Minnesota Wrestling: Gable Steveson Wins Second Consecutive Big Ten Championship

Minnesota Golden Gophers heavyweight wrestler Gable Steveson continued his tear through the Big Ten and won his second consecutive Big Ten Heavyweight wrestling championship on Sunday over Michigan’s Mason Parris 12-4. He becomes the first Gopher to win multiple Big Ten Championships since heavyweight Tony Nelson did it three times between 2012-2014.

Steveson received a bye into the quarterfinals on Saturday and faced #8 Tate Orndorff of Ohio State where he easily earned a win via technical fall 19-4 in the second period. He was set to face #5 Christian Lance of Nebraska in the semifinals, but Lance took a medical forfeit to advance Steveson into the finals.

The finals would be a 1 vs 2 rematch of the 2020 Big Ten Championship won by Steveson 8-6. The two had done some trash taking after Steveson elected not to wrestle against Parris in an amateur club duel in December. To state the obvious, it didn’t work out well for Parris.

Steveson opened up the first period with a pair of takedowns and parris countered with a pair of escapes (or Steveson let him up) to give the Gopher a 4-2 lead after the first period.

I the second it was more of the same as Parris tried to come up with anything to put Steveson in a bad position, which would not happen. Steveson got a late takedown and ended the period riding Parris to take a 6-3 lead into the final period.

Steveson would add a pair of takedowns and earn a riding time point to close out the 12-4 win. For his impressive showing he was awarded the Big Ten’s Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Championship. He is the first Gopher to be given that award since Mack Reiter won it in 2005. He helped the Gophers to a 5th place team finish at the Big Ten Championships with his performance.

Steveson is now 12-0 on the season and is 62-2 for his career with both losses coming to Penn State’s Anthony Cassar in his freshman season. He will be the #1 seed at the NCAA Tournament in two weeks and he will be ready.