In front of a hometown crowd in his final performance at Frost Arena, senior Tyler Sorenson proved his No. 1 seed by defeating North Dakota State's Drew Ross in the championship match of the NCAA Wresting West Regional 197-pound bracket, earning a second-straight trip to the NCAA Championships.  

Wyoming won its first ever West Regional team title, edging out 24-time defending champ Northern Iowa by a half point, 75 to 74.5. North Dakota was third in the team standings with 44.5 points while Utah Valley was a close fourth at 43.5 points. Air Force was fifth with 37.5 points while SDSU placed sixth with 29.5 points and Northern Colorado placed seventh at 18.5 points.

SDSU also placed four other athletes in the top four at the seven-team tournament.  David Michaud placed third at the tournament and earned the true second. Dustin Walraven, Aaron Pickrel and Kevin Kelly all placed fourth.

"Overall, I thought our kids wrestled well today," said head coach Jason Liles. "We earned a championship, a true second and having other kids in top four was very good considering our record entering the meet."

Tyler Sorenson traveled his way to the championship match on three straight wins, defeating Neil Delaney of Air Force 7-4 and No. 4 seeded Josh Wood of Utah Valley 7-3. In the championship match, Sorenson earned a win by technical fall 17-2; 7:00. With the victory, he becomes SDSU's first two-time NCAA qualifier in the Division I era, after earning a automatic bid last season with a second-place finish at 197 pounds.

"It is truly a great honor for him. He is a good kid that has worked hard to get where he is," said Liles. "He wrestled the best match he has had in a while and to tech. fall a kid in the finals is impressive. Tyler is a great person and deserves the opportunity to once again represent SDSU at the NCAA Championships."

Sophomore David Michaud entered the tournament unseeded at 184 pounds and dropped his first match of the day before reeling off three-consecutive wins, including a win over No. 2 seeded Ken Moenkedick of NDSU in wrestle backs to place third. He would add another win over No. 3 seed Any O'Loughlin of UNI to earn to true-second.

Redshirt freshman and No. 4 seed Aaron Pickrel drew three-time NCAA qualifier Anthony Mustari of UNC in the first round and defeated him for the second time this season, 7-2. Facing No. 1 seed Ben Kjar of UVU in the semis, Pickrel's upset bid fell short, falling 6-5 in the final seconds. Pickrel would blank Andrew Zwirlein of Air Force in wrestlebacks before Mustari would avenge an earlier loss 8-3, placing Pickrel fourth.

Sophomore Dustin Walraven also entered as the four seed and placed fourth at the event. Walraven drew a bye in the first round and fell to No. 1 Cole VonOhlen of Air Force in the semis 9-0 before defeating Charlie Ettelson of UNI 2-1 in wrestlebacks. He would again fall to a seeded wrestler, this time at the hands of No. 3 Kenneth Hashimoto of UNC 3-1, earning him fourth at the regional.

Rounding out the top finishes as Kevin Kelly with a fourth-place finish. Kelly battled top seeded Christian Brantley but well into wrestlebacks with a 2-1 defeat. There, Kelly defeated No. 2 Justin Tuell of UNC with a late takedown, earning a 3-1 victory. Kelly would later lose by fall to LJ Helbig at 4:59 to take fourth.

The event marked the first national qualifying tournament in the Division I era held on the campus of SDSU and was the first time hosting a national wrestling event since hosting the Division II National Duals in 2001.  

"Our staff did a tremendous job hosting the NCAA West Regional Tournament," said Liles. "It was a first-class event and was hosted at the best wrestling facility in the conference. Top to bottom is was just a great event."

Sorenson will travel to the NCAA Championships in Omaha, Neb. on March 18-20 at the Quest Center. 

Other matches completed

125 pounds - True 2nd - No. 1 Ben Kjar (UVU) dec. Anthony Mustari (UNC), 2-1 TB1