Junior Gable Steveson watched four of his Gophers teammates on Saturday lose in the first round, three in the quarterfinals and two more in the semifinals. The last two on tiebreakers in overtime.
But the defending champion and top seed among heavyweights in the Big Ten Wrestling Championships in State College, Pa., had a relatively easy path himself to Sunday's final. A bye. A technical fall over No. 8 Tate Orndorff of Ohio State. And then a win by injury default over Nebraska's Christian Lance.
Steveson, 11-0 this season with a 28-match winning streak, will face No. 2 seed Mason Parris of Michigan in the final. Parris, who lost to Steveson 8-6 in last year's Big Ten final, had a major decision and a pin in 58 seconds in his two matches to improve to 8-0.
Michael Blockhus, seeded sixth, and Brayton Lee, seeded third, were the other Gophers in the semifinals.
Blockhus lost 2-1 to Nebraska's Ridge Lovett at 149 pounds, and Lee lost 3-2 to Iowa's Kaleb Young at 157. The difference in Lee's match was Young's 23 seconds of riding time.
The score in Steveson's only match was 19-4 and it ended in the third period. It was the sixth technical fall for the nation's No. 1-ranked heavyweight; he also has three pins and one major decision. Parris has had bonus points in all his victories this season, too.
Blockhus, a transfer from Northern Iowa, reached the semifinals on two close decisions. The redshirt sophomore defeated Beau Bartlett of Penn State 5-3 in the first round and No. 3 seed Griffin Parriott of Purdue 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Lee, another redshirt sophomore who was fourth in the conference meet at 149 pounds last year, also had a first-round bye before beating Will Lewan of Michigan 8-3.
The Gophers started this two-day tournament by going 4-4 in the first round; No. 4 seed Patrick McKee lost at 125 pounds and No. 6 seed Marcos Polanco at 141 each lost to lower seeds.
After two sessions, Iowa was in first place with 126.5 points, the Gophers were eighth with 62.5.
