University of Minnesota Athletics
Sunday, March 9
Evanston, IL
12:00 PM
University of Minnesota
vs
Big Ten Championships - Session III
Players Mentioned
157 lbs.
/ Wrestling
125 lbs.
/ Wrestling
184 lbs.
/ Wrestling
149 lbs.
/ Wrestling
184 lbs.
/ Wrestling
174 lbs.
/ Wrestling
285 lbs.
/ Wrestling
141 lbs.
/ Wrestling
133 lbs.
/ Wrestling
174 lbs.
/ Wrestling
Photo by: Brad Rempel
Gophers Grab Top Finishes in Session III
3/9/2025 3:17:00 PM | Wrestling
EVANSTON, Ill. – Session III of the Big Ten Championships wrapped up Sunday afternoon with three Gophers finalizing their places and three more moving on to Sunday night's finals.
Andrew Sparks and Isaiah Salazar both earned a trip to their third-place bouts set for Sunday evening, while Tommy Askey will battle for fifth. That's in addition to the championship matches featuring Vance VomBaur at 141 pounds, Max McEnelly at 184 and Gable Steveson at heavyweight.
As a team, the Gophers enter the finals in fourth place with 103.5 points. Penn State leads with 156.5, followed by Nebraska at 127.0 and Iowa with 107.0. A fourth-place finish would tie for the best under head coach Brandon Eggum, also finishing there in 2019.
Sparks punched his ticket to the third-place match at 165 pounds with a 10-5 decision over Illinois' Braeden Scoles. Seeded fifth, Sparks has guaranteed the best finish of his career, which was sixth last year at 174. It's also set to be the best finish by a Gopher at the weight since Danny Zilverberg placed third in 2014. Facing the sixth-seeded Scoles, Sparks held a 6-2 lead through two periods. He escaped to make it 7-2 in the third before a Scoles takedown cut the lead to 7-2. However, Sparks answered with a reversal to put the match away.
He'll face Michigan's Beau Mantanona, the No. 4 seed, Sunday night. The two met in the quarterfinals with Mantanona winning by fall.
Salazar, meanwhile, advanced via injury default at 197 pounds. The No. 4 seed, he was facing No. 2 Josh Barr, when Barr suffered an injury at the 1:07 mark and was unable to continue. Salazar has earned a rematch with Illinois' No. 5 Zac Braunagel, who defeated Salazar Saturday in the quarterfinals, 10-4.
At 157 pounds, Askey moved to the fifth-place match following a consolation semifinal loss to No. 6 Joey Blaze of Purdue. The No. 5 seed, Askey traded escapes with Blaze to send the match to overtime. In the extra session, Blaze got the winning takedown to prevail 4-1. Askey meets top-seeded Ethan Miller Sunday.
A pair of Gophers took seventh place at their respective weights.
Wrestling at 174 pounds, No. 5 Clayton Whiting put an exclamation mark on his first career conference championships with a pin of Purdue's Brody Baumann at the 6:52 mark. He led 6-5 in the closing seconds as he got Baumann into a cradle and got his shoulders down for his first pin of the season.
At 125 pounds, No. 5 Cooper Flynn claimed seventh via medical forfeit by Michigan State's Caleb Weiand.
Redshirt junior Drew Roberts claimed ninth place at 149 pounds for the second year in a row in a bid to boost his resume for at-large consideration to the NCAA Championships, which will be announced Tuesday. Seeded 10th, he opened with a dominant 19-4 tech fall win at the 4:02 mark over Purdue's No. 11 Isaac Ruble in the semifinals. In the ninth-place match, he used a second-period escape to top No. 13 Joey Buttler of Indiana.
At 133 pounds, Tyler Wells did not compete in the ninth-place bracket due to medical forfeit.
The finals of the Big Ten Championships, which feature the 1st, 3rd and 5th-place matches, starts at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on Big Ten Network.
Andrew Sparks and Isaiah Salazar both earned a trip to their third-place bouts set for Sunday evening, while Tommy Askey will battle for fifth. That's in addition to the championship matches featuring Vance VomBaur at 141 pounds, Max McEnelly at 184 and Gable Steveson at heavyweight.
As a team, the Gophers enter the finals in fourth place with 103.5 points. Penn State leads with 156.5, followed by Nebraska at 127.0 and Iowa with 107.0. A fourth-place finish would tie for the best under head coach Brandon Eggum, also finishing there in 2019.
Sparks punched his ticket to the third-place match at 165 pounds with a 10-5 decision over Illinois' Braeden Scoles. Seeded fifth, Sparks has guaranteed the best finish of his career, which was sixth last year at 174. It's also set to be the best finish by a Gopher at the weight since Danny Zilverberg placed third in 2014. Facing the sixth-seeded Scoles, Sparks held a 6-2 lead through two periods. He escaped to make it 7-2 in the third before a Scoles takedown cut the lead to 7-2. However, Sparks answered with a reversal to put the match away.
He'll face Michigan's Beau Mantanona, the No. 4 seed, Sunday night. The two met in the quarterfinals with Mantanona winning by fall.
Salazar, meanwhile, advanced via injury default at 197 pounds. The No. 4 seed, he was facing No. 2 Josh Barr, when Barr suffered an injury at the 1:07 mark and was unable to continue. Salazar has earned a rematch with Illinois' No. 5 Zac Braunagel, who defeated Salazar Saturday in the quarterfinals, 10-4.
At 157 pounds, Askey moved to the fifth-place match following a consolation semifinal loss to No. 6 Joey Blaze of Purdue. The No. 5 seed, Askey traded escapes with Blaze to send the match to overtime. In the extra session, Blaze got the winning takedown to prevail 4-1. Askey meets top-seeded Ethan Miller Sunday.
A pair of Gophers took seventh place at their respective weights.
Wrestling at 174 pounds, No. 5 Clayton Whiting put an exclamation mark on his first career conference championships with a pin of Purdue's Brody Baumann at the 6:52 mark. He led 6-5 in the closing seconds as he got Baumann into a cradle and got his shoulders down for his first pin of the season.
At 125 pounds, No. 5 Cooper Flynn claimed seventh via medical forfeit by Michigan State's Caleb Weiand.
Redshirt junior Drew Roberts claimed ninth place at 149 pounds for the second year in a row in a bid to boost his resume for at-large consideration to the NCAA Championships, which will be announced Tuesday. Seeded 10th, he opened with a dominant 19-4 tech fall win at the 4:02 mark over Purdue's No. 11 Isaac Ruble in the semifinals. In the ninth-place match, he used a second-period escape to top No. 13 Joey Buttler of Indiana.
At 133 pounds, Tyler Wells did not compete in the ninth-place bracket due to medical forfeit.
The finals of the Big Ten Championships, which feature the 1st, 3rd and 5th-place matches, starts at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on Big Ten Network.
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