No. 11 Oklahoma State wrestling dominates No. 18 Oklahoma 28-9 in Bedlam
125 pounds: No. 21 Troy Spratley vs. No. 32 Conrad Hendriksen
The 125-pound weight class sets the tone. If the dual starts here, as most duals do, Oklahoma State’s Troy Spratley and Oklahoma’s Conrad Hendriksen will be responsible for giving their team an early edge. Spratley comes into the dual 9-2 with losses to Tanner Jordan and Caleb Smith while Hendrickson is 7-2, after dropping earlier this season to Noah Surtin by major and Kaden Chinavare. In Friday’s Oklahoma State dual against Lehigh, Spratley picked up a solid 4-2 win over Luke Stanich, but with this year’s Bedlam dual so close, the Cowboys will want to see him put even more points up on the board against the scrappy Hendrickson. This match, however, obviously isn’t out of reach for the Sooners, and flipping one bout might be all it takes for Oklahoma to pull off the upset in the dual, given that the Sooners are favored in four other weights.
133 pounds: No. 3 Daton Fix or Reece Witcraft or Zach Blankenship vs. No. 27 Jace Koelzer or Gabe Vidlak
This is the weight where, if Daton Fix was healthy, the Cowboys could count on their veteran All-American to set up, secure bonus and re-energize the Cowboys, regardless of how the 125-pound bout went. The problem for Oklahoma State is that Fix has was not healthy enough to wrestle in either the Cliff Keen Invitational or Friday night’s dual against Lehigh. In Fix’s place, Oklahoma State sent out Reece Witcraft to take on the Mountain Hawks, where he was subsequently majored by No. 1 Ryan Crookham.
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Witcraft and Fix are listed as probables for the Cowboys on Sunday, and if Witcraft gets the nod again, he could be competitive against Oklahoma’s No. 27 Jace Koelzer, as he would be ranked in the Top 33 if he was the starter. However, Fix is someone the Cowboys would like back, obviously, and if he goes, expect bonus. If not, look for this match, like 125-pounds, to be close as Witcraft, or even Oklahoma State’s third-string 133-pounder Zach Blankenship takes on Koelzer or Gabe Vidlak for the Sooners.
141 pounds: No. 9 Tagen Jamison vs. No. 10 Mosha Schwartz or Carter Schmidt
Oklahoma State’s injuries have been a big storyline this season, but Oklahoma isn’t without injury concerns themselves. The Sooners have No. 10 Mosha Schwartz listed as a probable starter at 141 pounds for Bedlam alongside Carter Schmidt, and Schwartz, while dangerously competitive at the weight, injury defaulted out of his last dual against West Virginia on December 3 after the first minute. If he’s able to compete, he could challenge Oklahoma State’s rising star Tagen Jamison, but, if not, Jamison will look to put up bonus points against Oklahoma backup Carter Schmidt just like Jamison did against Lehigh’s Ethan Smith on Friday night.
149 pounds: No. 24 Jordan Williams vs. No. 22 Willie McDougald
In the 2023 Cy-Hawk dual just a few weeks ago, the entire team score came down to a match between a No. 22-ranked athlete and a No. 24-ranked athlete. The higher-ranked competitor, Zach Glazier of Iowa, earned the win for himself and his team, and, in this weekend’s scenario, Oklahoma will be counting on No. 22 Willie McDougald to hold down his rank, fend off No. 24 Jordan Williams and keep the Sooners in this fight. McDougald is 4-4 on the year with his best win coming against No. 23 Ty Watters of West Virginia, and he did also battle tough into overtime against No. 20 Logan Gioffre. Williams’ best wins came against his teammates, as he beat two-time NCAA qualifier Carter Young 15-2 and stopped sophomore standout Teague Travis 7-6.
Duals to Watch โ Week 6#NCAAWrestling pic.twitter.com/570xNvxTUP
โ NCAA Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling) December 7, 2023
Travis has since bumped up to 157 pounds and will wrestle John Wiley or Jared Hill of Oklahoma, but in another coin-flip match where none of the projected starters are ranked, but whoever wins 149 pounds will, at least, have an edge in momentum.
157 pounds: Teague Travis vs. John Wiley or Jared Hill
Speaking of Teague Travis, the Stillwater native is set to compete on Sunday against Wiley or Hill, and while, as previously mentioned, none of these athletes are ranked, Travis is the only one of the three probable starters with a winning record. Travis is 7-1 on the year with his most recent win coming against Lehigh national qualifier Max Brignola 5-1, and the win suggests that, if he remains the starter for the duration of the season, he could earn his ranking spot quickly.
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Travis’ potential Sooner foes Wiley and Hill hold 3-5 and 3-3 season records, respectively, though Hill did qualify for the NCAA tournament in 2023 and notched a win at the event over Nathan Lukez of Army. Wiley, however, was the one who took the mat for the Sooners against West Virginia, suggesting that he has the starting position, at least for now after redshirting last season down at 149 pounds. On paper, this could be seen as a coin-flip given the lack of Top 33 rankings for all of the projected starters, but, based on their season results so far, the advantage here belongs to Oklahoma State.
165 pounds: No. 2 Izzak Olejnik vs. No. 16 Cael Carlson
The biggest problem for the Sooners comes here, at 165 pounds.
๐ ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐
Before tonight’s dual, read about Izzak Olejnik and his journey to stardom in Stillwater.
๐ฐ: https://t.co/Hot6nXMyHc#HomeOfWrestling l #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/0gq9DIWIKR
โ OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) December 8, 2023
NIU All-American transfer Izzak Olejnik has been unstoppable for the Cowboys so far this season, compiling a 12-0 record thus far with official top-five wins over Julian Ramirez and Cam Amine as well as an exhibition win over 2023 Big Ten champion Dean Hamiti. He’s slated to take on Oklahoma’s Cael Carlson in his first Bedlam battle, and while Carlson is tough and currently has a solid 7-3 record, he enters this dual after losing back-to-back matches by fall. His goal against Olejnik will need to be to avoid giving up bonus points.
174 pounds: Brayden Thompson or AJ Heeg vs. No. 17 Tate Picklo or Gerrit Nijenhuis
Oklahoma’s No. 17 Tate Picklo came into college as one of the biggest recruits in his class, and he’s had a solid career so far for the Crimson and Cream, but this dual, the moment, this rivalry, will be his opportunity to be a breakout star, if he gets the start. Picklo comes into this bout against Oklahoma’s Brayden Thompson or AJ Heeg as a heavy favorite. A 2023 national qualifier, Picklo has career wins over Cliff Keen Las Vegas winner Cade DeVos, Round of 16 finisher Lance Runyon and All-American Demetrius Romero, suggesting that he has the potential to score and score big against the Cowboys.
If he takes on Brayden Thompson, another blue-chip recruit coming out of high school, he’ll be battling a freshman with a 1-3 record who just notched a win against Lehigh’s Thayne Lawrence 8-2. If he wrestles AJ Heeg, Picklo will see another rookie with a 12-1 record who has thrived in his early college opens.
The question will be: does Picklo compete? After he was tech-falled against Missouri, head coach Roger Kish started Purdue transfer Gerrit Nijenhuis in the West Virginia dual, but the former Boilermaker took a 5-1 loss.
Regardless, of who starts though, this will be a big moment for Oklahoma and a chance to stop the Cowboy momentum that is likely to come at 165 pounds and pick back up again at 184 pounds.
184 pounds: No. 3 Dustin Plott or Jersey Robb vs. No. 32 Giuseppe Hoose
In addition to 165 pounds, the 184-pound bout is Oklahoma State’s biggest opportunity for bonus, and head coach John Smith will be looking for Plott to come up big in this bout, as this is the last weight the Cowboys will be favored in for the rest of the dual. His expected opponent, Giuseppe Hoose, is a veteran, a senior transfer from Hofstra who qualified for the national tournament last year and went 1-2 with a win against Jacob Ferreira. Hoose has never wrestled Plott, but he’s 5-4 on the year with his best win coming against Matt Zuber of Northern Illinois. Plott, on the other hand, is 12-1 with his best win coming by fall against No. 17 Virginia Tech’s Sam Fisher. Plott did take split matches with Nebraska’s Lenny Pinto at Cliff Keen, but he’s also someone who performs well on big stages, and there are very few bigger stages for the Cowboys in the regular season than Bedlam.
Jersey Robb, the other option for Oklahoma State at this weight, is 8-0 in his redshirt season, but he has not faced any DI opponents yet this year. Being thrust into Bedlam would be a new experience for the Oklahoma native, but if that does happen, it says one of two things: 1.) Plott is hurt (unlikely since he wrestled well against Lehigh) or 2.) John Smith has such enormous confidence in his freshman that he wants to start him over a proven All-American in one of the biggest duals of the year for the Cowboys. If Option 2 is employed, Robb will be a factor moving forward, but it’s tough to see a situation in which Plott isn’t the guy.
197 pounds: No. 12 Luke Surber or Kyle Haas vs. No. 2 Stephen Buchanan
Oklahoma All-American Stephen Buchanan is the Sooners’ not-so-secret weapon in this dual. The No. 2-ranked athlete in the country, Buchanan will have the match of the night if he takes on No. 12 Luke Surber of Oklahoma State, but Surber sat out against Lehigh, leading Smith to send out Kyle Haas instead. Haas was teched by Lehigh’s Michael Beard and could face a similar fate against Buchanan. If Oklahoma needs team points, Buchanan is the man for the job.
HWT:ย pounds No. 11 Konner Doucet vs. No. 10 Josh Heindselman
Oklahoma State will not want this dual to come down to heavyweight. This isn’t because the Cowboys don’t trust their closer โ Konner Doucet is a top-15 wrestler after all โ but because Oklahoma State is favored in five of ten weights with the edge in a sixth, and if this dual comes down to heavyweight, something went wrong for the Cowboys earlier in the dual. If the dual does come down to heavyweight though, Doucet will need to stay focused and put his Friday night upset loss to No. 16 Nathan Taylor from Lehigh out of his mind before he takes the mat against No. 10 Josh Heindselman.
Doucet and Heindselman have wrestled twice, and they’ve split those bouts, but both were settled in tie-breakers. Talk about intense. Heindselman is currently 8-1 on the year with his lone loss coming to Missouri All-American Zach Elam 2-1. Doucet, meanwhile is 7-2 with an injury default loss to Grady Griess of Navy and Friday night’s loss to Taylor. Heindselman’s record this year looks better on paper, but Doucet clearly knows how to wrestle him. This is a must-watch meeting, regardless of the team score heading into this bout.