TULSA, Okla. – Iowa State ran through the quarterfinal round unblemished on the championship bracket Saturday, going 8-0 and taking a lead in the team standings after the opening session.

In the blink of an eye, it turned into the Cyclones trailing and sending half of its wrestlers to the finals.

Four big sequences altered the team standings as Oklahoma State is heading into the second and final day of the Big 12 Championships leading the team standings with 111.5 points and Iowa State in second with 92.

“It’s always in the back of your mind, it does affect your mindset a little bit because you want to get an extra point for the team race,” heavyweight Gannon Gremmel said. “We just need to battle on the back side. I think we’re still in it.”

Both programs – who finished 1-2 in the regular season – sent four to the finals with two of them being matchups between each other.

Round two of the Cyclones’ Alex Mackall and the Cowboys’ Nick Piccininni at 125 pounds and David Carr versus Wyatt Sheets at 157 highlight Sunday’s final session.

Ian Parker (141) and Gremmel (285) will wrestle for conference titles for Iowa State while Boo Lewallen (149) and Travis Wittlake (165) represent Oklahoma State in the finals.

After the morning session, the Cyclones were leading in the team standings with 64 points.

Multiple events went against them to give the Cowboys the team lead.

Lewallen pinned Jarrett Degen in 6:17 at 149 after both grapplers exchanged reversals until the Cowboy locked the Cyclone in a cradle that sent the Bank of Oklahoma Center into a frenzy.

Before that happened, Todd Small (133) went 0-2 after dropping to Zach Price of South Dakota State and Jack Skudlarczyk of Northern Iowa.

Reece Witcraft, also at 133, upended top-seeded Taylor LaMont in the consolation first round to continue. Then, Sheets used back points to upend North Dakota State’s Jared Franek by major decision.

On the first day, Oklahoma State compiled 10 bonus point victories to Iowa State’s one.

“I thought we were tight,” Head Coach Kevin Dresser said. “We could’ve got a major at 157, at 125, at 141 and we didn’t. You gotta have those points in big tournaments. If we want to try and win this thing, we gotta get some bonus points.”

All four of Iowa State’s finalists, who also claimed spots at the NCAA Tournament in two weeks, decisioned their way to title matches.

Mackall racked up three takedowns and a near fall to triumph over South Dakota State’s Danny Vega 13-6 in the quarters then got three more takedowns against Air Force’s Cody Phippen in the 7-3 semifinal win.

Parker got taken down early by the Bison’s Dylan Droegemueller, but rattled off seven straight to win in the opening round. He then beat Clay Carlson of South Dakota State 8-4 in the quarters and accumulated over 1:30 of riding time to beat the Panther’s Michael Blockhus 4-0 in the semis.

Carr wrestled for the first time in over a month against Dewey Krueger of Wyoming and was trailing momentarily before rattling off multiple takedowns in the third for an 11-5 win. He followed up by eeking past Oklahoma’s Justin Thomas, 4-1 in the semis.

“His shape was good, I’m sure he’s a little tentative at first,” Dresser said. “I thought all-in-all it was good for David.”

Gremmel used a third period takedown to get the better of North Dakota State’s Brandon Metz in the quarterfinals 3-0 after beating Oklahoma’s Josiah Jones in the opening round 4-1. The redshirt junior went to work against Northern Colorado’s Dalton Robertson, racking up 2:18 of riding time and three takedowns in his 10-3 victory.

In his first three matches, Gremmel outscored his opponents 17-4 and didn’t give up a single takedown.

“Getting my feet moving early on, my feet were a little bit slow my first and second matchups,” Gremmel said. 

Chase Straw (165), Sam Colbray (174) and Marcus Coleman (184) went 1-1 on the day and will wrestle in consolation semifinals Sunday morning. All three are still alive for an auto bid to the NCAA Tournament with one more win.

Straw lost for the third time this season to North Dakota State’s Andrew Fogarty by 15-2 major decision. Colbray tied his match with Oklahoma’s Anthony Mantanona at five before the Sooner escaped for the winning point. Coleman was controlled by Northern Iowa’s Taylor Lujan in his 4-0 loss.

“Don’t put any pressure on yourself, just go out in wrestle,” Gremmel said. “Just go out there and let it fly.”

Small (133) may still be alive for a spot following a mini-bracket at 133, due to the high number of allocations. He beat Air Force’s Jared Van Vleet by an 11-3 major decision and will wrestle again for ninth. If he wins that, the possibility of a true eighth place match would take place during the morning session on Sunday.

Joel Shapiro (197) will have to wait for Wednesday’s selection show following an 0-2 day for a possible at-large spot.