Falcon Wrestling Takes the Fight to the Big 12 Championships

2024 Big 12 Championships
March 9-10, 2024
BOK Center – Tulsa, Oklahoma
Big 12 Championship Tournament Central

AIR FORCE LINEUP
125: Tucker Owens (11-10)
133: Bubba Wright (11-12)
141: Garrett Kuchan (7-11)
149: Joe Fernau (9-11)
157: Brooks Gable (1-15)
165: #13 Giano Petrucelli (18-5)
174: Noah Blake (11-10)
184: #11Sam Wolf (14-3)
197: Calvin Sund (6-14)
285: #2 Wyatt Hendrickson (20-0)

FOLLOW ALONG
Sessions 1-3 will be aired on ESPN+ with live results available on TrackWrestling.com. The finals session will air on ESPN2. Live Air Force updates can be found on X.com (formerly Twitter).

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday, March 9
Session 1: Preliminary & Quarterfinal Matches — 10:00 a.m. CT
Session 2: Semifinal & Consolation Quarterfinal Matches — 5:00 p.m. CT

Sunday, March 10
Session 3: Consolation Semifinals and Seventh Place Matches — 12:00 p.m. CT
Session 4: Finals — 7:30 p.m. CT
*Doors open one hour before each session

AIR FORCE PRESEEDS
Three Falcons take the mats with preseed numbers in front of their names. Two-time Big 12 Champion Wyatt Hendrickson is the No. 1 seed at 285 and will receive a first-round bye. Giano Petrucelli is the fifth seed and will take on Derek Matthews of Northern Colorado in his first match. Sam Wolf is the six seed and will go against Jacob Armstrong of Utah valley in the first round.

LAST TIME AT BIG 12
-Air Force tallied a program best 64.5 team points for an eighth-place finish; 57.5 of which were collected in the first day, surpassing total tournament efforts from all previous seasons.
-Seven Falcons made their way to the Big 12 podium, the most by any AF team to date— more than doubling the place-winners of any previous single season.
-Wyatt Hendrickson outscored the Big 12's top heavyweights, 36-6, in three matches. Hendrickson posted a major decision over No. 13 AJ Nevills (SDSU), a technical fall over No. 20 Konner Doucet (OK St.) and a convincing decision over No. 8 Sam Schuyler (ISU) in the finals.
-Tucker Owens earned an automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament, the first time a freshman 125-pounder has accomplished the feat since 2013.
-Sam Wolf battled to a sixth-place finish and his first official NCAA Tournament berth. In 2022, Wolf was an alternate for the 174 division.
-Noah Blake (6^th) and Calvin Sund (8^th) earned their first-ever Big 12 podium finishes

HENDRICKSON IN THE HUNT FOR MOST DOMINANT
The NCAA's two-time reigning Most Dominant Wrestler of the Year winner is in the hunt yet again. Hendrickson leads the nation in falls (14), ahead of second-place Kelvin Griffin (Lehigh) who has 12 pins. Hendrickson has just 21:23 of mat time recorded in those pins while Griffin has racked up 32:42 for his 12 pins.

COMING UP
The 2024 National Wrestling Championships take place in the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, March 21-23. With three Falcons deep into the RPI and NCAA Coaches' rankings, the Falcons are likely to have a presence on the NCAA Championship mats.

IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Three Falcons have numbers in front of their names in the wake of the final NCAA Coaches' and RPI Rankings. Wyatt Hendrickson ranks second in the national in all major national polls. Sam Wolf ranks 11^th in the NCAA Coaches ranking and sixth in the RPI. Giano Petrucelli checks in at 13^th in the NCAA Coaches ranking and 12^th in the RPI.

Falcon Wrestling Takes the Fight to the Big 12 Championships

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Noah Blake

Joe Fernau

Brooks Gable

Wyatt Hendrickson

Garrett Kuchan

Tucker Owens

Giano Petrucelli

Calvin Sund

Sam Wolf

Bubba Wright

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