OSU Wrestling: Dustin Plott ‘at Peace’ Entering Final NCAA Championships

STILLWATER — A year removed from a runner-up finish at NCAAs, Dustin Plott enters this year’s tournament as the 4 seed in a stacked bracket that features a four-time national champion and the guy who beat Plott in last season’s NCAA final.

Despite the 184-pound weight class bulking up in competition, Plott said he enters what will be his final NCAA tournament excited, confident and at peace.

“I feel like years past, I had a little more anxiety or maybe a little bit more — not negative, but like excitement built up,” Plott said. “I feel like this year, I’m kind of just at peace. I’ve trained. I’ve done everything that I could, and confident I’m gonna get the result that I want.

“The last five years, I’ve put in a lot of great, quality work. I’ve had a lot of great coaches in my time here at Oklahoma State. The saying that the hay is in the barn, I’ve done a lot of good work over the five years — granted, every single day leading up to nationals, I’m trying to get better. But it’s been a great last several years to build up.”

Plott’s final NCAA tournament will start with a match against Princeton’s Kole Mulhauser (13-9). By the time Plott met with the media last Thursday, he said he hadn’t looked at the bracket. He didn’t even know he was set to go against the Princeton wrestler at that time, saying he’s focused on his own wrestling.

Plott said he heard he got the 4 seed, which was about where he expected to be placed. That seeding might seem odd for a guy who finished second at the weight last season, but the weight has some highly touted newcomers.

Penn State’s Carter Starocci is the 1 seed and is looking to become the first five-time NCAA champion in the sport’s history. He won his previous four national titles at 174 pounds. Starocci is 21-0 on the season.

Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen is the 2 seed. Keckeisen has been the thorn in Plott’s side for the past two seasons. Keckeisen beat Plott in last season’s national final. Plott is 49-8 over the past two seasons, and six of those losses have come against Keckeisen. Among their six matches the past two seasons, Keckeisen has won three via major decision and three being regular decision. Keckeisen is 24-0 heading into nationals. He lost to Starocci 4-1 in sudden-victory at the NWCA All-Star Classic, but that bout doesn’t count toward official records.

If the top four seeds went chalk, Plott and Keckeisen wouldn’t meet in this tournament, but if something went awry, they could meet in the backside of the bracket. Despite Plott’s struggles against Keckeisen, the UNI Panther isn’t viewed as Voldemort. Plott was asked Thursday about what it’s like going up against the same guy so many times.

“Probably alluding to Parker, right?” said Plott with a smile that is absent his two front teeth. “Every time I wrestle Parker, he’s gonna be a different version of him, and I’m gonna be a different version of me. To try to predict what he’s gonna do is probably impossible because he’s looking at areas he needs to work on. I’m looking at areas I need to work on. Obviously some stuff carries over from match to match just because of who he is as a wrestler and who I am as a wrestler, but I don’t really think it’s too predictable.”

Minnesota’s Max McEnelly (20-1) is the bracket’s 3 seed. Only a redshirt freshman, McEnelly took Starocci to sudden-victory in the Big Ten finals before Starocci finished the match with a takedown. McEnelly is on the other side of the bracket with Keckeisen, but Plott would meet the redshirt freshman in an on-paper third-place match.

So the road is treacherous, but Plott is finding his peace in that. He’ll be in the mix with the contenders are could also become the 16th wrestler in OSU’s history to reach All-America status four times so long as Plott finishes in the top eight. Daton Fix was the last Cowboy to be a four-time All-American (he’s the program’s only five-time All-American). Before that, the last Cowboy to reach the podium four times was Alex Dieringer, and before Dieringer, it was Jordan Oliver. That’s some elite company Plott could join by the end of the week.

“I just think the idea is our guys, they want to go wrestle,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “There’s a lot of stories of guys that go out, it’s their last tournament and have a great tournament. Great things happen when you’re hungry and you want to be there and you stay in the fight and you keep scoring. That’s just what we’ve done all season.

“I just told the guys, it’s about belief. You just gotta believe in your skills and your abilities and your preparation and the plan that we put in place for you guys — which they do. That’s the best that we can do going into this tournament. Whether it’s your first tournament or last tournament or somewhere in between, you get a limited amount of times to wrestle in the national tournament. Make the most of it.”

NCAA Wrestling Championships

Session 1: 11 a.m. (CT) Thursday
Session 2: 6 p.m. (CT) Thursday
Session 3: 11 a.m. (CT) Friday
Session 4: 7 p.m. (CT) Friday
Session 5: 10 a.m. (CT) Saturday
Session 6: 6 p.m. (CT) Saturday