David Carr cruises to Big 12 championship, Iowa State finishes 3rd in team race

AMES - David Carr had one thing in mind at all times.

Score more points.

In all three of his matches in the Big 12 Wrestling Championships in Tulsa, Okla., he went for a takedown right off the opening whistle.

And in all three matches he got takedowns within the opening seconds of the match.

Carr (157) cruised to his second Big 12 championship on Sunday, beating North Dakota State's Jared Franek, 8-2.

'I want these guys to know that I'm coming for them - you don't have to come for me,” Carr said. 'I'm always going to be the kind of guy who's going out there to score points. When you try to score points for all seven minutes, it's fun. I don't want to waste a second - as soon as the whistle blows, I'm going.”

Heavyweight Gannon Gremmel also won a Big 12 championship for the Cyclones, who finished in third place with 117.5 points, behind Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, who tied for first with 124 points.

Gremmel's championship match against Wyoming's Brian Andrews was a rematch of last year's finals, which Gremmel lost 3-2.

This year, Gremmel won 2-0 thanks to a rideout in the third period.

'I watched some film on him and I saw he struggled on bottom, so I didn't want to take extra risk on my feet,” Gremmel said. 'If I was going to take a shot, it needed to be a really good shot. I saw that match playing out exactly how it did. Right when riding time hit one minute, he pretty much gave up.”

Iowa State coach Kevin Dresser said before the tournament that Gremmel's biggest area of growth this season has been with his top wrestling.

'His constant improvement on top was really important - it also made me look like I know what I'm talking about,” Dresser said. 'He won that match on top. The thing I'll say about Gannon Gremmel is he comes to compete. Heavyweight is a funny animal and you just have to find ways to win.”

Ian Parker was the third Cyclone to be in a championship match. Parker lost to Oklahoma's Dom Demas 4-3 after two sudden victories and two sets of tiebreakers.

Northern Iowa also crowned two champions on Sunday.

Brody Teske (125) kicked off the championship round with a flurry of excitement against Utah Valley's Taylor LaMont. Teske won the back-and-forth bout 9-7, thanks to three takeodowns and a reversal in the third period to seal it.

Freshman Parker Keckeisen (184) was the other Panther to win on Sunday night. Keckeisen beat Wyoming's Tate Samuelson 5-3 to make it four-straight UNI wrestlers to win 184-pound Big 12 championships. Taylor Lujan won last year and Drew Foster claimed the previous two.

UNI finished in fifth place with 79 points.