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Ex-Husker OL Tanner Farmer loses in NAIA heavyweight final

March 8, 2020 GMT

In this March 2, 2020, photo, former Nebraska football player Tanner Farmer and current wrestler for Concordia University smiles during an interview with the Associated Press, in Seward, Neb. A year ago Farmer was thought to be on the rise as an NFL draft prospect. He had started three years on Nebraska's offensive line and turned in a stellar performance at the Cornhuskers' pro day. It turned out he went undrafted, so he took a volunteer assistant's job with the Concordia football team and then, quite by accident, discovered he had one semester of eligibility to compete in another sport in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. He chose wrestling. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

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PARK CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tanner Farmer, the former Nebraska football player wrestling for Concordia University, lost in the heavyweight championship match at the NAIA tournament Saturday night.

Brandon Reed of Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) scored a 5-3 sudden victory over the previously unbeaten Farmer to successfully defend his national championship. The match was tied 3-3 after Farmer surrendered a point for stalling late in the third period.

Farmer was a three-year starter on the Nebraska offensive line. He enrolled for graduate courses at Concordia last fall and became a volunteer football assistant with the Bulldogs after going through tryouts with two teams in the NFL and one in the CFL. He discovered that under National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic rules he had one semester of eligibility if he wanted to compete in a sport other than football.

A two-time state champion for Highland High School in Illinois in 2013-14, he approached wrestling coach Levi Calhoun about joining the team.

Farmer was named Great Plains Athletic Conference wrestler of the year and took a 26-0 record into his final.