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OSU Wrestling: Five Things to Watch in the Princeton Dual

This should be one of the better home duals all season

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Coming off Thanksgiving, and a two-week break, the Cowboys return to action against 12th-ranked Princeton on Friday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Here are five things to watch in what should be another really good test for this young Oklahoma State team.

1. Nick Piccininni vs. Pat Glory

Glory and Piccininni met three times last season: In the dual at Princeton and twice in the NCAA tournament. All three matches were great. In the first, Glory got up early with a few takedowns, and Nick came back on top with a few turns to win. Ultimately all three resulted in wins for Piccininni and all followed a similar pattern to the first.

Glory was able to hang on his feet, but Nick took over with his mat wrestling. It will be really interesting to see what adjustments Glory and the Princeton staff have made to counter Piccininni’s strengths on top and if Piccininni can maintain that edge he held over Glory last season.

2. Legacy match at 157

Old school Oklahoma State fans are going to love this one. The starting 157 for Princeton is Quincy Monday, son of Oklahoma State legend Kenny Monday. The starting 157 for OSU is Wyatt Sheets, son of Oklahoma State legend Mike Sheets. You could go on all day about the legacies of their dads at Oklahoma State. All-American honors, NCAA titles, Outstanding Wrestler awards, Olympic medals and more.

Now their sons are carving out their own legacies at their respective schools and meet for the first time here. Monday is ranked 9th according to FloWrestling’s most recent rankings and Sheets is ranked 24th. Sheets’ lone loss on the season was to Josh Humphreys who Monday has beaten twice this year already. This should be a good match.

With Monday’s early wins he’s elevated himself to that round of 12/All-American level ranking that fans want to see Sheets break into. A win for Sheets here is feasible and would go a long way in continuing to build his NCAA tournament resume.

3. Can Dakota Geer challenge Patrick Brucki?

There seemed to be some confusion about the weight plans for the Cowboys at 184-197 early in the season. In the first media availability Dakota Geer said his plans were 184. So far he’s been up at 197 all season with Anthony Montalvo at 184, and though there’s nothing definitive on it, it looks like that will be the case moving forward.

This will be the biggest challenge for Geer to date at 197. Brucki finished 4th at the NCAA tournament last year and is now ranked 2nd at the weight. If Geer can take out a guy on Brucki’s level at 197, that will be a very clear indication that this was a great move for the Cowboys (and Geer) and will also be a very promising sign moving forward. If he struggles it may be interesting to see if he considers the move back down to 184.

4. A really good dual

Those three matches I’ve already mentioned all should be great, but this should be a really good dual all the way around. In the preseason I talked about this, but basically every dual this season should be intriguing and competitive. I ranked Princeton at No. 3 on my top 10 list of most exciting duals heading into the season, and as we’ve seen the season go, I think it’s definitely setting up to be that good.

There are really 7-8 matches that could go either way and even though there are guys you would certainly favor at certain weights, every match should be competitive and this dual could definitely go either way.

5. Will we see Joe Smith or Kaden Gfeller?

In the offseason most, including myself, had these two penciled in as the starters at 141 and 174 this year. A few weeks into the season and the question I’m most often asked is what is their status and when/will we see them?

The answer for Joe is no. John said at the media availability he doesn’t meet the weight descent requirements, but could be available for Bedlam.

For Gfeller, there’s a chance. Smith said it’s about 50/50 that he’ll be back healthy off his injury, but he also thinks he has a good guy in Dusty Hone who still may get the start.

How to follow

Live: Gallagher Iba Arena-Friday December 6th-7:00 PM
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: 93.7

 

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