By Bob Hersom
Staff Writer

STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State had seven reasons to be happy and, according to the Cowboys, one reason to be unhappy Friday night at the Big 12 wrestling tournament.

OSU, by sending seven of its 10 wrestlers into the 2 p.m. finals today, rolled to what may be an insurmountable 17.5-point lead in the fourth annual meet, watched by an estimated 5,000 in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

The Cowboys scored 62 points. Oklahoma is second, followed by Iowa State, Nebraska and Missouri, which was 0-5 in semifinal-round matches.

The most heated match of the night was a Bedlam battle at 165 pounds. OU's fifth-ranked Robbie Waller needed an overtime and a clock malfunction to edge OSU's unranked true freshman, Chris Pendleton, 11-9. OSU coach John Smith officially protested the match after wrestling ended Friday night.

Because of the protest meeting, where OSU's request was denied, Smith was not available for comment Friday night.

Spates, before learning of the protest, said: "We wrestled well, but in order to win this tournament we wrestled great. I felt coming in we were going to have to have six finalists to win this thing."

Pendleton led 6-1 after one period, but Waller used riding time to send the match into overtime at 9-9. Moments into OT, Waller slipped and Pendleton got a takedown -- but it wasn't counted, because the bout was stopped when the match clock showed :10 just a few seconds into the extra period.

Waller won with 28 seconds left in the overtime, when he took down Pendleton, who needed help to leave the mat, as his left leg was injured in the move.

"Robbie squeaked through by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin, and I'm not very hairy," said Spates, who did not know about OSU's protest until being told by a reporter. "But he showed his character and scored when he needed to."

The most drainingly dramatic bout of the night was also the final bout of the night. Five seconds into an exhausting 7-7 tiebreaker, from the down position, OSU heavyweight James Huml arched into a shocking defensive pin of ISU's Mark Knauer.

In the most anticipated semifinals, at 197, Nebraska's defending NCAA champion, Brad Vering, and OSU's defending Big 12 champion, Mark Munoz, both won 4-2 over opponents they had never beaten.

Third-seeded Munoz used 2:55 of riding time to beat ISU's second-seeded Zach Thompson, who had been 4-0 against Munoz. Vering beat May, who won their only previous meeting 3-2 in Norman.

In the only other upset of the night, Nebraska's third-seeded Jason Powell (a former Choctaw star) beat OSU's second-seeded Matt Brown 4-1.

OSU was the only team with all 10 wrestlers seeded one, two or three. OU was the big winner and Nebraska was the big loser in the pigtail round of fourth and fifth "seeds."

The Sooners won all three of their pigtail bouts. The Huskers lost five of their six prelims. Missouri was 5-4 and Iowa State was 1-0 (not including an injury forfeit at 125).

In that 125 bout, Missouri freshman Justin Spates, son of OU coach Jack Spates, got a first-round bye after Iowa State withdrew Jacob Moore (1-19), claiming injury.