Cardenas Beats Buchanan In Big Ten Wrestling Championships
Monday, March 10th, 2025 -- 6:49 AM
Stephen Buchanan of Loyal attempted to make history for the Iowa Men's Wrestling program on Sunday at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships in Evanston, Illinois. Iowa has never had a Big Ten Champion at 197 pounds since the weight class was introduced in 1999.
Top-ranked Buchanan had not surrendered a point entering the championship match with No. 3 Jacob Cardenas from Michigan.
Buchanan broke open the scoring with an escape to start the second period, but Cardenas got the first takedown. The Wolverine got to an ankle to trip Buchanan and drove the Hawkeye down for a 3-1 lead. Buchanan escaped and trailed 3-2 entering the third period. In the final two minutes, Cardenas escaped to expand his edge to 4-2 and held on from there for the victory.
Undefeated on the season prior to this, the Hawkeye had wrestled well in about every style of match. Here, he struggled to generate much of any offense and conceded his only takedown of the tournament in this match. That was a bit of a theme for Buchanan at this tournament, who didn't generate as many point as fans many have expected.
Buchanan will now compete in the the NCAA Men's College Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia from March 20-22.
Big Ten Wrestling Champions 2025
- 125lbs - Luke Lilledahl (Penn State)
- 133lbs - Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
- 141lbs - Brock Hardy (Nebraska)
- 149lbs - Ridge Lovett (Nebraska)
- 157lbs - Tyler Kasak (Penn State)
- 165lbs - Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State)
- 174lbs - Levi Haines (Penn State)
- 184lbs - Carter Starocci (Penn State)
- 197lbs - Jacob Cardenas (Michigan)
- 285lbs - Gable Steveson (Minnesota)
Final team scores at the Big Ten Championships
- 1st - Penn State (181.5 points)
- 2nd - Nebraska (137)
- 3rd - Iowa (112)
- 4th - Minnesota (108.5)
- 5th - Illinois (105.5)
- 6th - Ohio State (95.5)
- 7th - Michigan (71)
- 8th - Maryland (54)
- 9th - Rutgers (46)
- 10th - Purdue (44.5)
- 11th - Indiana (33)
- 12th - Northwestern (21.5)
- 13th - Wisconsin (19)
- 14th - Michigan State (11.5)
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