Cowboys and Boo Scare Beavers Off the Mat, Smith Moves Up Dual Wins List
STILLWATER – Plenty of orange and black on the Cowboys new wrestling mat in Gallagher-Iba Arena as Oregon State and former Cowboys great Chris Pendleton in his first season as the head coach of the Beavers. With the Cowboys leading 6-3 after the first three matches, each team was fueled by their best wrestler in the line-up or at least their most explosive. In the end the Cowboys won for the second time on the day and at the same time moved John Smith into fourth-place all-time in dual wins among college coaches. Smith moved past longtime Minnesota coach and Oklahoma State alum J. Robinson with his 431st dual win at OSU.
The fireworks started at 149 pounds with No. 4 Boo Lewallen. Lewallen scored a quick takedown and put Lane Stignall in a tilt for back points and a four-point near fall. After Stignall got out on the escape he was almost immediately put back on the mat and put on his left shoulder again for four more points and an 8-1 lead with the first period far from over. Lewallen added another near fall to go to 12-1 and then Stignall used a lapse on Lewallen for a reversal. All that did was get Lewallen into another gear as he reversed and added another near fall all before the end of the first period and Lewallen had his second tech fall of the day at 18-3.
“I’ve got a big commitment to myself that I’m starting matches the way I want to start them and that I’m not standing around with guys,” Lewallen said of his blast off mode in his matches. “I’m making sure that this is an opportunity that I can separate myself and I want to get out there and score points.”
Oklahoma State led 11-3 on the team score and looked like they would run off, but Pendleton, a Cowboy great wrestling for John Smith, had his best wrestler next in No. 20 Hunter Willits at 157-pounds. Willits drew a break as No. 12 Wyatt Sheets was injured and replaced in this dual by red-shirt freshman Daniel Manibog. Willits came out and scored the takedown and quickly got the tilt for a four-point near fall. He just kept repeating his move and primarily picking on Manibog’s left shoulder. He finished he first period with a cradle and didn’t get the fall but finished the period up 14-0.
Willits chose neutral to start the second period and five seconds in had a takedown to finish the technical fall at 16-0. Oregon State was back in it at 11-8. That was as close as it would get for the Beavers.
At that point Oklahoma State needed some momentum and to stabilize the dual and perfect timing for No. 4 Travis Wittlake, who used a single leg to quickly take a lead on Mateo Olmos and then controlled the match after a 5-0 start to win the decision 8-2 over Olmos at 165-pounds. The team lead was 14-8.
It looked like the Cowboys were going to get a fall at 174 pounds as freshman Dustin Plott in the first period got a takedown on a high single leg and went right to work with the arm bar and the chicken wing and Plott was tantalizingly close to the fall with Oregon State’s Colton Beisley. Give Beisly credit as he fought it off and even got a late escape at the end of the first period. Plott led 6-1 and from that point on used the takedown, escape, takedown rhythm and used it right into the early third period for a 19-4 technical fall that finished off the dual with the Beavers.
No. 10 Dakota Geer at 184 pounds got his second win of the day with an 11-5 decision over Ryan Reyes of the Beavers.
At 197 pounds A.J. Ferrari picked up his second win of the day as well and this one was even more impressive than his earlier win against Chattanooga. Ferrari started fast and had over two minutes of riding time with a 2-1 lead after the first period. He was getting takedowns as often as he wanted against Oregon State wrestler J.J. Dixon, so he went into the takedown, escape mode but started it a few seconds too late as he finished with a 16-3 decision just short of a technical fall.
“It was a good start for all three of them,“ Smith said afterwards referring to the three freshmen that start in Ferrari, Mastogiovanni at 125 and Plott at 174 pounds. “I think they are going to be able to identify real quickly that they need to get a little stronger and a little tougher and build up their endurance.”
It finished with an overtime match at heavyweight as the Cowboys Austin Harris fought back on Brian Barnes in the third period to score and use the riding time advantage to send the match to overtime at 5-5. Harris got the takedown on Barnes 22 seconds into the first sudden victory period for a 7-5 decision to put the wraps on a 29-8 Oklahoma State win.
Smith was unaware that he was leaping into fourth in the all-time coaching dual wins category and that next weekend he could move into third all-time.
“It takes a lot of good athletes to do something like that,” Smith said with humility in his voice. “You have to credit my past athletes. It is a great honor and I’m glad I’m going to get to share it with this team. I don’t know what to think about third and fourth place. Dual meet wins to me are the greatest thing in college wrestling. This is how we can bring more fans into the sport with good dual meets.”
“That is awesome,” Boo Lewallen said of Smith’s moving up the coaching ranks. “To be a part of anything that Coach Smith is accomplishing is special. Like you said I have looked up to him as long as I’ve been wrestling. I had the (instructional) tapes How Low Can You Go one and two and in middle school I would take notes on them and do those little drills on a mat we had up in our house. He is an incredible coach and an incredible athlete.”
The dual started at 125 pounds with Trevor Mastrogiovanni and his second collegiate match and the freshman went 2-0 on the young season in a 7-4 decision over the Beavers Brandon Kaylor, but it wasn’t easy. After an early lead, Kaylor came back and led most of the second and third period or the pair were tied but with 10 seconds left in the third period Mastrogiovanni came across the mat on the chase and moved around for the takedown to take the lead and grab a 7-4 decision. Oklahoma State jumped out 3-0 in the dual.
Head coach John Smith made the decision after the first dual and a loss by Stillwater native and senior Andrew Nieman in his dual debut to go back to 125-pound ranked Cowboy in Reece Witcraft. Witcraft was beaten by the freshman Mastrogiovanni in the ranking matches. Witcraft jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the first period but struggled and a reversal in the second period put Oregon State’s Jason Shaner. Witcraft tied it up with an escape before Shaner got a late takedown and survived with a 6-4 decision to even the dual at 3-3.
No. 8 Kaid Brock saw his first action of the afternoon following accepting a forfeit in the earlier dual with Chattanooga. Brock showed he was eager as he opened the first period with a quick takedown, allowed an escape, and then another takedown. It was 4-1 going to the second period when the two wrestlers exchanged reversals. The first was by Brock but then he lost control and No. 18 Grant Willits got on the board. Brock escaped and then controlled the rest of the match with little scoring. The 8-4 decision made it 6-3 Oklahoma State.
That was when the fireworks started with the rapid fire scoring of the back-to-back tech falls. Oklahoma State goes to 2-0 on the first day of their season and next week will travel to Little Rock, Ark. for same day duals on Sunday, Jan. 17 with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Arkansas-Little Rock starting at 1 p.m.