Five Takeaways from OSU’s Dominant Performance at the Cliff Keen Invitational

The world got its first look at what a David Taylor-led Cowboy team could do in a tournament setting, and early returns are quite good.

Oklahoma State won the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas this weekend, earning a pair of individual championships along the way. Here are five takeaways from the event.

1. David Taylor’s Pokes Are the Real Deal

When OSU started the dual season 4-0 and averaging 34.8 points a dual, it was enough to raise some eyebrows. But dominating a stacked tournament like the Cliff Keen proves Taylor’s Pokes are the real deal.

The field included seven teams that finished ahead of the Cowboys at the NCAA Championships last season, but the tournament ended with the Pokes gapping the field by 77 points. OSU was the only school this weekend with multiple winners (Dean Hamiti Jr. and Wyatt Hendrickson). OSU was the only school with multiple runner-ups (Tagen Jamison, Cameron Amine and Dustin Plott). And OSU was the only school with multiple third-place finishers (Troy Spratley, Caleb Fish and Luke Surber). No Cowboy finished lower than fifth. It was domination.

The 192 team points the Cowboys scored narrowly missed out on a tournament record OSU set back in 1983 (198.25).

2. Hamiti, Hendrickson Win Titles

Hamiti and Hedrickson have seemingly jumped up a level since transferring to Stillwater this offseason, and this weekend was just a further example to that.

Hamiti got to the finals with four bonus-point wins before besting Stanford’s Lorenzo Norman 4-3 to win the tournament.

Hendrickson continued being a bonus-point machine, going 5-0 on the weekend with a pin, a tech fall, a pin, an injury default and another pin in the final. He was named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler.

Entering the tournament ranked fifth nationally, Hamiti is working his way into the national title discussion at 174 pounds. It’s going to be tough for Hendrickson to win a national title, with Olympic champion Gable Steveson returning to Minnesota, but that doesn’t make Hendrickson any less fun to watch.

3. Enter, Caleb Fish

There had been some question marks as to what Taylor’s plan was at 157 pounds, but those questions seem to have an answer: Caleb Fish.

Teague Travis was the Cowboys’ starter at the weight, but Cutter Sheets came out for OSU’s past two duals with Taylor not getting too far into why afterward. Taylor told FloWrestling after this weekend’s tournament that Travis suffered an injury in the Oregon State dual and that the plan is for Travis to get a medical redshirt for the year.

Fish joined the program this season after spending the past four seasons at Michigan State, where he made the past three NCAA Championships while wrestling at 165 pounds. Down a weight, Fish wrestled to a third-place finish this weekend in his OSU debut.

The Cowboys took three transfers who all wrestled primarily 165 pounds last season, and now all of those transfers are in the Cowboy lineup with Fish at 157, Amine at 165 and Hamiti at 174.

4. Surber Beats Former Poke

As far as OSU storylines go, the 197-pound bracket had the potential for a lot going into the weekend.

Luke Surber met up with Christian Carroll, who redshirted at OSU last season before transferring to Iowa State, in the consolations on Saturday. Surber won via a 2-0 decision on his way to a third-place finish.

There was the chance for even more meetings between former Cowboys, as Cal State Bakersfield, AJ Ferrari’s new squad, was in Vegas, but news came out Friday that Ferrari wouldn’t wrestle in the tournament because of injury.

5. Keckeisen Again Gets the Best of Plott

One of the few things that could’ve gone better for the Pokes this weekend is if Luke Surber was able to finally get best Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen, but the NCAA finals rematch didn’t go the Cowboys’ way.

The two met in the finals this weekend, and Keckeisen won 8-3 after earning bonus-point wins against everyone else he wrestled.

The two met in a dual, in the Big 12 finals and in the NCAA finals last season, and Keckeisen won them all. Plott should get his next shot at the reigning 184-pound champ Jan. 24 when OSU heads up to Cedar Falls for a dual.

Team Results

1. Oklahoma State — 192
2. Nebraska — 115
3. Ohio State — 110.5
4. Virginia Tech — 90
5. Iowa State — 89.5
6. Northern Iowa — 85.5
7, Michigan — 75
8. Stanford — 72.5
9. South Dakota State — 62
10. Purdue — 53.5

OSU’s Individual Results

125: Troy Spratley, third
133: Reece Witcraft, fourth
141: Tagen Jamison, second
149: Carter Young, fifth
157: Caleb Fish, third
165: Cameron Amine, second
174: Dean Hamiti Jr., first
184: Dustin Plott, second
197: Luke Surber, third
HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson, first