As expected, Oklahoma State dominated the dual against Air Force Friday night, winning 43-6 and pushing their dual record to 7-0 on the season. And while the shutout prediction didn’t come true, due to an OSU forfeit at 133 (more on that later), and a couple of backups going for the Pokes, two pins and five tech falls continued the high scoring ways for the team. The Cowboys have scored at least 30 points in every dual so far this year, the first time they have done so in 25 years.
Tory Spratley built up a large first period lead before getting the 20-3 tech fall over Bubba Wright at 125. Oddly, the Cowboys didn’t send someone out at 133 and took the forfeit. Head Coach David Taylor said in the press conference after the match that Reece Witcraft is still nursing the knee he banged up in the Las Vegas Tournament a few weeks ago, and they didn’t have anyone prepared to go in his place. “We talk about the orange singlet being something you earn, guys had chance to get their weight down and wrestle, they didn’t do it appropriately, so we didn’t send someone out there. Cael (Hughes) has a little bit of an injury he’s dealing with. He definitely could have wrestled, you want to set guys up for success, and we could have had some other guys who could have stepped in their to wrestled, but just didn’t. ”
At 141, Tagen Jamison won the battle with a 20-5 tech fall against Carter Nogle but lost a tooth. Carter Young did the same getting the 18-3 tech fall on riding time and Caleb Fish came out and dominated EJ Beloncik for another tech fall (20-3).
165 saw a Cowboy true freshman toe the line in Colin Young due to Cam Amine being a little sick. “Colin Young did a good job tonight in his first time out there. Good to see him score and keep trying to score until the end. That’s what we are trying to do. It’s not about winning and losing, we are just talking about wrestle the way you want to wrestle. Colin gets his butt whooped in practice some days. He steps out there, had the opportunity to go wrestle and did a good job,” said Taylor. Young beat one of Air Force’s top wrestlers in Andrew Harmon with an 8-2 decision. Amine is expected back for the next dual.
174 and 184 saw two Cowboys get first period pins, Dean Hamiti over Jack Ganos and Dustin Plott over Gage Musser. Luke Surber finished off the tech fall party with a 23-8 win over Brian Burburjia. Konner Doucet did Konner Doucet things, winning 2-1 on an escape and a riding time point.
The Cowboys next wrestle on January 12th against #6 NC State at 2:00 p.m. in Stillwater. Owrestle.com contributor Seth Duckworth has been keeping up with the possible average attendance record. Even without Iowa or Oklahoma on the schedule this year, OSU is averaging 6,492 people with 3 duals left, against good opponents. The modern record will be broken if there are at least 5,045 for each dual and the all-time record will be broken if at least 6,240 show up.
