Utah Valley All-American Demetrius Romero bid for a second All-American honor came up short on Friday night at the BOK Center as Romero fell in sudden victory to No. 5 seeded Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State.

“Demetrius put it all out there. It was a tough loss for him with a podium finish and All-American status on the line. We are proud of D and all that he has accomplished in his time here at Utah Valley,” said UVU head coach Greg Williams.

In the opening period, Romero jumped out to an early lead with a takedown 32 seconds into the period. After holding the 2-0 lead, Plott came back and scored on an escape to cut the lead to 2-1 after one.

In the second, the OSU All-American used a reversal 11 seconds in to take a 3-2 lead before losing the lead after an escape made the score 3-3. Each grappler picked stalling warnings in the match, but Romero took advantage of a penalty point to take a 4-3 advantage. The match was tied up in the final minute after a takedown by the OSU veteran to take a 5-4 lead into the final period.

It was an action-packed third period with multiple leg attacks between both wrestlers. Romero used an escape five seconds into the third period to tie the match at 5-5. The match remained and went overtime. In the sudden victory, Plott scored on a takedown five seconds into the match to advance to the next round.

As he concludes his UVU career, the two-time Big 12 Champion and 2021 All-American finishes in second place with 97 career victories at UVU.

Wolverine softball drops finale to NM State

Utah Valley softball lost a heartbreaker in their series finale against the New Mexico State Aggies. After leading 4-1 heading into the top of the seventh, the Aggies rattled off six unanswered runs to escape with the 7-4 victory.

Pitcher Brooke Saili held the Aggies to just one run through the first six frames, but a trio of solo home runs in the seventh tied the game. NMSU would then rally for three more off of Jorja Barrett.

Utah Valley brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but were unable to capitalize.

The series win means the Wolverines will start 2-1 in WAC play in consecutive seasons for the first time since joining the conference in 2014.

Utah Valley will close out the homestand with a midweek matchup against in-state rival Weber State on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. MDT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at UVUStats.com.

UVU baseball finishes series at Seattle with loss

The Wolverines split the first two games on the road against the Redhawks, winning 5-1 on Friday and losing 14-0 in five innings on Saturday.

That meant that Sunday’s game was the rubber match in the WAC series and it turned out to be the most competitive.

In the end, however, Seattle was able to hold off a late UVU push and secure the 8-6 win and take the series.

Each team put two runs on the board in the first two innings, but the Redhawks surged in front with three runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to build a six-run lead.

The Wolverines tried to fight back, putting up three runs to be within striking distance heading into the final inning.

UVU got a home run from second baseman Daniel Dickinson to start the ninth but couldn’t continue scoring and ran out of time to come back.

The Wolverines now step out of league play to head to Provo and face BYU. UVU will face the Cougars at Miller Park on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

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