STILLWATER – Oklahoma State wrestling fans sure seemed ready for the season to start as they filled about every seat available in the second level of Gallagher-Iba Arena to watch the annual Orange-Black ranking matches. The colors and the team score matter little and the mano y mano battles could dictate who starts and who sits in the early season duals. That can always be adjusted by the head coach John Smith. Smith sat courtside, front row and eyeballed the entire session.
The best way to describe the show on the whole is that the Cowboy wrestlers that have earned national rankings looked like they deserve them and they wrestled accordingly, even dominating the competition. The best wrestler on the team is top-ranked 133-pound Daton Fix and the Cowboys will have to wait until February to see Fix. He is suspended up until then because of a mix up over a drug test in international competition.
https://youtu.be/wT173eP_7os
Fix was the best of the best as the 133-pounder came out and used a series of takedowns and near falls along with a trade of reversals with Price Perrier to jump to a 12-3 first period lead before he finished off the match at 2:38 for the fall. Fix, who Smith feels won’t have a problem, will have to keep himself sharp with practice in the wrestling room before he can start competition in February.
Andrew Nieman, who will fill in for Fix was solid with a 6-0 decision over Colt Newton.
Smith seemed disappointed with the win by No. 8 and veteran Kaid Brock as he scored a 3-2 decision over Dusty Hone.
“When you get into these ranking matches, you know your opponent so well that sometimes it is slow and dragging and you don’t get the action you want to see from your team,” head coach John Smith said. “I was glad to see some of these young guys like Dustin Plott, AJ Ferrari and Luke Surber stepping out and being excited about performing. Overall, it was a good effort and we will move along with the top-20 guys as we go into next week.”
There were falls by No. 16 Reece Witcraft at 125-pounds over Colten Klein, Dustin Plott at 174-pounds over Cade Lindsey, Christian Bahl over JaQuan Jackson at 174-pounds, and No. 10 Dakota Geer over Christian McCutcheon at 184-pounds. All of those were first period falls except for Bahl’s.
Witcraft came back and wrestled fellow 125-pound winner in freshman Trevor Mastrogiovanni in an exhibition and the freshman from Blair Academy in New Jersey won that 3-2. Smith later said that he felt that makes Mastrogiovanni the starter at 125-pounds next week in the triangular with Tennessee-Chattanooga and Oregon State. Smith is not under so much pressure as he will wrestle two complete teams of 10 in that event at noon on Sunday, Jan. 10.
Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics
A.J. Ferrari wrestling Luke Surber at 197 pounds.
Smith watched the matches intently, but when his two talented freshmen in A.J. Ferrari and Luke Surber came out for the 197-pound match, Smith started taking notes like a freshman preparing for his first college final exam.
“I got two good guys there,” Smith said. “That’s fun to have. They are young and there is some inexperience there, but I got two guys that love wrestling and love to compete. We’re going to prepare both of those guys.”
Smith is excited and that is a good sign. It’s a sign we haven’t seen as much of in the past couple of seasons, but the longtime successful head coach gives off the vibe that this season, strange as it is from a scheduling standpoint and still iffy as it is from a pandemic standpoint could be something really special from a wrestling standpoint.
Oklahoma State Wrestling Orange and Black Ranking Matches
Jan. 3, 2021 | Gallagher-Iba Arena | 12 p.m.
Official: Josh Briscoe
Black Team 30, Orange Team 27
125: No. 16 Reece Witcraft (Orange) fall Colten Klein (Black), 3:57
125: Trevor Mastrogiovanni (Orange) dec. Jakason Burks (Black), 8-1
133: No. 1 Daton Fix (Black) fall Price Perrier (Orange), 2:38
133: Andrew Nieman (Orange) dec. Colt Newton (Black), 6-0
141: No. 8 Kaid Brock (Black) dec. Dusty Hone (Orange), 3-2
149: No. 4 Boo Lewallen (Orange) dec. Kaden Gfeller (Black), 6-0
157: No. 12 Wyatt Sheets (Black) dec. Jalin Harper (Orange), 8-1
157: Daniel Manibog (Black) dec. Chance McLane (Orange), 4-3
165: No. 4 Travis Wittlake (Orange) dec. Joey Sanchez (Black), 9-2
174: Dustin Plott (Black) fall Cade Lindsey (Orange), 4:37
174: Christian Bahl (Orange) fall JaQuan Jackson (Black), 2:12
184: No. 10 Dakota Geer (Black) fall Christian McCutcheon (Orange), 2:36
197: AJ Ferrari (Orange) dec. Luke Surber (Black), 6-2
HWT: Konner Doucet (Black) dec. Connor Webb (Orange), 4-3, TB2
(Pre-dual exhibition) 184: Evan Shetley MD Sam Sherrer, 10-1
(Post-dual exhibition) 125: Trevor Mastrogiovanni dec. No. 16 Reece Witcraft, 3-2
