We’re now through day two of the NCAA tournament and it was a wild one in several ways. Here are my five thoughts on the day.
1. What a semifinal round for Oklahoma State!
OSU put 4 of 5 semifinalists into the finals and went 3 of 3 in the blood round. This is the toughest round in college wrestling, and the Cowboys managed to take seven of the eight matchups. That’s tough. And they did it with several freshmen leading the charge. Five of the All-Americans and all four finalists are freshmen with three years of eligibility remaining after this. That many freshmen All-American and NCAA finalists has never happened at Oklahoma State. Pretty remarkable.
2. Tough day for a lot of our Oklahoma kids
Eli Griffin was leading 1-0 in the blood round before an injury default dropped him from the tournament, Carter Young lost in the blood round in sudden victory, Dee Lockett lost in the wrestlebacks, and Cam Steed lost in the semifinals. Heart breaks to see some of those kids we’ve watched grow up in Oklahoma wrestling go down.
3. OU was having a great tournament up until the blood round
I’ll probably dig more into some full-season outlooks on OU/OSU later on, but if you look at things on paper, OU was piecing something pretty good together overall. Dual wins over Rutgers, Indiana, Northern Iowa, Arizona State, Duke, and others. Seven NCAA qualifiers. And they were doing this while dealing with some injuries and other issues.
And it looked like they might be about to crown three All-Americans in the blood round. Soldano had a lead in a lot of his match, Schubert went to OT, and Mora had been wrestling really well. All three ultimately lost. If you flip those matches, which always have razor-thin margins, OU has a lot of momentum coming out of this season.
Again, we’ll probably dig into deeper analysis at some point in the offseason, but there’s such a different feel going into next season with 0 All-Americans vs. 3, and OU was so incredibly close to having that.
4. Love seeing Konner Doucet finish as an All-American
When I came into wrestling media, I just covered Oklahoma State. One of the first high school tournaments I ever covered was the high school state finals during Konner Doucet, Luke Surber, and Dustin Plott’s senior year. Since, I’ve seen the ups and downs of his career. From being a starter, to backing up Surber, to starting again, then Wyatt Hendrickson coming in and taking over. Then I got to see Doucet stick it out and become an All-American this season.
During most of that journey, the kid carried himself about as well as one could hope to see. And that journey ultimately led to a kid from a town with fewer people than were in the arena in Cleveland last night finishing as an NCAA All-American. Great to see for him and his family.
5. Finals are going to be a must-watch.
Jax Forrest, Sergio Vega, Landon Robideau, and Cody Merrill all wrestle for NCAA titles tonight in the finals. I think it should be a lot of fun. We haven’t had this many kids from a state school in the finals in a long time. Should be fun.
If you are local to Stillwater, Iron Monk Brewery has released a new Wyatt Hendrickson branded beer and are hostin a watch party during the NCAA Tournament. Sales of the beer help support the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. There will be wrestling giveaways, a silent auction, and other events across the three days of the tournament that will also support the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
