No. 3 Oklahoma State Dominates No. 7 Virginia Tech, Merry Christmas Cowboy Wrestling Fans

STILLWATER – This looked to be the most competitive dual of the season with the Cowboys ranked No. 3 and visiting Virginia Tech ranked No. 7 and both teams with all their starters ranked in the intermat individual rankings. A couple of injuries caused Virginia Tech to make some adjustments. There was no mystery to the outcome as the Cowboys wasted no time with the opener being one of two matches featuring wrestlers ranked No. 3 and No. 4. Oklahoma State won both of those including the opener with Troy Spratley. The Cowboys sprinkled in some technical falls with major decisions. The Hokies No. 1 ranked Caleb Henson wound up with an unusual fall. In the ned it all added up to a 34-9 win for the Pokes in front of 6,066 merry fans. 

The most incredible match came late as with the Cowboys leading 25-9, No. 10 Luke Surber came out against No. 9 Andy Smith. Obviously, these two were close and at the Cliff Keen Invitation in Las Vegas, Smith had decisioned Surber 4-3. 

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Surber celebrates sudden victory decision.

The entire match was a scramble but without any finishes and the two wrestlers went to overtime tied at 1-1. So, in sudden victory what did you get. Smith jumped out and had a huge opportunity from the top to get the winning takedown, but Surber kept grabbing for a leg, an ankle, any appendage to keep Smith from total control and the winning move. It was a 40 second scramble and finally Surber surfaced with control and on top to get the winning takedown. It was the lowest scoring match of the night at 4-1, but perhaps, the most exciting. At that point the Cowboys had secured the dual and led 28-9.

For good measure, heavyweight Wyatt Hendrickson came out against Virginia Tech backup Hunter Catka. It didn’t last long as Hendrickson got the takedown and then turned Catka over. The actual final move to get Catka’s shoulders on the mat took the longest, but it was over in 2:19.

Hendrickson with his fourth fall of the season and he did the now trademark back flip and confetti cannon fired. Hendrickson is 11-0 on the season, with as mentioned the four falls and five technical falls. The final score of 34-9 was up on the board. Oklahoma State now 6-0 on the season and Virginia Tech loses for the first time and falls to 3-1.

“I’m just really happy with the guys. We’re getting better every week,” head coach David Taylor said after the dual. “It’s just really cool to see the stuff we’re working on in practice and then the guys going out and doing it. We talk to them about wrestling the way you want to wrestle, and these guys are going out and doing that.”

Back to the beginning, Troy Spratley wasted no time at 125 pounds as he used a singlle leg to a trip of the back leg and the takedown for a 3-0 lead right off the bat against Eddie Ventresca. Spratley ranked third and ventresca fourth at the weight. The first period ended 3-0 and then an escape from the down position in period two put Spratley up 4-0. 

After the release to start the third period made it 4-1, Ventresca made a move with a high leg, but Spratley countered and spun Ventresca around for the takedown. He worked it and at the buzzerput Ventresca’s shoulder down and picked up two near fall points and had the 10-1 major decision. It was a precursor of the whole night with Oklahoma State off to a 4-0 team lead.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Reece Witcraft beating Dillon Campbell 14-4.

Reece Witcraft coming off his improbably comeback fall in Bedlam, wrestled a scoreless first period against Hokies backup 133 pounder Dillon Campbell. The two went to the third period with Witcraft leading 4-2 and all he did was spin behind Campbell for a takedown and release. Then it was a double leg shot for a takedown and release, and finally a straight on tackle for the third takedown and with riding time  14-4 major decision and OSU led 8-0.

The theme of major decisions by the Cowboys continued at 141 pounds as No. 4 Tagen Jamison and No. 13 Sam Latona engaged in a late scramble in the third period and Jamison scored the very late takedown to push his lead to 8-0 and another major decision. Oklahoma State led 12-0.

The Oklahoma State momentum took a serious break with No. 1 ranked Hokies wrestler and defending NCAA Champion Caleb Henson. Henson and the Cowboys No. 14 Carter Young had seen each other in Las Vegas at the Cliff Keen and Henson escaped with a 6-3 decision on the strip. In Stilly, Henson got even better but it was hard to describe. Henson and Young were in a scramble with nobody in control. However, Young was dangerously close to being on his back several times. No control as it was neutral, but finally Young’s back was on the mat and the official slapped the mat. A very rare fall in a neutral position gave Virginia Tech six points to make it 12-6. 

At 157 pounds, more fireworks as No. 14 Rafael Hipolito came out and got a quick takedown and after the escape by Caleb Fish of the Pokes, Hipolito got a second takedown and this time put Fish on his back for a four count and a 10-1 lead. Fish got a reversal and then a locked hands call after a review made it 10-4 after the first period.

Give the No. 12-ranked Fish credit as he never gave in and kept pushing including three takedowns in the third period as what looked like might be a tech fall or maybe a major wound up being a high scoring 20-15 decision and Virginia Tech trailed 12-9 midway through the dual.

You know how Oklahoma State closed out the match with an exciting sudden victory decision by Surber at 197 and the fall by Hendrickson at heavyweight. 

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Hamiti with the tech fall.

The whole back half of the dual was all Oklahoma State as Cameron Amine led start to finish and scored a 7-1 decision over Mac Church.

No. 3 and unbeaten Dean Hamiti Jr. was in the other three-vs-four matchup with Virginia Tech’s dangerous Lennow Wolak. Hamiti was a machine starting with three first period takedowns for a 9-2. Most of the moves involved grabbing an ankle and then getting a back trip and putting Wolak on the mat. He did it for the final time at the buzzer to end the second period and that added up to a 21-4 technical fall at 5:00. Hamiti now at 11-0 on the season. 

“We’re just trying to build that reputation. D.J.’s building that reputation. He’s awesome on top, but there’s a point in time when he’s gonna have to go get a takedown with 20 seconds left. Let’s do it now. Let’s show that you can do it against a really tough guy,” Taylor said of the thirll of seeing Hamiti go for the tech fall before the end of the second period. “Sometimes when there’s blood in the water, you gotta keep wrestling. You gotta find a way to bury those guys, because you’re gonna wrestle them again and you don’t want to leave them with any hope.” 

“When you’ve got a chance to take that away, you gotta take it away. When you wrestle again, it’s a new match, but people don’t really forget,” Taylor continued on that theme or pouring on the scoring. “For D.J., that’s great. But that’s just us. If we get a chance to keep scoring, we’ve got to make that decision as coaches, and it’s not always the same. But he’s got the ability to score and he went and did it, and I think that was cool.”

Dustin Plott also got a technical fall and guess what? The final points came at the end of the match with the riding time point to go 20-5 and tech fall at 7:00. 

An overall aggressive night for the guys in the orange singlets.

“College wrestling can be a thing where it starts to get into the season and you can just stand around,” Taylor said for example. “We call it the dead space in between you and your opponent. And we did a good job of eliminating the dead space today. Wrestling guys and creating the action. I think we earned eight stall points tonight, which is awesome. We didn’t get them, we earned them. We’re on the guys. I think that’s great.”

It was great and was celebrated as such by the crowd. A very thorough, yet eventful win for the Cowboys to close out the first semester of the schedule. Oklahoma State comes back from Christmas and New Year’s on Jan. 3 with the Air Force Academy visiting Gallagher-Iba Arena and a decision for heavyweight Wyatt Hendrickson if he wants to wrestle against his original college team.