James Hackney
The Sooners went to the Virginia duals and came back after going 1-1 with some late schedule changes. They actually won what I thought was the harder dual, getting a top 20 win over #18 Navy before dropping to #30 Wisconsin. The only wrestlers to go 2-0 were Jared Hill, Stephen Buchanan, and Josh Heindselman. With all the action, here are my main takeaways before the team hosts Iowa State later this month.
- Jared Hill continues to look solid.
After a rough start to the season, Hill has had a very good second semester. A 3rd place finish at the Southern Scuffle with a razor close loss to eventual champ Vinny Zerban showed promise and he followed that up with avenging a loss to Luke Mechler here. His win over unranked Ley wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done. After starting the season going back and forth with John Wiley, Hill now looks like a firmly established starter who can start to build off a good finish to last year.
- There’s no clear answer at 141 right now.
Still no word on the status of Mosha Schwartz, who hasn’t competed since an injury in early December. Since then the team has slotted in Carter Schmidt, Kaden Smith, and KJ Evans. Kaden Smith started the year at 133 and took losses at Reno’s TOC and the Southern Scuffle. Schmidt and Evans are both true freshmen who have had flashes. Schmidt placed at the Scuffle and beat his Wisconsin opponent, while KJ Evans didn’t wrestle at the Scuffle and was pinned by a ranked Navy wrestler. They can both stay in redshirt, as I believe both have two more attached competitions they can use. Tournaments in that mid to late December time get confusing as to how the semesters work…Â
