Oklahoma State Prepares for No. 5 North Carolina State and Biggest Challenge Yet?

STILLWATER – A battle of unbeatens set for Sunday at 2 p.m. inside Gallagher-Iba Arena as the Cowboys host former Oklahoma State wrestler and now Wolfpack head coach Pat Popolizio. The Cowboys are ranked No. 3 in the nation at 7-0 and North Carolina State comes in 6-0 and ranked No. 5 in the country. This will be fun. 

Oklahoma State University Athletics

David Taylor at the Air Force dual.

“They’ve been a household name the past five years or so. They have a good dual team and they will bring energy into the building,” Cowboys first-year head coach david Taylor said of the dual. “Their coach, Coach Popolizio is an alumni of Oklahoma State. It’s Alumni weekend here as well. It is another opportunity for the fans to come out and cheer us on. We’ve talked about our lofty goals as far as what we want to do with attendance. This will be another dual where we don’t have students (on campus and in session). We’ve only had one dual where we’ve had students and we’re on pace to break an attendance record for Oklahoma State wrestling.”

Through seven duals, the Cowboys are beating their opponents by over 30 points per dual and scoring bonus points at a 49% rate, which would be the highest in program history if the season ended today. The Cowboy lineup features a ranked wrestler at every weight class, including seven in the top eight. Troy Spratley currently leads that group as the No. 2 wrestler at 125 pounds, while Dean Hamiti Jr., Dustin Plott and Wyatt Hendrickson all trail closely behind at No. 3.

The two teams met last season in Raleigh in front of a crowd of 5,500. In that dual the Cowboys were underdogs to No. 4 NC State but won seven of 10 matches to steal the 22-12 victory. Another significant moment between the two schools came in 2018 when the two teams faced each other in Naples, Italy, marking the first NCAA wrestling dual ever held overseas. Oklahoma State squeaked out a 19-16 win in that top-five matchup as well.

Pokes Report

Hendrickson 

Obviously, the heavyweight match is the crescendo with unbeaten Hendrickson, who sat out the last dual with his former teammates at the Air Force Academy, going against Isaac Trumble for the second time in his career. Actually, the second time this season as the pair met in the finals of the Cliff Keen Las vegas Invitational and Hendrickson put Trumble on his back in 2:35 to claim the championship in Vegas. 

I think it will work in Hendrickson’s favor. I believe he will come into this hungry to get back on the mat and to enjoy the revelry that has come with his new school and the way the fans have rallied around the excitement he brings at heavyweight.