Five Takeaways from Oklahoma State’s Opening Day at the National Duals Invitational

MATCH-BY-MATCH RESULTS

TULSA — It wasn’t the cleanest of days for the Cowboys, but they went 2-0 and have advanced to the semifinals at the National Duals Invitational.

Oklahoma State beat Cornell 22-12 Saturday morning before besting NC State 23-11 in the evening. That sets up a dual against rival Iowa in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Here are five takeaways from the Cowboys’ opening day.

1. These Freshmen, Man

OSU freshmen wrestled 11 matches on Saturday against some of the best competition in the country, and those freshmen went 10-1. Going into the heavyweight match of the NC State dual, OSU had won six matches in that dual — all by freshmen.

The most impressive of those wins was probably Landon Robideau beating NC State’s Jackson Arrington via an 8-2 decision. Robideau stormed onto the scene in the Cowboys’ dual against Stanford last week, beating the then-No. 4 wrestler at 157 pounds.

Arrington also came into the day ranked fourth at the weight, while Robideau jumped from unranked to fifth after his first college match. It appears he’ll continue his rankings climb after going 2-0 Saturday.

Sergio Vega, Dee Lockett and Cody Merrill also went 2-0 on the day, with the Cowboy freshmen’s only loss coming via Zack Ryder in the Cornell dual, when he dropped a rather odd bout to Christian Hansen.

It was odd in that the two clashed heads early in the match, and Hansen started gushing blood. After a lengthy delay to get him cleaned up, he momentarily went off the mat into concussion protocol. Then the match stopped a handful more times to clean up the blood that was still coming out. Ryder will certainly wish he put it away at some point, but it was a disjointed match with all the stops and starts.

Vega got a top 10 win to put on his mantle when he beat NC State’s Ryan Jack, ranked seventh per Intermat, 2-0. Vega rode the entire second period, which proved to be the difference in the match.

2. Enter Ronnie Ramirez

Fab Five, make way for the Salty Six.

After Richard Figueroa dropped his bout in the Cornell dual, Ronnie Ramirez got the call at 133 for the NC State dual.

It was a tough spot for the freshman to enter in. OSU was down 3-0 after Vince Robinson beat Troy Spratley in a rematch of last year’s national final.

Ramirez went up against No. 18 Zach Redding. After a scoreless first, Redding rode the entire second, meaning the match was still scoreless but Ramirez would have to either ride the entire third or let him up and get a takedown to win — he chose Option B. He secured the takedown in the final 10 seconds of the match to beat Redding 3-2.

Ramirez was a two-time state champ in California, recording a 182-7 record in his time at Walnut High School in Ontario, California.

3. Spratley Drops a Competitive NCAA Finals Rematch

OSU and NC State both winning in the opening round meant the wrestling world was treated to an NCAA finals rematch at 125 pounds, and unfortunately for the Cowboys, the same guy who won in Philly won in Tulsa.

Robinson got in on a leg at the end of the first period. When time expired, the officials initially ruled no takedown had taken place, but they went on to review it and ended up awarding one to the reigning national champ.

Spratley rode Robinson the entire second period, with Robinson having little answer as to finding a way up. Spratley quickly escaped to start the third, but Robinson got in on a leg late in the bout and was able to hold on and run out the clock, winning 3-2.

It was another competitive match between the two after the NCAA final went to tiebreakers. Spratley is right there.

“I thought Troy did a really good job,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “It’s just one of those matches where maybe the score didn’t reflect it, but I felt like he was on him. You gotta execute, but I think to wrestle a guy of that caliber after some really tight matches — there was two situations. Two where he kinda went to a whizzer and rolled, and that was kinda the difference.

“Good learning opportunity for him. You get a guy, a national champion this time of the season, Troy’s gonna keep making adjustments. But I was really happy with the way Troy wrestled, carried himself in that match. Didn’t god his way, but that’s part of it.”

4. Konner Doucet Continues His Hot Streak

Three matches into the season, and Konner Doucet already has more bonus point wins than he did his entire last season in the lineup.

Doucet beat Cornell’s Ashton Davis via a 10-2 major decision before teching NC State’s Everest Ouellette 20-4.

He won the bouts in different ways.

Doucet had a 1-0 lead on Davis, ranked 29th, after two periods before Doucet put his head down and got to work in the third. He earned two stall points to make it 3-0 before securing the bouts first takedown with 17 seconds left. He then let Davis up and took him down again within about four seconds. That plus a riding time point pushed it into a major decision.

“I was frustrated with myself a little bit,” Doucet said. “Just kinda got a slow start. Went back to my old ways a little bit, but just kinda gotta make up your mind that it’s unacceptable and just start going to score points. I know I can do it. I just gotta make my mind up.

“Proud of the way I finished it, but I need to have a full seven minutes like that.”

He didn’t wait for the third period in his second bout. Doucet played catch and release in the first period against Ouellette, taking the NC State heavyweight down four times in the opening frame.

He earned another stall point in the second period before taking Ouellette down and tilting him over for a 4-point nearfall to secure the win.

5. OSU vs. Iowa in Tulsa

One of college wrestling’s greatest rivalry will write a new chapter Sunday morning.

The two teams have wrestled a dual at Iowa’s football stadium. They’ve wrestled duals in front of sold-out home arenas. And now they’ll do battle at the BOK Center.

The winner of Sunday’s dual will earn at least $150,000. The loser could still earn $150,000 if that team goes on to place third, but if it places fourth, that gets sliced in half. So, the winner of this particular rivalry could earn an extra $75,000, adding a monetary incentive to the feud.

Iowa opened its tournament with a 34-3 win against Missouri before beating Illinois 24-13 in the evening session.

The Hawkeyes’ lineup features seven wrestlers in the top 10 of their respective weight classes, though it should be noted that Iowa heavyweight Ben Kueter didn’t wrestle in either of Iowa’s Saturday duals.

It should make for an electric dual.

“It’s the National Duals,” Taylor said. “You should expect a little bit of emotion and excitement. That’s gonna be good. It’s good for wrestling. It’s good for wrestling. It’s good for both of our teams tomorrow. I’m just looking forward to the opportunity that our guys have tomorrow to go wrestle in that match.”