John Smith Not Entirely Pleased with Air Force Dual
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State wrestling head coach John Smith knows that where ever he goes that he is an ambassador of the sport of wrestling, so Smith said all the right things on Friday night. He was grateful to the folks at the Air Force Academy and their coach Sam barber for picking up hosting the event that was originally scheduled to be a triangular at Northern Colorado before UNC had to halt their wrestling activities due to COVID-19 protocols. The Falcons hosted and even put together a back-up squad so the Cowboys and Falcons could get in 10 extra matches that were not part of the dual.
You almost have to divide Smith’s post-match comments to those on the actual dual and those on the extra matches. Let’s take the extra matches first. It’s kind of like a good news-bad news scenario.
“I thought our extra guys did a good job. Our 174-pounders had to wrestle 184-pounders, but we got a match in for them all and that was good to see.”
It was important to get Reece Witcraft a match as he could be needed. The second match for the freshman at 125-pounds in Mastrogiovanni was important to show he learned a lesson in intensity and urgency. Kaden Gfeller, Wyatt Sheets, Anthony Montalvo, and Luke Surber all needed matches.
Extra Matches at Air Force Academy
125: Reece Witcraft (OSU) over Graham Shore (AF) (Pin 5:25)
125: #13 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OSU) over Will VomBaur (AF) (MD 14-3)
157: Kaden Gfeller (OSU) over Bradley Bitting (AF) (MD 10-0)
157: Daniel Manibog (OSU) over Trey Brisker (AF) (Pin 2:55)
165: #7 Wyatt Sheets (OSU) over Noah Blake (AF) (MD 12-2)
184: Anthony Montalvo (OSU) over Brock Jennings (AF) (Dec 7-5)
184: Sam Wolf (AF) over Christian Bahl (OSU) (Dec 9-4)
184: Gavin Stika (OSU) over Jimmy Weaver (AF) (Dec 6-1)
197: Luke Surber (OSU) Casey Jumps (AF) (Dec 10-4)
HWT: #26 Wyatt Hendrickson (AF) over Konner Doucet (OSU) (Dec 8-2)
Everybody except Christian Bahl and Konner Doucet won and five came by fall or bonus points.
Smith only wishes he could have been as happy with the start of the dual, which Oklahoma State won 33-6, a Big 12 Conference dual, but the win came after falling behind 6-3.
“Well, I’ve got a lot of thoughts on it. It’s another week that maybe we can gain some experience from some of the things that we didn’t do well,” Smith said. “A different line-up that we had, and I thought some opportunities for some different guys that I thought did a good job. Boo (Lewallen) stood out to me and Travis (Wittlake) stood out and I thought our three upper weight guys did a good job at the end to kind of close the dual out.”
The start was not pleasing from Mastrogiovanni barely getting by to the losses by Andrew Nieman at 133-pounds and Dusty Hone at 141.
“Those first two out of three matches really came down to just making some good decisions,” Smith said. “Not as much 133 but at 141, don’t use anything as an excuse. I think he (Hone) dinged his knee early in that match and then he fought himself through to a pretty good situation to have a good chance to win the match and he fell apart a little bit.”
Smith is not an escuses kind of coach which is driven by the fact that he was not an excuses kind of wrestler. That showed again when he was asked about the altitude and if ne noticed it impacting his wrestlers.
“You have to wrestle in it, so you really need to have an attitude that nothing is going to stop me,” Smith said. “If it’s altitude or not, do your job!”
Next Saturday the Cowboys have their toughest duals so far at Northern Iowa at 1 p.m. and then driving to Ames and wrestling Iowa State at 7 p.m. With more wrestlers having gained action with the extra matches then Smith is likely to look for excuse givers in advance and give them next Saturday off.
#5 Oklahoma State 33 Air Force 6
125: #13 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OSU) over #28 Cody Phippen (AF) (Dec 2-1)
133: #16 Jared Van Vleet (AF) over Andrew Nieman (OSU) (Dec 6-0)
141: #27 Lenny Petersen (AF) over Dusty Hone (OSU) (Dec 5-4)
149: #4 Boo Lewallen (OSU) over Dylan Martinez (AF) (TF 22-3)
157: #28 Jalin Harper (OSU) over Parker Simington (AF) (Dec 3-1)
165: #4 Travis Wittlake (OSU) over Noah Blake (AF) (TF 24-8)
174: #12 Dustin Plott (OSU) over #29 Cody Surratt (AF) (Dec 5-3)
184: #6 Dakota Geer (OSU) over Calvin Sund (AF) (TF 18-1)
197: #12 AJ Ferrari (OSU) over Kayne Hutchison (AF) (TF 20-5)
HWT: #32 Austin Harris (OSU) over #26 Wyatt Hendrickson (AF) (MD 12-2)