Oklahoma State May Have An Olympian in Tokyo in Jordan Oliver

(Reid Romine of Oklahoma State UNiversity Athletic Media Relations contributed to this story.)

All eyes on wrestling in the United States were focused this weekend on Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas for the United States Olympic Wrestling Trials. Oklahoma State’s proud wrestling program longing for another Olympic respresentative and hoping it would be this summer in Tokyo. The Cowboys had three opportunities with two current Oklahoma State wrestlers and a very talented alumnus. 

Oklahoma State wrestling coach and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and six-time World Champion John Smith had a front row seat for it all as he was on the NBC Sports Network broadcast crew.

Daton Fix was the number two seed at 57 kilograms, but similar to his NCAA dream being crushed in St. Louis with a loss in the finals, Fix went home empty handed from Fort Worth. He won his first match, but then lost in the semifinal. He fell behind 6-0 to Vitali Arujau, but Fix came storming back racking up five quick points and nearly getting another takedown before time expired in the match. Fix’s corner challenged the takedown, trying to get the call overturned and claim the win, but the call was confirmed and Arujau took the bout 6-5.

A.J. Ferrari, the ultra confident freshman that upset his way to the 197-pound NCAA Championship was facing some 20-something grizzled freestyle veterans at 97 kilograms and he was beaten in two straight matches to be eliminated. He dropped a 3-1 decision in his opening match against No. 3 seed Michael Macchiavello and then an 11-10 decision in an exciting, back-and-forth match with Ben Honis.Ferrari’s time will come for the next Olympic games. 

That left the alumnus in Jordan Oliver at 65 kilograms. The former two-time NCAA Champion and four-time All-American at Oklahoma State is now a volunteer assistant coach for another former Cowboy Coleman Scott at North Carolina. He wrestles for Tarheel Wrestling Club.

In the finals on Saturday night Oliver won match one in the best two-out-of-three 3-0 over former Ohio State wrestler Joey McKenna. Oliver led 1-0 in the second and was put on the passivity clock (He had to score in 30 seconds), and quickly converted a single-leg for 2 to ice the first match. There wasn't a ton of offense from either wrestler, but they were both very stingy defensively.

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Oliver is on the Olympic team but not yet in the Olympics.

In the second match Oliver won 5-2. He had missed in his first two Olympic Trial efforts, but this weekend was 4-0 and made the Olympic team. His work is not over as the United States has not qualified for the Tokyo Olympics at 65 kilograms. 

Oliver will have a chance to qualify for the Olympic Games by placing top-two at the World Qualifier in  Sofia, Bulgaria, May 6-9. There is still work to be done.

“It starts right now,” Oliver said. “Going home and jumping right back on the horse. There’s not too much time to celebrate. This is something that needs to be done and something that we’ve been focusing on. We understand the process of being an Olympian and achieving a gold medal. This is another step toward the ultimate goal. We need to go win this qualifier, qualify the weight and then go take on the world and bring home an Olympic gold medal.”

Oliver advanced to the championship series after winning two matches on Friday, including a win by criteria over No. 2 seed, Yianni Diakomihalis. Affter a bye in the first round, the Cowboy alumnus defeated reigning NCAA Champion Nick Lee of Penn State with an 8-3 decision in the quarterfinals to begin his tournament before the showdown in the semis. Down late in his match to Diakomihalis, Oliver rallied and forced a step out to tie the match at 4 at the end of regulation. With the last point being in favor of Oliver, he took the match by criteria sending him to the finals.

“A little bit of a fun fact, I was 0-4 at the Olympic Trials, in 2012 and 2016,” Oliver said after his semifinal win. “From never winning a match to coming and punching my ticket to the finals feels great. It’s just climbing the mountain with the vision of an Olympic gold medal and this is on the journey to do so.”