A Night of Loses in Title Matches Ended with a Big 12 Championship Thanks to Hendrickson

TULSA, Okla. – Although it didn’t look like it thwe first two sessions, the Big 12 Championship that Oklahoma State was looking to add to its’ resume’ in head coach David Taylor’s first season. Winning the Big 12 had escaped the Cowboys trophy case the past three seasons. Oklahoma State has 19 of those trophies overall. Got it, but the other major story was a single match, mano a mano, that wrestling fans and enthusiasts had been waiting for all season. Defending NCAA Champion from Missouri Keegan O’Toole (15-0) back from injury this season and seeded second at 174 pounds against top seed from Oklahoma State Dean Hamiti Jr. unbeaten at 22-0.

The match-up lived up to all fans thought it would be. It just didn’t live up to it for Hamiti and the Cowboys. Hamiti had two singles in the first period but couldn’t finish. O’Toole is really good at saving and defending and getting to a stalemate. In the second period, Hamiti Jr. quickly got an  escape and then scrambled into a takedown and a 4-0 lead. 

O’Toole got the escape early in the third period and then in the final 30 seconds finally finished a single leg with an ankle sweep to put Hamiti Jr. on the mat. While Hamiti Jr. had a chance to escape he wan’t able to.

It was on to sudden victory between the two unbeatens and O’Toole got the single shot. Hamiti Jr. tried to fight it off and did for about 20 seconds and then O’Toole got around and finished to win the match 7-4. 

“He’s a really good wrestler and he wrestles hard. I had wrestled him before,” O’Toole said of Hamiti Jr. “It was really hard to finish on that single (in sudden victory) but I knew I needed to because he is really hard to ride (tiebreaker). There was a bigger sense of urgency.”

O’Toole wins his third Big 12 title and is 16-0 while Hamiti Jr. drops to 22-1 and we could see this again in Philadephia in the NCAA Championships. 

The Big 12 team title came down to the heavyweight match as Oklahoma State and Northern Iowa were dead even at 149.5 each. You had to feel good with unbeaten top seed Wyatt Hendrickson at 21-0 on the season against his old friend and Greco-Roman specialist Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State. 

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

The story has a happy ending.

Hendrickson came out with a double leg and a takedown in the first 30 seconds and Hendrickson was off and running. He was working toward getting Schultz turned and wanting to make it four pins in a row in Tulsa. Instead, Schultz scored a reversal and then as the scramble continued picked up two near fall points that were reviewed. After Hendrickson escaped it was 4-4 after the first period.

Hendrickson added to his lead with an escape and then another double leg to lead 8-4.

Schultz escaped to start the third and it was 8-5 when Hendrickson bent over and yelled. His right wrist was hanging limp and the official stopped the match before what looked like a Schultz takedown. David Taylor and OSU wrestling trainer Nick Goldstein gathered and eventually Hendrickson continued and wrestled the final minute and half with an obvious injury. He avoided stalling and moved around but it was obvious his right hand was of little use. Schultz wasn’t athletic enough to take advantage of it. 

Hendrickson won 8-5 and will advance on to the NCAA at 22-0, if he is healthy enough. Oklahoma State won their first Big 12 Championship as a team on Hendrickson’s gut check effort with 153.5 points to Northern Iowa’s 149.5.

The night did not start well. The first two championship matches for the Cowboys went to overtime and neither ended well. 

It was very reminiscient of the meeting that the Cowboys Troy Spratley had in Stillwater with West Virginia’s No. 3 seed Jett Strickenberger when in a scramble Spratley seemingly in control got caught underneath and Strickenberger pinned him. The first period Spratley got caught by a single leg move and battled a long time to escape the takedown. 

The second period was really strange as Spratley battled Strickenberger and constant restarts, six to be exact to gain a riding time advantage after starting the period on top. After Spratley had riding time, Strickenberger reversed him on a scramble to go up 2-0. Riding time to Spratley at 1:33.

Spratley on the bottom to start the third and he worked to get the escape in 26 seconds and preseve 1:07 of riding time. It came into play as there was no more scoring. With the riding time it was 2-2 after regulation. On to sudden victory and Spratley got a solid single leg shot and looked like he was on his way to the winning takedown when Strickenberger (12-2) countered and took control himself for the 5-2 decision and championship. 

Spratley (20-4) was the four seed and wrestled above his seed. He joins earlier consolation qualifiers Teague Travis at 149, Caleb Fish at 157, and Cameron Amine at 165 as NCAA qualifiers for the Championships in Philadelphia March 20-22. 

At 141 pounds the Cowboys No. 4 seed Tagen Jamison, a real story in the tournament and not just because of the social media suspected weigh-in controversy. Jamison and No. 2 seed Cael Happel went to sudden victory during the season at UNI. They did it again in Tulsa. Each wrestler got an escape and each wrestler got warned for stalling. In sudden victory they both drew a stalling warning simultaneously. 

Jamison finally got a good shot as he battled a high seat shot by Happel and then came close to getting control. It was so close that Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor through the challenge brick the officials reviewed it. No score and it wa on to the tiebreaker with Jamison winning the toss and starting down. Jamison got out in 14 seconds. 

On to the second :30 tiebreaker and Jamison needed to control Happel for more than 14 seconds and he could not. Happel wins the match 2-1 in tiebreaker one and the team standings closed to within eight points at 149.5 to 141.5. 

The next movement in the team standings came with a head-to-head matchup at 184 pounds and one that didn’t favor the Cowboys. Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa came in 4-0 against rival Dustin Plott of the Cowboys. In a rematch of last year’s Big 12 and last year’s NCAA final Keckeisen was favored. He should have been and he scored a takedown in the first period to lead 3-0. In the second period, Plott got a quick standup and got the escape. Later in the period Keckeisen used a picture perfect double leg to get Plott down again. He had riding time and cruised through the third period to win again 8-1. 

“I need to get to my attacks more and use my hands better,” Keckeisen said after the win. “He (Plott) wrestled tough. I need to wrestle a little better. I needed to get bonus points for my team and I didn’t do that.”

Both will be in Philly for the NCAA. Keckeisen is 25-0 and Plott drops to 18-4. The team score narrowed to 149.5 for OKlahoma State and 145.5 for Northern Iowa. 

The next match brought the team score to even as top seed Luke Surber of Oklahoma State (23-2) and third seed Wyatt Voelker of Northern Iowa. Surber and Voelker were tied at 1-1 in the third period and Voelker won an hellacious scramble finally getting on top and getting control for the takedown and a 4-1 lead. Surber got an escape to make it 4-2 but Voelker went on to win. It was his first Big 12 title and he had evened the score on the team board 149.5-to-149.5. 

Unfortunately for Northern Iowa there was a heavyweight match, and fortunately for Oklahoma State, Wyatt Hendrickson was in it and had the guts to finish.