TULSA, Okla. — Eight Utah Valley wrestlers remain alive after the opening session of the 2026 Big 12 Wrestling Championships on Friday at the BOK Center.

Among Friday's victories were a trio of revenge wins from earlier conference duals including Kael Bennie's 12-1 major decision over 12th-ranked Evan Bates of Missouri, the tournament's No. 6 seed. Bennie, who lost by major decision in the earlier bout against Bates, was in control throughout the match and will face another rematch in Friday's second session when he goes up against No. 6 Bennett Berge of South Dakota State, who is also the No. 4 seed. Bennie dropped his opener to Oklahoma State's 5th-ranked Cody Merrill, 8-1.

Mark Takara and Zyon Trujillo also rebounded with wins after dropping their opening matches. Takara fell to Cael Swensen (SDSU) before a 12-6 win over Daishun Powe of Northern Colorado. Trujillo dropped his first match to SDSU's Marcus Espinoza-Owens before responding with a 4-1 win over Kilian Schultz of Northern Colorado.

Also still alive in the championship are Geronimo Rivera (133), Haiden Drury (141), David Evans (149), Hudson Rogers (174), and Caleb Uhlenhopp (184). Both Drury and Evans reached the quarterfinals before losing heartbreakers. Drury fell to Tyler Wells in a 4-2 decision after video review awarded Wells a last-second takedown, and Evans fell to 16^th-ranked Caleb Rathjen, the No. 6 seed, in sudden victory.

In his opening match against Arizona State's Benji Alanis, Evans earned two minutes of riding time after riding Alanis the entire second period in a scoreless bout. Evans got an escape in the third and went on to win 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Friday's second session begins at 5 p.m. CST, live on ESPN+.

Session I Results
125 | #6 Troy Spratley (OKST) over #33 Bridger Ricks (UVU), major dec. 12-1
125 | #31 Tucker Owens (AF) over #33 Bridger Ricks, dec. 4-1 (SV-1)
 
133 | #27 Luke Willochell (WYO) over Geronimo Rivera, major dec. 9-0
133 | Geronimo Rivera vs #30 Cale Seaton (SDSU)

141 | #24 Tyler Wells (OK) over #15 Haiden Drury, dec. 4-2

149 | #7 David Evans over Benji Alanis (ASU), dec. 2-0
149 | #16 Caleb Rathjen (UNI) over #7 David Evans, dec. 4-1 (SV-1)
157 | #22 Cael Swensen (SDSU) over Mark Takara, major dec. 8-0
157 | Mark Takara over Daishun Powe (UNC), dec. 12-6

165 | #33 Marcus Espinoza-Owens (SDSU) over Zyon Trujillo, dec. 8-2
165 | Zyon Trujillo over Kilian Schultz (UNC), dec. 4-1

174 | #10 Cam Steed (MIZ) over Hudson Rogers, tech fall 20-5 (6:14)

184 | #9 Eddie Neitenbach (WYO) over Caleb Uhlenhopp, fall (0:46)

197 | #5 Cody Merrill (OKST) over #28 Kael Bennie, dec. 8-1
197 | #28 Kael Bennie over #12 Evan Bates (MIZ), major dec. 11-1

285 | #32 Luke Rasmussen (SDSU) over #27 Jack Forbes, dec. 9-6
285 | #7 Christian Carroll (WYO) over #27 Jack Forbes, major dec. 16-7