Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s First Day at the NCAA Championships

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Eight Cowboys are still wrestling after Day 1 of the NCAA Championships, and six are still hunting for a national title.

Here are five thoughts on the first day.

1. Six Into the Quarterfinals

Need another sign that the Cowboys are making strides in the right direction? The Cowboys have put six into the quarterfinals after having three last year and only two in 2023.

Troy Spratley, Caleb Fish, Cameron Amine, Dean Hamiti, Dustin Plott and Wyatt Hendrickson all still have a shot at a national title after the first day.

That frontside of the bracket success has the Cowboys in third place in the team standings. Nebraska went on a run to slide up to second place, but still, OSU finished 10th at nationals last year. OSU was 18th in 2023. Things are moving in the right direction.

2. There Is No Such Thing as a Boring Caleb Fish Match

Caleb Fish’s second round bout with Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon featured a challenge successfully failing and a match-winning suplex.

Fish beat Cannon, the 5 seed, 10-7 in sudden victory. To get to the extra period, both guys scored reversals in the third. Cannon’s reversal was initially accompanied by a pair of back points. Ohio State’s bench threw the challenge brick wanting more back points. But after a long review, the upstairs officials deemed that actually no back points should have been rewarded. Ohio State actually got its challenge brick back since the ruling was changed, but instead of Cannon having a 9-6 lead, his lead was 7-6. As you can imagine, the Ohio State coaches were not happy with the call.

Fish scored on an escape after the restart, tying the match at 7.

Then in sudden-victory, the throw-happy Fish got a body lock on Cannon and sent his feet to the ceiling. The takedown points from the slam sent Fish to the quarters.

BIG FISH. BIGGER DUB.

📺: ESPN/ESPN+#GoPokes l @CalebFish_1 pic.twitter.com/3RWv2tlkuq

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) March 21, 2025

“I feel like I was focused in the moment,” Fish said. “Just having fun. It was a fun match, high-paced. All I could think about was the national title is mine to win, just gotta want it more.”

Fish’s story is awesome. A transfer from Michigan State, he has qualified for the national tournament four times now but is still after his first finish on the podium. He also made a team-first move early this season by burning his redshirt and jumping down to 157 pounds from 165 to fill in for the injured Teague Travis.

Well, now if Fish can get past 20 seed Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern) in the quarters, he’ll earn that first All-America finish and still be on the hunt for a national title.

3. Teague Travis Can Still Be an All-American

Speaking of Travis, after that early season injury, he took a risk by jumping down to 149 pounds for the Big 12 tournament and earned an automatic qualification to nationals. The issue was since Travis had just seven matches on his resume this season (and two of those were at 157), he got the last seed in this tournament.

But Travis isn’t wrestling like a 33 seed.

He beat Campbell’s Wynton Denkins with an 11-1 major decision in a prelim match to earn a shot at top-seeded, unbeaten Caleb Henson. Travis was in on a leg twice against Henson but couldn’t finish either, and the top seed won 4-0.

That sent Travis down to the consolation, but in his first bout there, he throttled 16 seed Trae McDaniel (Army).

It’s still a long road against increasingly good competition, but on Thursday, Travis looked like a guy capable of hitting the podium despite his low seed. He would still have to win three matches in the consolations to get into the top eight. That run starts with a match against 15 seed Ty Whalen (Princeton), who got teched in the second round. Travis can’t afford to look ahead, but it would likely be Northern Iowa’s Colin Realbuto, the 10 seed, after that.

Travis doesn’t have to look far for inspiration if he needs it, either. Back in 2021, Cowboy Wyatt Sheets got into the national tournament as an alternate and went from 31 seed to All-American.

4. Bummer for Luke Surber

After an injury-riddled season last year where Luke Surber hardly looked like himself, he was having such a good senior season.

He entered this tournament as the 8 seed in a solid position to push for his first podium, but things went south. Surber was up 6-2 after the first period of his first-round match with The Citadel’s Patrick Burphy, but Surber ended up on his back in the second and third periods and lost 18-7. The 197-pound bracket was rather chaotic in the opening round, as 9 seed Zac Braunagel joined Surber in the consolations. That was supposed to be a second- round match, but now it was win or go home. Braunagel beat Surber 14-3 and ended his season.

That’s a tough way to end what was an otherwise awesome senior season.

5. Spratley Has Given Up 1 Point

Troy Spratley has looked strong in his opening two matches, outscoring those opponents a combined 17-1, and the 1 wasn’t an escape or a stall call. It was a technical violation for pulling his opponent’s singlet.

Most of Spratley’s scoring in that came in his 15-0 tech fall win against 25 seed Keyveon Roller (UVA). Usually, tech falls involve the loser at least getting some escape points, but Spratley took Roller down and got eight nearfall points to take an 11-0 lead into the second period. He escaped and got a takedown in the second to end it.

Spratley was matched up with 10 seed Stevo Poulin in the second round. Spratley won 2-1, but it was fairly convincing as far as 2-1 decisions go. The first period was scoreless. Spratley worked almost the entire second for a reversal and finally got it. As long as that took, Poulin had a nice haul of riding time, but Spratley rode the entire third to win the bout. He got the singlet penalty midway through the third period.

As good as Spratley has looked, the real tests are still in front of him. He starts his Friday against 2 seed Matt Ramos in the quarterfinals. Ramos was the top-ranked guy at the weight for much of the season but took a loss at Big Tens. Spratley and Ramos wrestled in December in Las Vegas, with Ramos taking that bout 5-2.

Bonus Thought: OSU’s Hammers All Hammering

The Cowboys top seeds are wrestling like top seeds.

Dean Hamiti is into the quarters with a technical fall and a major decision. Dustin Plott’s wins were also a tech and a major. Wyatt Hendrickson is still sticking dudes, as both of his matches Thursday ended with the ref slapping the mat.

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