Can Wyatt Hendrickson Be the Best One-Year Cowboy in Oklahoma State History
STILLWATER – Second Lieutenant Wyatt Hendrickson is an Air Force Academy graduate, but he is stationed at Tinker Air Force Base.
“I have to check in once a week with my commanding officer,” Hendrickson said while he resides in Stillwater and works on an advanced degree while wrestling his final NCAA season as a heavyweight for Oklahoma State.
The two-time All-American and two-time Big 12 Champion is already 4-0 on the season and ranked third in the nation. He grew up an Oklahoma State fan coming down from Newton, Kan. to watch OSU duals. Last weekend he got to experience it and it lived up to his expectations.
“It definitely lived up to the hype with a big screen and all of the fans screaming it was always my mentaility to wrestle in a hostile environment, but most of the time I go out there think they are cheering for me,” Hendrickson said of finally wrestling in Gallagher-Iba. “It is kind of nice they are cheering for you and they are yelling your name. Stillwater is a special place and a lot of special people are coming here to support what is a wrestling town.”
He got some interesting news last week as did all of college wrestling. Gable Steveson, a a two-time NCAA Division I national champion and a three-time All-American out of the University of Minnesota, announced he was coming back after leaving his shoes on the collegiate mat his last time at the NCAA. The 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist, the same Olympics as David Taylor won his Olympic gold, Steveson had wrestled some in WWE. That wasn’t successful and Steveson signed with the Buffalo Bills and was released in August during training camp.
Now, Steveson is back. Hendrickson wrestled against him one time, an 18-2 technical fall loss in the 2021 NCAA Championships. Hendrickson is not thinking about Steveson right now. He’s thinking about his current opponents, two technical falls, a fall in his first match ever Friday in GIA, and a major decision 11-5 over No. 5 Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State on Sunday.
“I’m working on slowing down my wrestling and wrestling with better technique,” Hendrickson explained. “I was winning the match and I wanted to work some moves and take some shots and Cohlton is a big guy he rolled me through and that was a good experience. I don’t want to be peaking right now. I want to get as much experience as I can. Then when we get to the NCAA Tournament runs around, we are all peaking and wrestling our best.”
“It is just good to see him out there doing those things,” head coach David Taylor said of some adjustments they’d been working on with Hendrickson. “That guy (Schultz) was hard to take down and when Wyatt wanted to go score, he scored. He was wrestling a really tough guy and still in the third period he was trying to score late. It is good to see that and now we can make some adjustments there. It’s good to be willing to see guys do that. They are tired and still going for it.”
The electricity on Friday was awesome with the second period fall.
“Pins are not easy to come by,” Taylor said. “He is pretty gifted and he is just learning everytime he steps out there. It is fun to see the adjustments he makes from match-to-match, the things we are looking for, and even the improvements that he makes within a match. I think he continues to get better and is having some fun out there.”
That pin was followed by the second firing of the new confetti cannons in the Gallagher-Iba rafters and then the first heavyweight that I’ve ever seen do a back flip. Hendrickson was a member of the tumbling team in high school, that’s right tumbling!
“I hope he lands on his feet,” Taylor said when asked about it. “I think in wrestling there is an element of showmanship and he likes it and kind of embraces it. I think his wrestling backs it up.”
Asked about that sneaky mustache that Hendrickson has added. Taylor wasn’t taking any credit.
“No, that’s all him, all him.”