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Four Thoughts on Oklahoma State Wrestling’s Wins against Missouri and Michigan

Seth Duckworth recaps the Cowboys’ big weekend.

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

What a wild weekend for Oklahoma State wrestling, as the Cowboys beat two top 10 teams with Michigan and Missouri. Let’s dive into four thoughts on everything that transpired on Friday and Sunday.

1. A big-time dual vs. Missouri

This may be the most obvious one, but what a monumental win for the Cowboys vs. Missouri on Sunday. I thought there was a chance heading into it, but if you would’ve told me Dustin Plott would lose and the Cowboys would win the dual, I would have thought you were crazy. But OSU holds on in a nailbiter to take out No. 8 Missouri. Great environment, great showing by the fans, and everything you want in a wrestling match. That was why and how dual meets can be great.

2. Bout at the Ballpark not as well attended as one would hope

Attendance at the Bout at the Ballpark took a nosedive from over 12,000 last year to around 2,000 this year. I think it’s a creative event and has its place in the sport, but it will need something different to be a success commercially.

3. Team hitting its stride?

I’ll admit, I had my doubts about Oklahoma State at various points early in the season, but things seem to be clicking now. The Cowboys are wrestling at a level we haven’t seen yet. Michigan was without a few starters, and Missouri has had some injury issues leading up to this. But, these were two really good wins and the most complete that Oklahoma State has wrestled this season. Carter Young is on fire right now, Luke Surber just beat the No. 1 guy in the country, and on and on. The Cowboys will still need to make some gains this season to have a shot at a Big 12 title and will need to be firing on all cylinders to do that, but whatever is going on right now is working. We’re seeing a lot of improvements in guys and a much better team than we saw a few months ago.

4. Criteria can be hard to follow for a lot of fans

Even some of the most avid wrestling fans (I’m including myself as I’ll share shortly) probably didn’t know what exactly Daton Fix needed to do in the final match of the dual to give Oklahoma State a win over Missouri on criteria. But to explain the situation to some newer fans, there are various tie-breaking criteria in wrestling dual meets, and the one this came down to is the total points scored. So, Fix needed to tie up the match with a major decision and win his match by at least nine points to give Oklahoma State “criteria.” We were doing the math in the media section, but even we were actually one point off in our early calculations on what he needed to do. But after Fix won, you could see a bit of a lull in the crowd waiting to learn if the Cowboys had won the dual or not. It was a great win, but I can’t help but feel the roof would’ve blown off the place had everyone universally known that Fix’s match had won the dual.

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