NCAA Wrestling: Oklahoma State Has Rough Third Session at the NCAA Tournament

TULSA — The Cowboys entered Friday morning with seven wrestlers in the NCAA tournament and left the morning round with only two.

The first match of the day was a bright spot as Daton Fix used riding time to beat Illinois’ Lucas Byrd 3-2 to move to the semifinals and become an All-American for the fourth time. Fix becomes the 15th four-time All-American in program history, and he can still return next season if he wants to go for five.

The rest of the morning round was pretty rough. The other quarterfinalist Dustin Plott was pinned in the first period by Cornell’s Chris Foca, and Kaden Gfeller and Wyatt Sheets both dropped consolation matches ending their NCAA tournaments and college wrestling careers.

At 149 Victor Voinovich did advance in his morning consolation match with an overtime takedown. As did Luke Surber at 197 with a 9-3 decision over North Carolina’s Max Shaw. But both fell in their second matches of the day ending their tournaments.

Fix will wrestle Friday night against Cornell’s Vito Arujau for a spot in the 133-pound finals, and Dustin Plott will wrestle Utah Valley’s Demetrius Romero in the blood round for a chance at an All-American finish.

The Cowboys are currently in 17th place and flirting dangerously with the worst NCAA tournament finish in program history, which was 16th in 2009.