NCAA Wrestling Tournament 2023: Daton Fix beats Aaron Nagao, will wrestle for 3rd place

Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix battled back Saturday morning after his semifinal loss to Cornell’s Vito Arujau. The Cowboy took down Minnesota’s Aaron Nagao 6-4 in the consolation semifinals.

Next, Fix will take on Arizona State’s Michael McGee for third place. The three-time runner-up fell short of the big stage in 2023, but has a chance to go out with a win.

Here’s how his first bout Saturday went down:

Fix got his offense going early in the first period, but Nagao’s defense was on point. But with Fix relentlessly on the attack, he got to Nagao’s legs with 22 seconds to go in the first frame.

Upon first inspection, Fix scored but Nagao was able to defend until the end of the period. Oklahoma State’s bench challenged the call but it was upheld.

At the start of the second period, Nagao was on top and riding but was hit with a stall warning. Fix took a 1-0 lead as Nagao was hit for a second stall call. 

On the next restart, Fix got a reversal to take a 3-0 lead with less than 20 seconds to go in the second.

At the start of the third period, Fix allowed Nagao to escape, making it 3-1 in favor of the Cowboy. But the Gopher battled battled and tied the match 3-3 with a takedown of his own with less than a minute to go.

Nagao hung onto a leg for five seconds and was hit with his third stall call of the match, giving Fix a 4-3 lead with the penalty point.

With less than 10 seconds to go, Fix earned a reversal to take a 6-3 lead, despite Nagao’s riding time point clinched. Minnesota challenged the reversal but it was upheld and Fix held on for a 6-4 win.

More on the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships

The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships were held March 16-18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa (Okla). The tournament consists of 330 wrestlers in total across 10 weight classes. Each weight class features wrestlers seeded No. 1 through No. 33.

Over the course of the three-day tournament, wrestlers can achieve national champion status by going 5-0 in their bracket, through Saturday night’s finals. The top eight placewinners in each bracket are considered All-Americans.

Losing one match does not eliminate a wrestler from competition. The consolation bracket is designed to determine the remaining spots on the podium (third through eighth place).

Since there are 33 wrestlers in each weight, the competitors seeded No. 32 and 33 compete in a “pigtail bout” prior to the first round to determine who matches up against the No. 1 seed in Round 1.

Losing the pigtail drops the wrestler to the consolation bracket where there is still an opportunity to finish as high as third place in the weight class.

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The 2024 NCAA Wrestling Tournament is set to take place in Kansas City (Mo.).