Cowboys Debut New Mat, Bedlam to be Nationally Televised

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State wrestling will debut a new “battleground” as their Twitter account announced on Saturday. Immediately after the Oklahoma State Cowgirls basketball team finished off TCU to go 5-0 in conference play, the crew at Gallagher-Iba Arena began putting down the mats for Sunday’s triangular with Tennessee-Chattanooga and Oregon State. The first mat they put down is a brand new one for the Cowboys featuring Pistol Pete in the middle, wrestling Pete and the military stripes long used by Cowboy wrestling. The mat is orange but trimmed in gray with the Big 12 logo and the OSU brand logo. It’s a sharp looking mat.

Appropriately, Oklahoma State head coach John Smith got out on the mat and chrisitened it with the first takedown. It looked like harder work for the greatest wrestler of all-time, but he was the usual determined John Smith.

In other news, the Bedlam dual on Feb. 21 in Stillwater will now be wrestled at 5 p.m. and will be featured on ESPNU giving Bedlam national cable television exposure. The Cowboys and Sooners are back to wrestling twice again this season and will meet in Norman on Feb. 7 at 1 p.m. Later that night the Cowboys will wrestle Little Rock at 7 p.m. in Stillwater.