Daton Fix Makes Another NCAA Finals, Dustin Plott Becomes an All-American

Oklahoma State started Friday with seven left in the NCAA Tournament and ended with two.

Daton Fix will wrestle in the NCAA finals for a third time on Saturday night. He started things off in the quarterfinals with Northwestern’s Chris Cannon. Up 2-0 and on top, Fix snaked Cannon to his back and got a fall in the first period.

In the semifinals, Fix comfortably worked through third-seeded Michael McGee from Arizona State with a 5-1 decision. He’ll have a rematch of last years’ NCAA final with Penn State’s Roman Bravo-Young. Young beat Fix with a takedown in sudden-victory overtime in last year’s final.

Dustin Plott fell in his quarterfinal match to Michigan’s Logan Massa, but he mounted an incredible comeback in his consolation quarterfinal to break through to become an All-American. He faced off with the seventh-seeded Ethan Smith of Ohio State and dug himself in a bit of a hole early. He was taken down twice in the first period then gave up an escape and a takedown in the second period. Down 7-3 to start the third, he got an escape then a takedown with just seconds left in the match. That takedown coupled with riding time sent the match to overtime where Plott got another takedown to win and become an All-American.

In his next match, he had a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament with North Carolina’s Clay Lautt. Lautt got the first takedown, and Plott came back with an escape then another in the second period to tie things up at 2. Late in the second, Plott locked up upper body with Lautt and threw him on the edge of the mat for six points. This blew things open a bit, and with another takedown and ride out, Plott picked up an 11-2 Major decision. He’ll have North Carolina State’s Hayden Hidlay Saturday in the consolation semifinals.

Kaden Gfeller fought back on the consolation side to make it to the bloodround. He avenged an early season loss to Stanford’s Jaden Abas by pinning him in the first match of the day. Then in a rematch of Bedlam and the Big 12 finals, Gfeller knocked off OU freshman Willie McDougald again. In his final match of the season, he fell 7-4 to Wisconsin’s Austin Gomez.

Dakota Geer had a bit of a run on Friday, knocking off Iowa’s Abe Assad in overtime before falling 18-13 in a wild, high-scoring match to Iowa State’s Marcus Coleman.

Trevor Mastrogiovanni, Wyatt Sheets and Luke Surber all fell in their first matches of the day, ending their tournaments.

The Cowboys enter Saturday in 12th place as a team.

The fifth session of the tournament starts at 10 a.m. Saturday on ESPNU, where Plott will look to continue his run. The finals are at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN, where Fix will go after his elusive national crown.