Wrestling Notebook: Amine on Rematch with No. 3 Hall, Taylor Wants 10K Fans and National Duals

STILLWATER — The first year of the David Taylor era of Cowboy wrestling has gone, to this point, swimmingly.

Oklahoma State is the No. 3 team in the country and is 8-0 entering a dual against West Virginia at 2 p.m. Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Taylor and the Cowboys held a media availability on Thursday to give updates on things. Here are three talking points that stood out.

Cam Amine Gets Second Shot at Peyton Hall

The featured match of this weekend’s dual appears to come at 165 pounds where No. 6 Cameron Amine will wrestle No. 3 Peyton Hall.

This won’t be the first time the pair of wrestled this season, as they met in the finals at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. That bout went to sudden victory, with Hall winning 4-1. Hall is 20-0 on the season. Amine is 10-3. Amine is a three-time All-American. Hall is a two-time All-American.

That first meeting was just a little more than a month ago. Since, Amine has rattled off a trio of wins. He also missed OSU’s dual against Air Force, as he got sick after the Christmas break. He returned to the mat against NC State on Monday, beating No. 32 Derek Fields 5-2.

“(Hall is) a funky guy,” Amine said. “He likes to scramble, so I’ve been working with Coach Taylor a lot in scrambling positions. Went back and watched my match probably four or five times. But just going back and seeing little things that I could do better — instead of negatives, looking at the positives of it — and fixing those things and getting better in those positions is something that the coaches preach. So, definitely been doing that and working on a little bit of scrambling.”

Taylor Wants 10K

There were 8,212 people in Gallagher-Iba Arena on Monday night to watch the Cowboys throttle No. 5 NC State.

That’s the highest attendance GIA has seen this school year, regardless of sport. But Taylor wants more. With two home duals left — Sunday’s against West Virginia and a Feb. 2 matchup with Missouri — Taylor on Tuesday tweeted out “Let’s break 10,000.”

Hitting five digits would be super impressive this year in particular, as duals against Iowa and Oklahoma are both one the road. But rather than needing a rival to come into town, the Cowboys’ dominance has been the featured attraction this season.

Sunday’s dual also features a blackout promotion. Fans are encouraged to wear black, and the Cowboys will wear black singlets for the first time in a dual this season. The first 1,000 fans in the area will get a free blackout T-shirt.

“A lot of people were like, ‘Well, you can’t do that without certain people coming here,'” Taylor said. “I mean, we’re pushing the limits right now. I think the idea was you have a great product on the mat, you make it a show, you make it something that people want to come to.

“It’s not the same to sit on your couch and watch it. You want to come and watch this team wrestle. We’ll wear black this weekend. I definitely think we can (get 10,000 people in attendance). We need the support of everybody in Oklahoma and surrounding areas to obviously come and support our program.”

National Dual Tournament

Another line of questioning that spawned from a David Taylor tweet: the concept of a revamped national dual tournament.

There has been some recent movement back into the direction of national duals. The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) held the national dual meet Jan. 10-11 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It was the first time since 2017 there was a Division-I tournament at the event, but it didn’t feature the sport’s major programs. Northern Iowa was the 1 seed and ended up winning the tournament.

It wasn’t always that way, though. OSU last competed at the NWCA national duals during the 2012-13, coming second to Minnesota.

Taylor, who seems big on the marketing aspect of the sport, has some ideas as to rejuvenate the event. The biggest is timing. Taylor’s idea is to have the event in late November — before teams start their conference duals. Seedings for the event would be tricky, but Taylor said eight teams could be a one-day event, or it could be a 16-team, tw0-day ordeal. He also in no ways wants this to tinker with the NCAA Championships in March.

“One, I’m a proponent of the national tournament being individual national tournament in March,” Taylor said. “I think it’s the best spectacle in the sport of wrestling, second to nothing. It’s something that people can bookmark and they can go and support their team and their program. They can go with their friends and reunite. I think that never changes.

“However, I think when you have the conference schedules, it’s hard to start balancing nonconference events. So, I think you just pick a time at the beginning of the year, and now you have two events. Dual meets are awesome. Dual meets are fun to watch, they’re easy to follow for the casual fan. I think you do it at the beginning of the year, before the conference events start and you get the best teams to come compete. And you incentivize, incentivize to wrestle your best lineup. As we move forward, we have to continue to find ways to market our teams and our programs and the guys that are on the mat. That’s the future. I think having both sets a good schedule, and I think it’s something that the kids will want to look forward to, the programs will look forward to. But I don’t want to move away from the national championship being decided as is, but I do think a national duals would be great for wrestling.”