Utah Valley University’s wrestling team will participate in the 2026 Big 12 Championship, scheduled for March 6-7 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event will be broadcast live on ESPN+, with commentary from Mike Leslie and Hardell Moore.
Three seniors from Utah Valley have secured seeds for the tournament. Haiden Drury and David Evans are both seeded third at 141 and 149 pounds, respectively, while Jack Forbes is seeded sixth in the heavyweight division. Drury has a first-round bye and will compete against either Tyler Wells of Oklahoma or Joel Aguilar-Guerrero of Northern Colorado in the quarterfinals. This marks Drury’s fifth appearance at the Big 12 Championships; he has previously placed twice, finishing sixth as a freshman with Fresno State and fifth for Utah Valley in 2022.
Four other Wolverines—Bridger Ricks, Mark Takara, Caleb Uhlenhopp, Kael Bennie—and Forbes are returning for their second appearance at the conference championships. Bennie placed eighth as a redshirt freshman at 197 pounds in last year’s event.
The program is marking its eleventh season as an affiliate member of the Big 12 Conference and its eleventh appearance at these championships. Utah Valley has produced two Big 12 champions: Demetrius Romero won titles in 2019 (165 pounds) and 2021 (174 pounds). The school has had finalists on four occasions, including Romero twice, Dustin Dennison (285) in 2017, and Taylor LaMont (125) in 2021. In that same year, six wrestlers from Utah Valley reached the podium—a program record.
The championship brackets were released earlier this week. Bridger Ricks is set to face top-seeded Troy Spratley of Oklahoma State at 125 pounds. Six out of nine opening matches for Utah Valley are rematches from earlier conference duals this season. Among them is Forbes’ bout against Luke Rasmussen of South Dakota State; each wrestler holds one win over the other this season.
Other rematches include Mark Takara facing Cael Swensen (South Dakota State), Zyon Trujillo wrestling Marcus Espnioza-Owens (South Dakota State), Hudson Rogers taking on Cam Steed (Missouri), and Caleb Uhlenhopp competing against Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming).
In their most recent competition on February 21 at the UCCU Center, Utah Valley set a program attendance record with 5,541 fans during their dual meet against No. 6 Nebraska. The Wolverines earned victories through Uhlenhopp and Evans—the latter defeating No.19-ranked Chance Lamer with a late takedown to secure an 8-5 win—but Nebraska claimed eight out of ten matches to win the dual by a score of 32-6.
Looking ahead, qualifiers from this weekend’s championship will advance to compete at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships from March 19-21 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The selection show is scheduled for Wednesday, March 11 at 6 p.m. EST.
