‘This Is Where I Want to Be’: Konner Doucet Dominates in Triumphant Return to Oklahoma State Lineup

STILLWATER — After Konner Doucet got his hand raised Friday night, he yelled into the rowdy Gallagher-Iba Arena crowd “I’m back!”

And he looked better than ever.

Outside of a pin to start the Michigan State Open last season, Doucet averaged 3.5 points scored in his other four matches. Well, in his return to the starting lineup against Stanford, Doucet beat Jackson Mankowski via a 19-4 technical fall, just the third tech fall of the sixth-year senior’s career.

“I feel way different,” Doucet said. “I know I’ve always had it, but just the preparation I put in. I had a full year of training last year. When guys are getting ready for duals and kinda tapering off, me and Coach (David) Taylor were grinding. I was on every road trip, and we were trying to put together workouts when the guys got done to just make me better.

“I really focused and dialed in after nationals all the way through the summer. I just kinda stayed here. Didn’t go to a lot of places, just stayed and worked out, worked with our strength coach a lot and practiced and just kept grinding until now. It’s finally here, I guess.”

Doucet entered the year as a two-time NCAA qualifier, but he sat last season behind transfer Wyatt Hendrickson, who went on to win an NCAA title.

Last year was David Taylor’s first as the Cowboys’ coach. Taylor preaches constant offense, which wasn’t exactly how Doucet wrestled his matches to that point. In his most recent season as the Cowboys’ starter (2023-24), Doucet had one tech-fall win against Ouachita Baptist’s Don Paul at the Lindenwood Open, one of his two bonus-point wins of the entire season. Meanwhile, Doucet had six matches go to extra time. From February through the end of the season, Doucet averaged 2.3 points scored a match.

In his year off, Doucet transformed his body, adding muscle and, it looked like, bettering his gas tank.

Doucet took Mankowski down six times Friday night, including four takedowns in the second period alone.

“Last year he wrestled the Air Force dual, and I vividly remember telling him to cut him,” Taylor said. “And he looked over and pretended like he didn’t hear me. And I was like, ‘Dude, you heard me.’ He goes, ‘I thought you said don’t cut him.’ I’m like, ‘No, I would never say don’t cut him.’

“I remember him thinking like, ‘Well, if I cut him, it’s tied. I might go to overtime.’ I’m just like that’s a good example tonight after his first takedown, he looked over at me real quick. And I was like, ‘No, you’re gonna ride him out here.’ It’s just a sign of a coachable guy. It’s hard to do that when you’ve been in college for a while. Kinda shows it means something to him. Just proud of him. It take courage to wrestle like that. The easy thing is to just stand around and win a match. That’s easy. It takes courage to wrestle like that. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Speaking of teaching an old dog new tricks, Doucet is surrounded by youth in this OSU lineup. He’s one of two seniors while Taylor started five freshmen (three true and two redshirts) against Stanford.

“It’s weird because I came in with guys that were way older than me because of COVID and stuff like that, so I had Dakota Geer, Daton (Fix), G (Kaden Gfeller), Boo (Lewallen), those guys,” Doucet said. “And to be on the other side of it now is kinda full circle. It’s pretty cool. Kinda hard to get some of like Dee (Lockett) and Sergio (Vega), their little lingos and stuff, but I’m learning as the old guy.”

It would’ve been easy for Doucet to look elsewhere for a starting spot once Hendrickson transferred in and OSU hired a coach who preaches pace.

But the Comanche native said he knew where he wanted to be.

“It was tough,” Doucet said. “It was a reality check. People always ask, like, you could’ve went somewhere else, blah, blah, blah. But I think I can be the best, and I thought I could be the best then. So, why would I run? This is where I want to be. This is gonna make me better.

“The year sitting behind Wyatt, it was different. I kinda had to take a different role, but I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. It just made me a lot more hungry coming back this year.”