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Oklahoma State will have three wrestlers competing in the consolation bracket at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship on Sunday at the BOK Center in Tulsa.
Dakota Geer at 184, Joe Smith at 165 and Wyatt Sheets at 157 will be in action when third session starts at noon. All three consolation semifinal matches for the Cowboys are against opponents they haven’t wrestled this season. The winner of each bout competes for third, while the losers heads to the fifth-place match.
Both Geer and Smith need to win only one more match to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, while Sheets will have to claw his way back to third to help his cause for an at-large bid.
Wyatt Sheets
No. 4 Wyatt Sheets (OSU) vs. No. 2 Jacob Wright (Fresno State)
If Sheets beats Wright, he’ll likely face No. 5 seed Luke Weber of North Dakota State, who ousted Sheets in the quarterfinals by 10-1 major decision, for third. Weber meets No. 7 Alex Mossing of Air Force in the other consolation semifinal. Sheets had a 18-3 technical fall over Mossing in February.
Joe Smith
No. 7 Joe Smith (OSU) vs. No. 1 Branson Ashworth (Wyoming)
It’s funny how things sometimes work out. Smith was originally slated as the No. 8 seed and would’ve faced Ashworth in the quarterfinals, but he was re-seeded as the No. 7 seed and dropped a 12-8 decision to No. 2 Demetrius Romero of Utah Valley.
No. 3 Bryce Steiert of Northern Iowa and Iowa State’s Logan Schumacher are on the other side of the bracket. OSU’s Andrew Shomers won 8-2 against Schumacher and fell 2-0 to Steiert. Smith would be the favorite in either matchup.
Dakota Geer
No. 3 Dakota Geer (OSU) vs. No. 5 Jackson Hemauer (Fresno State)
Geer lost 6-3 to No. 2 Drew Foster of Northern Iowa in the semifinals to move into the consolation bracket. Hemauer fell to No. 4 Tate Samuelson of Wyoming in the quarterfinals and has defeated Northern Colorado’s Dalton Robertson and No. 6 Kayne MacCallum of Oklahoma en route to the consolation semifinals.
On the other side of the bracket, Samuelson meets No. 6 Will Sumner of Utah Valley. Geer beat Sumner, 7-6, in the quarterfinals and didn’t face Samuelson in the November dual against Wyoming.
Big 12 Wrestling Championship: Session 3
What: Consolation semifinals, third- and fifth-place matches
When: Noon to 2 p.m., Sunday
Where: BOK Center; Tulsa, Oklahoma
Live stream: FloWrestling.org