After a first NCAA Tournament session that ended with the third ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys in 2nd place with 15.5 points, the most scored by the Pokes since 2005, the 2nd session Thursday evening had some surprises, both good and bad for Coach David Taylor’s squad. Entering Friday’s quarterfinals, the Cowboys are now in 3rd place, trailing Nebraska by one point, and ahead of 4th place Iowa by nine. Here’s how the day went for the Cowboys, and a preview of tomorrow’s first matches. Seeds in parenthesis.
125: (7) Troy Spratley had a quick tech fall in his first round match, beating (26) Keyveon Roller (Virginia) 15-0, before having a tough second round match against (10) Stevo Poulin (N. Colorado). Spratley picked up a reversal in period two for his only points of the match and was able to hold off Poulin and ride him the entire third period to pick up the 2-1 win. Spratley will now face (2) Matt Ramos (Purdue) in the quarterfinals.Ramos is a 5th year senior, four-time qualifier and past runner-up. They have only wrestled one time, this year at Cliff Keen where Ramos won 5-2. I expect this one to be a similar score and hopefully Troy will come out on top this time.
133: No Qualifier
141: (7) Tagen Jamison started off OK with a 5-1 victory over (26) Eligh Rivera (Princeton), which really should have been a major. He then lost a heartbreaker to (10) CJ Composto (Penn) where he was winning 4-0 in the 3rd period before trying some funky roll and being put on his back giving up 6 points. Really disappointing for Tagen, but he still has a chance to win some matches on the backside starting with (24) Jason Miranda (Stanford). Miranda is a senior and this is his first NCAA Tournament. Jamison should easily clear him and will have either the 18 or 32 seed for his next round. The Pokes really need him to score some points here on the backside.
