OSU Wrestling: Cowboys Beat Arizona State 33-6

PHOTOS

STILLWATER — The Cowboys’ streak of high-scoring duals continues.

Oklahoma State beat Arizona State 33-6 on Sunday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena to advance to 4-0 in the David Taylor era. The Cowboys have eclipsed the 30-point mark in each of those duals. Through four duals, the Cowboys have a won via bonus points in 22 of the 40 matches.

“Just happy with the guys, the way they wrestled,” Taylor said. “Again, we look fresh in the third period. Guys are getting bonus points or maybe just missing out or already secured them and looking to continue to build. Just happy with that.”

Wyatt Hendrickson proved again Sunday that there is an upper echelon in the heavyweight division, and he is a part of it. Ranked third in the nation, Hendrickson beat No. 5 Cohlton Schultz 11-5 in a match that wasn’t as close as that score indicated. Hendrickson scored a takedown in first period before riding Schultz the entire second. Hendrickson scored on a reversal and four nearfall points in the third before releasing Schultz to go for more points when Schultz came out on top in a scramble to score a takedown.

“Cohlton Schultz and I, we actually wrestled when we were little,” Hendrickson said. “We had a conversation last year — we were just chatting, we’ve always been good buddies — and we were like, ‘Wow, we never wrestled when we were in college.’ Then I saw him today, and I’m like, ‘Dude.’ The world heard us because now we have like four opportunities to wrestle this year. There’s no bad blood there. We’re high-level wrestlers. We like competing against the best. We want to be the best.

“Going out there, obviously, against a good wrestler, you can’t be as loosey goosey. You gotta be a little bit more strict, and I think I’m really working on slowing down my wrestling, working on a little more technique. Because I can go out there and spaz and break a guy, but if I can do it physically and with some more technique, that’s obviously what I want. I was winning that match, and I wanted to get some more feels, get a couple shots. Cohlton, he’s a big boy. He’s got some good momentum. He rolled me through, now I know what it feels like. I’d rather experience that earlier on in the season vs. NCAAs because I don’t want to be peaking right now. I want to get as much experience as I can so by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around, we’re all peaking. We’re wrestling our absolute best.”

At 125 pounds, Troy Spratley didn’t get the opportunity to beat the No. 1 and No. 2 guys at the weight in the same weekend. Spratley, ranked sixth, thwarted No. 2 Jore Volk on Friday, but Arizona State didn’t weigh in No. 1 Richard Figueroa, who Taylor said was injured earlier in the week. Instead, the Sun Devils put out Max Brewster. Spratley pinned Brewster in the second period, causing the confetti cannons to go off.

OSU also earned bonus points at 133, 157, 174, 184 and 197. The Cowboys’ only losses of the night came when No. 18 Carter Young fell to No. 15 Jesse Vasquez at 149 pounds in a 9-7 decision, and when No. 28 Nicco Ruiz upset No. 6 Cameron Amine 4-1 in sudden-victory.

Cutter Sheets (157), Dean Hamiti Jr. (174), Dustin Plott (184) and Luke Surber (197) all won with major decisions.

Taylor has a tough choice at 133 pounds between Reece Witcraft and Cael Hughes, but it’s a good problem to have. The two have split the four duals to this point with each guy winning both of their matches. A Stillwater High grad, Hughes was up Sunday in his GIA debut, and he dismantled Carter Dibert with an 18-1 technical fall.

“It was awesome,” said Hughes of wrestling in GIA. “I don’t really have anything else to say about it. Thought I wrestled good. Just finally being out in that environment was definitely kind of a dream-come-true moment for me.”

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