Oklahoma State and Cowboy Wrestlers See Little, Almost No Movement in New Rankings

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State wrestling celebrated Senior Day, N7 Night saluting the first American culture in Oklahoma and in our nation and at the same time blasted Little Rock in wrestling with a 41-6 last Friday night. It was a good night and a solid match, but it did little for the Cowboys in the national rankings. Intermat came out on Tuesday (Feb. 10) and as expected there was almost no movement for the Pokes in either the team or individual rankings ahead of the second-to-last wrestling dual this Sunday at Virginia Tech. In fact, only one Cowboy wrestler moved up in the individual rankings and 133 pound Jax Forrest did not wrestle against Little Rock.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Dee Lockett had the most impressive win last week with a 7-2 decision over Little Rock’s No. 5 and then unbeaten at 16-0 Matt Bianchi.

Head coach David Taylor wrestled Ronnie Ramirez at 133 pounds and he scored a 19-4 tech fall over Dillon Cooper of Little Rock. That was Ramirez’ fifth appearance this season according to NCAA rules meaning he wrestles again and he loses the opportunity to redshirt and burns his freshman season of eligiblity. 

Forrest, who came in at midyear has a record of 8-0 now and has also wrestled five appearances by NCAA rules, so the 133 pound wrestler that goes on Sunday at Blacksburg, Va. vs. the Hokies is going to be the guy for the rest of the season, at least by design. Forrest did not wrestle last weekend, but his ranking moved up from No. 11 to No. 10. The experts know he is better than that, but is just that new to the college sport.

We were hoping that 125 pound Troy Spratley or 157 pound freshman Landon Robideau could move up. Maybe 174 pound Alex Facundo, 197 pound Cody Merrill, or heavyweight Konner Doucet, all surging; but there was just no room or wrestlers ranked above them losing. 

“We’re not chasing rankings right now, we’re trying to work and improve on everything we do and do all we can to make them the best version of themselves,” Taylor said. “We want to be the best we can be when we get to the NCAA, so we’re not paying attention to the rankings right now. We have to wrestle and work to get the best seeds we can.”

Oklahoma State remained No. 3 in the dual rankings and with the individual rankings changing very little, there was virtually no change in the tournament rankings. 

 The individual rankings had one change only, Jax Forrest up from No. 11 to No. 10. This Sunday, Spratley will draw Virginia Tech’s No. 3 Eddie Ventresca in the dual with the Hokies. 

On Feb. 22, Oklahoma State hosts Iowa in a 5 p.m. ESPN-televised regular season finale and there will be all kinds of ranked showdowns with Dee Lockett needing to fend off Mikey Caliendo at 165, Alex facundo looking to top No. 3 Patrick Kennedy, and No. 9 Zack Ryder taking aim at No. 2 Iowa 184 pound Angelo Ferrari.