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Five Things to Watch this Wrestling Season as OSU Goes for First Title Since 2006

What to watch for as another season unfolds for the Pokes.

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The Cowboys have wrestled the NWCA All Star match and the OCU open already, but the season more officially kicks off with the first two duals this upcoming weekend.

Last year’s NCAA tournament for OSU didn’t go well. Senior, and two time NCAA champion, Dean Heil fell in the quarterfinal to eventual champion Yianni Diakomihalis. All-American Preston Weigel went down with an injury in the first round and defaulted out of the tournament. Nick Piccininni was unable to repeat as an All-American as he was knocked out in the blood round, and ultimately the Cowboys had one of the worst finishes of the John Smith era.

There are still some questions, but also definitely a higher expectation as they head into the 2018-19 campaign. As a bit of a preview for the season here are five things to follow for the Cowboys this season.

1. New Faces: Part of the reason for the higher expectation is there are a number of new faces that will enter the lineup this season.

Redshirt Freshman Daton Fix has some of the highest expectations of any wrestler to ever step on the mat at Oklahoma State. He’s an incredible talent with credentials you could talk about all day. He’ll start the season at 133. I think there is a chance he may eventually make the cut to 125. Either way there is some serious talent at both weights he’ll have to contend with to bring home an NCAA title.

He can definitely do it though, and we’ll get a look at where he stacks up early. He takes on a NCAA champ and NCAA finalist this weekend. Dakota Geer comes in as a transfer from Edinboro after a coaching change. He’s the projected starter at 184 and is an All-American caliber wrestler that could have a big impact for OSU this season.

His teammate Andrew Shomers comes to Stillwater from Edinboro as well and could be the starter at 157 this season. They also have Kaden Gfeller, who could find his way into the lineup, and the return of two-time All-American Joe Smith. At the moment it’s still unclear where we will see Joe at.

2. What is the final lineup going to be? I’ve talked about it at length on here, but this team is deep, really deep. They had closed wrestle offs last Saturday. I don’t know how they went, but expect the lineup to start out from 125-141 with Nick Piccinnini, Daton Fix, and Kaid Brock.

Boo Lewallen should be locked in at 149 for most of the season. Andrew Shomers or Jonce Blaylock will start at 157, and a combination of Chandler Rogers, Joe Smith, Jacobe Smith, and Dakota Geer will be 165-184. Preston Weigel will be 197 and Derek White will be heavyweight. Whatever we see out there this weekend could change and will all be part of Smith and the staff trying to figure out what the best combination is for the team.

3. Title hopes: It’ll be tough for the Cowboys to win an NCAA title, but they’ll have a punchers chance and should finish very high on the team ladder. Penn State again will be a heavy favorite to win the NCAA tournament this year. They return four champs and a bevy of other solid wrestlers. OSU comes in ranked anywhere from 2-4 along with Iowa and Ohio State.

OSU legitimately could win, but the formula to do it is complex. As a weight class 125 had a dramatic change from last year. With the exit of certain guys, Piccinnini at 125 is a contender to make the NCAA finals. Penn State probably won’t score a team point at this weight.

We’ll find out a lot about Fix this weekend, but he is a contender to win 133. Penn State will be decent here, but the depth of this weight class makes it hard to see how their guy could score many points at the NCAA tournament.

At 141 PSU and OSU will be pretty comparable. At 149 OSU will be expected to finish higher and score more points. At 157 PSU will bonus their way to a national title. They’ll probably win one again at 165 and will make the finals at 174 while OSU will have shots at the podium at each of these weights. At 184 both teams will have comparable wrestlers

At 197 PSU will be the favorite, but OSU will have a contender to make the finals. Both programs have title contenders at 285. With all that said, if Piccinnini, Fix, Weigel, and White all make the NCAA finals and the rest of the roster maxes out their potential and finishes as high All-Americans, theoretically OSU could win. Especially if PSU gets minimal points at 25-33-49 and slips anywhere else.

It’s a tall ask for that to happen and ultimately fairly unlikely, but the overall point is the Cowboys’ strength is their depth and it’s what could carry them to a high finish at the NCAA tournament, even if they can’t knock off the heavily favored defending champs.

4. Health: I wrote on it this summer, but had Preston Weigel been healthy at the end of the season he reasonably could have won the NCAA tournament. Joe Smith has had problems with his knee for most of his career, Jacobe Smith wasn’t 100 percent at the NCAA’s last year, and the Cowboys didn’t send a 157 as Jonce Blaylock was hurt in the Bedlam dual.

OSU also had Kaid Brock go down for the season his freshman year when he looked poised to do some damage at the NCAA tournament. OSU is very deep this season, so in spots, the “next man up” concept will work. If anyone goes down from 165-184 for instance, they could reasonably plug and play, but if Weigel struggles to remain healthy, or God forbid Derek White goes down, that would be a huge sting for the Cowboys this year.

5. The Schedule: The schedule is no joke this season. The Cowboys open with South Dakota State and Minnesota, two top 25 programs. They wrestle Princeton, Rutgers, Lehigh, and Northern Iowa in the back half of the schedule, and close things out with Missouri and Iowa.

They also have tournaments at Reno and the Southern Scuffle, which are traditionally very tough. John Smith was vocal last season about his feeling that the schedule caused them to have it a little too easy, and that he didn’t think it would prepare them accordingly. The finish at the NCAA tournament last year seemed to confirm that. Will this beefed up schedule help change things? We’ll have to wait and see.

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