Daton Fix Becomes One of a Kind with a Pair of Wins in the Bout

STILLWATER – Earlier this week Oklahoma State two-time NCAA runner-up at 133-pounds Daton Fix said he didn’t see any major issues with wrestling twice in the celebrated even that combined international freestyle wrestling with the collegiate folk style version of the sport. Fix was all set to wrestle for Team USA early in the evening at Globe Life Field and then come back about two hours later andtake on one of his top rivals in Iowa’s Austin DeSanto.

“It’ll be like getting a blow in or a warm-up match before my main focus of the weekend,” Fix said. “Obviously, my main focus is beating the University of Iowa.”

“He’s just one of those guys that doesn’t worry about a whole lot,” his head coach for Oklahoma State John Smith said. “He’s just let’s do it, no excuses. Really good attitude. I wished we had more like him.”

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Fix in control over DeSanto in his collegiate match.

No doubt, the Cowboys needed an entire line-up of wrestlers like Daton Fix. As for the swing from 57kg (125.666 pounds) back to 133-pounds for the collegiate match, it wasn’t quite as smooth as hoped.

“I wasn’t able to make weight until after my first match, so I had to wrestle that match to get down to weight,” Fix said. “I ran off the mat and checked my weight and I was two pounds under, so I didn’t have to do anything else. Then I weighed in about 15 minutes after that, so it was a pretty quick turnaround from the first match.”

The problem was Fix went into the collegiate match giving up some weight to DeSanto, who doesn’t need any help. Fix has beat him twice. He beat him in his freshman season in a dual in Stillwater 2-0, and then he beat him in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships last March 3-2.

In this match, Fix got an early takedown and kept the momentum on his side. In the third period with the score 3-2 and DeSanto working to get a headlock and control Fix from the top, Fix slid back behind DeSanto and took him down near the edge of the mat for the clinching move in a 5-3 decision.

As Fix said beating DeSanto and Iowa was his number one objective on the night, but the earlier match, the 10-0 first period technical superiority decision over Ecuador’s Giusseppe Rea was also special. Nobody has ever won wearing the Team USA stars and stripes and then put on their collegiate colors and won. Forget the winning, nobody has ever done and competed for both country and alma mater in the same day. Fix and Oklahoma State combine for some more wrestling history. You can be sure there will be an exhibit soon at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.

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Fix had his hand raised twice in the Ballpark.

“Anytime I get to represent my country it is an honor,” Fix said afterwards. “I know not everybody gets the chance to do that. I never take anything like that for granted. I was able to stand up there with guys that are World champions and Olympic champions, and they are at the pinnacle of the sport.”

I’m guessing that guys like Jordan Burroughs would love to have doubled up and wrestled for Nebraska as well or Kyle Snyder would have enjoyed his win and then winning another for Ohio State.

Daton Fix has done that combined red, white, and blue and that trademark orange singlet.