Austin Harris Wins Greco and Freestyle Titles at Pan American Championships

Oklahoma State redshirt freshman Austin Harris picked up a Greco title at the Pan American Championships on Friday. He then made a quick turnaround on Sunday and picked up another gold in freestyle.

He flat out dominated. Here are his brackets.

Three tech falls and two falls on the weekend. Those numbers are nuts. Peru, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico aren’t really wrestling hotbeds — that distinction is usually reserved for eastern bloc countries — but these are still some of the best guys their country has to offer and Austin ran through them. That’s big time.

With senior stars Derek White and Preston Weigel back this year it’s unlikely that Austin finds a starting role in his redshirt freshman season, but he’s had a solid summer. Another year in the room with those guys and the rest of the group around him he could impact the lineup.

He was at 97 KG here, 213 pounds. He started off his college career a lot smaller, now you’d probably project him as a 197, or maybe he could even bulk up to heavyweight. With some unknowns at those weights in the future after White/Weigel graduate it will be interesting to see if he’s able to insert himself in the conversation to be a starter. Any way you look at it what he’s done this summer is a very good sign going forward.

I’ll be really intrigued to see what weight he’s at next year and if his collegiate style performance makes a similar jump to his freestyle/Greco performance this summer.