TULSA, Okla. – Utah Valley University's Demetrius Romero and Evan Bockman made what was inevitable official, both will be returning to Tulsa in two weeks for the NCAA Championships. Both Wolverines punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships on the first day of the Big 12 Championships at the BOK Center.
 
The Wolverines bounced back in the evening after a tough opening session on Saturday. In addition to the two NCAA returners, 149-pounder Isaiah Delgado is poised to earn his first NCAA Championships berth, while Kase Mauger will wrestle for seventh place at 125 pounds.
 
Two-time Big 12 Champion and All-American Romero, the No. 4 seed, rebounded after a 3-2 defeat earlier in the day. In the afternoon, he won his first match against Louis Rojas (CBU) by a 5-1 final to advance to the third round of consolation matches. From there he moved onto the consolation semifinals after taking care of West Virginia's Scott Joll in a 15-6 major decision. Romero will make his fourth appearance at Nationals later this month.  
 
Bockman, the No. 6 seed, clinched a spot at Nationals for the second time in his career and will wrestle tomorrow in the consolation semifinals against OSU's Luke Surber. Bockman finished 2-1 on the day. After losing in the morning to No. 3 Yonger Bastida, he rallied to victories over UNI's Noah Glaser and West Virginia's Austin Cooley.
 
No. 5-seeded Mauger lost a hard-fought match to Stevo Poulin (UNC) before bouncing back with a tech fall victory in 4:56 over Carlos Negrete Jr. of North Dakota State. He dropped his next match to Tucker Owens of Air Force and will now wrestle on Sunday against Corey Cabanan (Iowa State) for seventh place.
 
Delgado will wrestle for seventh place tomorrow and will have a chance to punch a ticket to his first trip to Nationals. He lost his first match before working his way back through the consolation rounds, including an upset win over No. 8-seeded Sam Hillegas to advance to the consolation bracket.
 
Ty Smith and Chase Trussell both finished 1-2. Smith faced three pre-seeds in the field, losing to No. 2 Mosha Schwartz (Oklahoma) before defeating NDSU's Dylan Droegemueller with an 11-0 decision. He then fell to Jordan Titus of West Virginia in sudden victory. Trussell lost to pre-seeds Michael Wolfgram (WVU) and No. 6 Josh Heindselman (OU) while earning a win over Juan Mora of North Dakota State by a 3-2 decision.
 
Kobe Nelms, Tyson Humpherys, Cameron Haddock, and Mahonri Rushton finished the day 0-2.
 
The second day of the Big 12 Championships will begin at Noon CT with the consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches. At 1:30 p.m. CT, the third and fifth-place matches will take place. The finals will begin at 8:00 p.m. CT and will air on ESPNU.
 
 
 

 
UVU RESULTS
125      Kase Mauger               (1-2)
QTRS   No. 4 Stevo Poulin (UNC)        Over                No. 5 Kase Mauger (UVU)       DEC 6-3
C2        No. 5 Kase Mauger (UVU)       Over                Carlos Negrete Jr (NDSU)        TF 17-0 4:56
C3        Tucker Owens (AF)                 Over                Kase Mauger (UVU)                12-4 MD         
 
133      Kobe Nelms                 (0-2)
1^st        No. 6 Hunter Leake (CBU)       Over                Kobe Nelms (UVU)                  DEC 5-3
C2        Cody Phippen (AF)                  Over                Kobe Nelms (UVU)                  TF 15-0 5:38
 
141      Ty Smith                      (1-2)
1^st        Mosha Schwartz (Oklahoma) Over                Ty Smith (UVU)                       DEC 11-9
C1        Ty Smith (UVU)                       Over                Dylan Droegemuller (NDSU)   MD 11-0
C2        Jordan Titus (WV)                   Over                Ty Smith (UVU)                       SV-1 5-3
 
149      Isaiah Delgado            (2-2)
1^ST       Chris Sandoval (UNC)              Over                Isaiah Delgado (UVU)              DEC 4-0
C1        Isaiah Delgado (UVU)              Over                Alek Martin (SDSU)                 DEC 5-4
C2        Isaiah Delgado (UVU)              Over                Sam Hillegas (WV)                  DEC 8-7
C3        No. 4 Kellyn March (NDSU)    Over                Isaiah Delgado (UVU)              Fall     
 
157      Tyson Humpherys       (0-2)
1^st        Kaden Gfeller (OSU)                Over                Tyson Humpherys (UVU)        DEC 8-2
C2        Vincent Zerban (UNC)             Over                Tyson Humpherys (UVU)        DEC 9-3
 
165      Cameron Haddock      (0-2)
1^ST       Michael Caliendo III (NDSU)   Over                Cameron Haddock (UVU)       Fall 4:05
C2        Gerritt Nijenhuis (OU)            Over                Cameron Haddock (UVU)       Fall 2:12
 
174      Demetrius Romero     (2-1)
QTRS   Tate Picklo (OU)                      Over                Demetrius Romero (UVU)      DEC 3-2
C2        Demetrius Romero (UVU)      Over                Louis Rojas (CBU)                    DEC 5-1
C3        Demetrius Romero (UVU)      Over                Scott Joll (WVU)                      MD 15-6
 
 
184      Mahonri Rushton        (0-2)
1^st        Keegan Moore (OU)                Over                Mahonri Rushton (UVU)         MD 16-3
C2        Deanthony Parker Jr. (NDSU) Over                Mahonri Rushton (UVU)         TF 16-1 7:00
 
197      Evan Bockman            (2-1)
QTRS   No. 3 Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) Over         No. 6 Evan Bockman (UVU)    DEC 9-5
C2        Evan Bockman (UVU)              Over                Noah Glaser (UNI)                   MD 10-3
C3        Evan Bockman (UVU)              Over                Austin Cooley (WVU)              DEC 4-2
 
285      Chase Trussell             (1-2)
1^st        Michael Wolfgram (WVU)      Over                Chase Trussell (UVU)              DEC 7-4
C2        Chase Trussell (UVU)              Over                Juan Mora (NDSU)                  DEC 3-2
C3        Josh Heindselman (OU)          Over                Chase Trussell (UVU)              SV-1