Gophers’ Isaiah Salazar wins 184-pound title at Big Ten wrestling championships

Gophers senior Isaiah Salazar won the 184-pound title at the Big Ten wrestling championships Sunday in College Park, Md., beating Penn State’s Bernie Truax 8-1 in overtime.

The top-seeded Salazar is the first Gophers wrestler to win a Big Ten title since heavyweight Gable Steveson won three in a row from 2020 to ’22. He’s the program’s fifth 184-pound conference champion, a list that includes his coach, Brandon Eggum, who won it in 1999 and 2000.

Tied 1-1 after seven minutes of regulation, Salazar earned three points for a takedown plus four nearfall points in OT to improve to 21-1 on the season.

“It felt great,” Salazar said on the Big Ten Network telecast. “It’s for sure been a journey; it’s been a fun one. Watching success continue, I have the best guys in the room, the best coaches, they push me all around so it’s been really fun.”

Salazar was one of six Gophers to reach the podium, and the team finished in seventh place with 74 points. The Gophers’ other finalist Sunday was senior Patrick McKee, who lost to Penn State’s Braeden Davis 8-1. Garrett Joles (197 pounds) finished fifth, Andrew Sparks (174) was sixth and Vance VomBaur (141) and Blaine Brenner (165) were seventh. In addition, the Gophers had a seventh wrestler qualify for the NCAA championships later this month when Drew Roberts won two matches at 149 pounds, beating Illinois’ Jake Harrier 12-6 and Rutgers’ Michael Cetta 5-3.

Penn State won the team championship with 170.5 points, 47 ahead of second-place Michigan. The Nittany Lions had five individual champions in all, including heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet the former Simley High School standout who beat Ohio State’s Nick Feldman 9-3.

Minnesota State Mankato is the top seed and host for the NCAA Division II Central Region men’s basketball tournament, and three other NSIC teams will join the Mavericks this weekend.

The Mavericks (29-2) play Arkansas Tech (25-6) in one quarterfinal Friday. The winner of that game will play fourth-seeded MSU Moorhead (24-5) or fifth-seeded Pittsburgh State (21-10).

Second-seeded Northwest Missouri State (27-4) plays Southwest Minnesota State (19-12), and third-seeded Minnesota Duluth (25-6) faces Fort Hays State (23-7).

Only one NSIC women’s team made the NCAA tournament. Minnesota State Mankato (26-5) is the Central Region’s seventh seed and will play Missouri Western (25-5) in Bethany, Okla.