Nick Piccininni’s veins jutted from his body as he screamed and sprinted down the red carpet back to his Oklahoma State teammates in the tunnel at the BOK Center on Sunday. Piccininni, a 125-pound freshman wrestler, was a Big 12 champion, and it was the most electric moment of the championships.
Piccininni took down North Dakota State’s Josh Rodriguez, the tournament’s No. 1 seed at 125, in a 7-5 decision in the second period of a tiebreaker. The match went into sudden victory tied at 4 but neither wrestler could score, so it went to the tiebreaker. That’s where Piccininni earned the clinching takedown.