINT ONLY] Parker, Carr win gold at Big 12 Wrestling Championships
March 8, 2020
When Iowa State’s Ian Parker and Oklahoma’s Dom Demas wrestled in their dual matchuP Feb. 9, it was tied at one after three periods, and Demas won in sudden victory.
Parker flipped the script Sunday night.
After a full seven minutes, two 30-second ride outs and 90 seconds of overtime, Parker finally found an opening, shot in and delivered the match-winning takedown near Iowa State’s corner to triumph over Demas 4-2 in SV-2 to win the 141 pound Big 12 Championship inside the Bank of Oklahoma Center.
It’s Parker’s first conference title and the Cyclones’ first 141 champ since Nick Gallick in 2008.
Oklahoma State clinched its eighth straight Big 12 crown with a dominating performance, placing nine in the top 8 and eight in the top 5 to go along with three champions.
Iowa State, on the strength of four top-5 finishers, finished runner-up for the second consecutive year. Northern Iowa, South Dakota State and North Dakota State rounded out the top 5 in the team race.
Tied at one after regulation, the fun was just beginning.
In the first sudden victory, Parker went in on a shot in the final 20 seconds that Demas fended off and send it to the ride outs.
After Demas escaped in TB2, he went for a shot, and Parker scrambled out of it. Once he got the takedown, the Iowa State corner went into a frenzy.
Parker avenged his previous two losses to Demas earlier this year.
Thirty minutes later, Iowa State doubled its conference titles.
David Carr used two takedowns and 1:15 of riding time to outlast Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Sheets 6-4 to claim his first Big 12 championship at 157 in his redshirt freshman year.
It was scrambles won by the Ohio native that led him to the win.
In the first period near the Cowboys’ corner, Carr ended up on top of Sheets for his first takedown to increase his lead to 3-0. Then in the third, he somehow got out of a Sheets shot, went underneath and took him down for the 5-2 lead.
Things got dicey in the final minute.
Carr was dinged for his second stalling call that crept Sheets within 5-4 but was not called again and had the riding-time point in his favor to celebrate in front of a heavy Oklahoma State crowd.
After missing the last five weeks due to a nagging knee injury, Carr ran through the bracket and only trailed once in four matches. Following the podium, he went up and embraced his family in the stands.
The finals opened up at 125, and for the second time this year, Iowa State’s Alex Mackall faced Oklahoma State’s Nick Piccininni.
After the first couple of minutes in the opening period, one mistake proved to be the match decider.
Mackall slipped on the mat, and Piccininni was in the right place at the right time, registering the only takedown of the match to go up 2-0 after one.
Each scored a point on an escape. Trailing 3-1 in the final minute of the bout, Mackall was in on multiple shots that Piccininni fended off to win his fourth conference title.
Mackall’s runner-up finish this season is the highest of his career, topping his third-place finish last year.
In the final match of the day, Iowa State’s Gannon Gremmel was defeated by Wyoming’s Brian Andrews 3-2 to finish runner-up, the highest finish in his career at Big 12s.
Tied at one, Andrews was called for stalling in the third and immediately took down Gremmel for the 3-1 lead. Gremmel nearly had a takedown in the final 30 seconds of the match, but it was not called. The Cyclones challenged it, and it was upheld.