Sooners Look to Defend Title in Tulsa

Saturday, March 5

Tulsa, Okla. / BOK Center

All Day

University of Oklahoma

Big 12 Wrestling Championship

Tickets

March 04, 2022 | Wrestling

Big 12 Wrestling Championship Brackets 2022 Oklahoma Big 12 Championship Notes

Oklahoma (8-6, 3-5 Big 12)

March 5-6 | All Day | BOK Center | Tulsa, Okla.

Notes | Stats Hub | Watch | Tickets | Brackets

Oklahoma Competitors (with Big 12 pre-seed)
Weight	Wrestler	Record
125	No. 7 Joey Prata	14-5
133	No. 7 Tony Madrigal	9-7
141	Jacob Butler	5-10
149	No. 2 Willie McDougald	12-4
157	No. 6 Justin Thomas	16-5
165	No. 8 Joe Grello	5-6
174	No. 3 Anthony Mantanona	14-6
184	No. 7 Keegan Moore	4-2
197	No. 3 Jake Woodley	19-6
HWT	No. 8 Josh Heindselman	11-10

NORMAN – No. 24 Oklahoma heads to Tulsa, Okla., for the 2022 Big 12 Championship on March 5-6. The Sooners (8-6, 3-5 Big 12) bring nine seeded wrestlers to the BOK Center as they look to repeat as Big 12 champs. The team also has eight wrestlers ranked in the latest edition of the NCAA Coaches' rankings.

OU's total of nine seeded wrestlers is tied for the most under head coach Lou Rosselli, the team also had nine heading into the 2019 championship.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

The championship is split into four sessions over two days of competition.

Saturday, March 5

Session I -11:00 a.m. - Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Preliminary & Quarterfinal Matches
Session II - 5:00 p.m. - Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Semifinal & Consolation Quarterfinal Matches

Sunday, March 6
Session III - 12:00 p.m. - Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Consolation Semifinals, 3rd & 5th Place Matches
Session IV - 7:00 p.m. - ESPN2
Championship Matches

LIVING ON TULSA TIME

During OU's last trip to Tulsa, head coach Lou Rosselli and the Oklahoma wrestling team captured the program's 24th conference title at the 2021 Big 12 Wrestling Championships.
It was the program's first conference title in 19 years, last winning in 2002.

Dom Demas won his second conference title and gave Oklahoma its 186th individual conference championship.

The Sooners were powered to their third conference title in the Big 12 era by three finalists and six wrestlers who earned automatic bids to the NCAA championships. Demas was joined in the final round by Tony Madrigal and Mitch Moore while Jake Woodley (5th), Justin Thomas (3rd), and Josh Heindselman (4th) all earned NCAA qualification. Anthony Mantanona also received an at large bid. Troy Mantanona also played a crucial role in helping secure the title by racking up 16 team points with three wins via fall.

Following the championship, Rosselli was named Big 12 Coach of the Year.

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE

Oklahoma has collected 24 overall conference championships, and three Big 12 titles, in 1999, 2002 and 2021. The Sooners' three Big 12 championships are the third most in league history.
The program boasts 186 individual conference champions in its history, including 13 in the past decade, most recently with Dom Demas' 141-pound title last season.

Six Sooners have been named the Big 12's Most Outstanding Wrestler at the championship: Dom Demas (2019; 141 pounds), Cody Brewer (2016; 133 pounds), Jarrod Patterson (2010; 125 pounds), Sam Hazewinkel (2007; 125 pounds), Teyon Ware (2003; 141 pounds) and Shane Valdez (1999; 125 pounds).

OU is led by head coach Lou Rosselli, who has grown the team's point total at the Big 12 Championship every year since 2018 culminating in last season's title. Current Oklahoma assistant coaches Michael Lightner and Sam Hazewinkel had Big 12 Championship careers to remember. As a Sooner, Lightner was a four-time Big 12 champion at 141 pounds (1998-2001). His Big 12 title run in 2001 helped him achieve a perfect 37-0 record as a senior. Hazewinkel captured three Big 12 titles himself in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

POSTSEASON VETERANS

Rosselli brings nine wrestlers with conference championship experience to Tulsa, including eight former NCAA qualifiers.

Sixth-year senior Justin Thomas enters his fifth Big 12 Championship and leads a team loaded with years of elite experience. All but two of the projected starters are upperclassmen.

Jake Woodley became Oklahoma's 276th All-American at the NCAA Championship last season and is a three-time NCAA qualifier. Thomas is also a three-time qualifier.

Anthony Mantanona is the team's other active All-American, earning the title in the 2019-20 season. He is a two-time NCAA qualifier alongside Tony Madrigal.

Transfers Joey Prata and Joe Grello brought their own conference championship experience to Norman. Prata took third place in the ACC Championship on two separate occasions while Grello is a two-time Big Ten Championship participant.

SAVED THEIR BEST FOR LAST

In the Sooners' final dual, Joey Prata and Keegan Moore both picked up their biggest wins of the season in Stillwater against Oklahoma State.

Prata's bout was a rematch with No. 7 Trevor Mastrogiovanni. The Cowboy wrestler got the better of him the first time around, but the second round went Prata's way in a 4-1 decision. The win pushed his impressive active winning streak to six matches and gave him his third ranked win of the year.

Against his former team, Moore brought the energy from the jump in his match and dominated from start to finish. Facing off against No. 8 Dakota Geer, Moore won in a 9-4 decision that gave him his first win over a ranked opponent on the season. With the win, he joined Willie McDougald as the only Sooners to claim victories over ranked opponents when they were unranked themselves.

NCAA ALLOCATION BREAKDOWN

The NCAA announced the pre-allocation spots for the 2022 Division I Wrestling championship with the Big 12 Conference earning 58 bids, the second most behind only the Big Ten.

The bids are spread across all 10 weight classes; the 174-pound class earned the most with eight. Two classes garnered seven spots (141 and 197), four classes took six (125, 133, 157 and 285) and the remaining three classes were given four spots (149, 165 and 184).

This is a significant boost for the Big 12 which only received 45 spots last season. The allocations determine the number of automatic qualifiers each conference will receive per weight class.

The following are the Big 12 Conference allocations for the 2021 NCAA Championship.
125: 6
133: 6
141: 7
149: 4
157: 6
165: 4
174: 8
184: 4
197: 7
285: 6
Total: 58

TOURNAMENT INFO

Live stats for the tournament will be available through Track Wrestling's Big 12 hub. Live video streams will be shown on ESPN+ for the first three sessions, with a different camera on each mat, and then the finals will be broadcast on ESPN2 on Sunday evening.

For updates, follow @OU_Wrestling on Twitter, or like Oklahoma Wrestling on Facebook.