Wrestling Season Kind of a Mystery for Normally Blue-Blooded Pokes
STILLWATER – The good news on Thursday for Oklahoma State wrestling was the program would again be featured with a regular season dual on national cable television with the Dec. 11 Bedlam match at Oklahoma televised on ESPNU. The bad news is this edition of the normally nationally contending Cowboys doesn’t look as contending. If you look at the early Intermat college rankings the Cowboys are ranked No. 7 in the dual rankings. That is second in the Big 12 behind new (wrestling only) member Missouri ranked No. 3.
In the individual rankings the Cowboys only have three wrestlers ranked in the top 10 preseason at their weight and at 165-pounds the Cowboys do not have a wrestler ranked in the top 30 in the nation. These represent historic lows for the Cowboys program that opens the season on the road at Lehigh on Nov. 12 and will wrestle Bucknell that same night at 7 p.m. before opening the home dual season on Nov. 14 with Wyoming.
Head coach and wrestling legend at Oklahoma State John Smith understands and he isn’t under any false illusions. He and his staff have their work cut out for them.
"You have to win matches to be competitive in dual meets. There are still a couple of weight classes that we need to build up and make sure that we recognize it takes a real effort to be competitive in dual meets,” explained Smith. “As we saw last year when you are down one or two guys it's hard to win dual meets. I think the one thing we need to do is make sure we are developing our weights. You go through our lineup, and you see some uncertainty. You see some guys ranked from 10 to 20 and we can't be there, we need to be developing them into a position where they can score points at the end and have success this season. We have to develop guys this season."
Last season Oklahoma State finished outside the top 10 in the NCAA Tournament, a placing that rarely happens for the 34-time NCAA National Champions. The off season has been rough with a separation between Oklahoma State wrestling and the Ferrari family namely former 197-pound NCAA individual champion A.J. Ferrari. The good news is Daton Fix is back to again try to win the NCAA title at 133-pounds and he leads a team thaat has way too many wrestlers ranked in double-digits.
| Weight | Wrestler | Intermat Preseason Rank | Note |
| 125 | Trevor Mastrogiovanni | No. 9 | Returning starter |
| 133 | Daton Fix | No. 2 | Finished 25-1 as NCAA runner-up |
| 141 | Carter Young | No. 12 | 12-9 record overall and qualified for NCAA |
| 149 | Victor Voinovich | No. 19 | Finished 16-1 and impressed in open tournaments |
| 157 | Wyatt Sheets | No. 15 | 11-10 and went 1-2 at NCAA losing to the 1 and 2 seeds |
| 165 | NA | NR | NA |
| 174 | Dustin Plott | No. 4 | 21-4 last season and earned All-American at NCAA |
| 184 | Travis Wittlake | No. 16 | 9-7 and 0-2 in Big 12 during an injury riddled season |
| 197 | Luke Surber | No. 22 | 14-10 as Hwt. last season and could improve at 197 |
| Hwt. | Konner Doucet | No. 33 | 10-2 in open tournaments |
You can try to paint a prettier picture here, but the only way that happens is with blood, sweat, and tears in the Cowboy wrestling room and like Smith said development continuing and flourishing going into this season.
"I see a little bit more maturity than I saw last year and some reality setting in.,” Smith said. “I think some of the younger guys that we have right now on the team are threatening and they are a real threat. They want to wrestle, they want to start, and there are some older guys at the weight classes that maybe have started in the past who better get going.”
One of the wrestlers I think has a big potential to jump up and surprise is Tuttle’s Luke Surber moving down from heavyweight to where he will be a big 197-pounder.
"I think it [dropping to 197] does [help my game.] I like to shoot a lot, and a lot of times, versus big guys, I wouldn't shoot that much. I think mentally, I didn't shoot as much as I would've liked to,” explained Surber. “Now I know just to practice my attack rates up pretty high. If I get my hands on the legs versus guys – I'll finish every time."
On the other hand one of the Cowboys that is much better than his results of a year ago, one of several Oklahoma State wrestlers that battled injuries throughout the season is Travis Wittlake. A shocker when he went 0-2 in the Big 12 Tournament. The Oregon native has been an NCAA individual champion hope in his time in Stillwater.
He moves up this season to 184-pounds after sticking around campus this summer and training and rehabbing. He should bounce back big because he is very talented now that the knee is back full strength following surgery.
"I've actually been really surprised with it,” Wittlake said of the knee. “I was worried about it pretty much all summer, but I was doing rehab in the training room with Nick, our trainer, constantly. I was wearing a brace all summer long. Now I'm just in this smaller little brace knee pad, and I've been wrestling on this for a month or two now – and it feels really good.“
Now, with his work and the hard work of others maybe we can all feel better about Cowboy wrestling.