UPDATE: Cowboy Wrestling Back Home A Week Earlier, Sunday with Columbia
STILLWATER – Remember wrestling, yep the sport of wrestling and it is kind of a big deal at Oklahoma State except the schedule for this season has made it out of sight and out of mind for Oklahoma State fans. There has been one, count em, one home match and that was back on Sunday, Nov. 28, the day after the football Bedlam win and Oklahoma State pounded Drexel into the orange and gray mat 45-0.
“We had some good duals in the first semester, good opponents that I thought were among the better dual teams in the country in Stanford, Minnesota, and Wyoming, and then we had Oklahoma,” Smith said of the highlights of the first semester. “The guys had better get going now because these are the matches that are going to make you what you are as a team coming up.”
Yes, the schedule is changing for the Cowboys and Oklahoma State wrestling fans will get to see some of their team.
Just reported the OSU grapplers will be home this Sunday because of West Virginia wrestling having COVID issues. The Pokes host a dual with Columbia University at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The dual was put in place following the cancellation of the tri-meet in Morgantown. The Cowboys were scheduled for a doubleheader on Sunday facing Columbia at 10 a.m. before a conference bout with the Mountaineers at 12 p.m. on ESPNU.
No tickets are required for entry and seating is first come, first serve as the event is open to the public.
The Cowboys are currently 8-0 and seven of those duals have been at places like Palo Alto, Calf; Orem, Utah; and Little Rock, Ark. This Sunday the Cowboys will now wrestler Ivy League opponent Columbia at home,
Now the Pokes have seven of the final nine duals on the schedule at home. It continues with Lehigh on Sunday, Jan. 23 and it ends on Sunday, Feb. 20 with Oklahoma and Bedlam in Gallagher-Iba. In between there is the Saturday, Feb. 12 dual with Iowa in the Texas Rangers home stadium in Arlington, “The Bout at the Ball Park.”
Oklahoma State is ranked No. 4 and heading into the Columbia dual they have six of their 10 starters ranked in the top 10 at their respective weights headed by 197-pound defending individual national champion in A.J. Ferrari (8-0). There are three other undefeated Cowboys with 174-pound Dustin Plott (7-0) after missing last week’s dual win at Arkansas-Little Rock. Plott is ranked No. 8. Daton Fix at 133-pounds is 8-0 and Fix is ranked No. 2. Then there is 125-pound sophomore Trevor Mastrogiovanni who is 8-0 and now ranked No. 6 at his weight.
“You know Mastro has got two quality opponents (this weekend) and he is now being recognized as one of the top eight guys in the country,” Smith said of this weekend. “It’s time to take it a little bit further. You know it is like I said these are matches that put your team in the best position to have a quality national tournament. These matches are real important in gathering some momentum and have some real belief in what you are capable of doing.”
There are four other Cowboy wrestlers, each with one loss that are also critical in building toward the NCAA Tournament. Travis Wittlake is ranked No. 5 at 165-pounds and his only loss is to the defending national champion this season from Stanford. Dakota Geer is ranked No. 10 and is sitting at 7-1 at 184-pounds. Kaden Gfeller is 6-1 at 149-pounds and he is ranked No. 14. Wyatt Sheets is also 6-1 and is ranked No. 13 at 157.
It’s starting to be crunch time and fortunately, it’s starting to be the home portion of the schedule for Cowboys wrestling.