OSU Wrestling Goes on the Road to Minnesota and SDSU this Weekend as Fix Makes Debut

The Cowboy wrestling team road trips to South Dakota State then onto Minnesota this weekend to open the dual season.

Here’s a preview.

Top Matches

• 133: No. 9 Daton Fix vs. No. 1 Seth Gross (SDSU)
• 125: No. 4 Nick Piccinnini vs. No. 5 Sean Russell (Minnesota)
• 133: No. 9 Daton Fix vs. No. 6 Ethan Lizak (Minnesota)
• 141: No. 5 Kaid Brock vs. No. 8 Mitch McKee (Minnesota)
• 285: No. 3 Derek White vs. No. 5 Gable Steveson (?) (Minnesota)

Since the day he committed there’s been a lot of talk surrounding Daton Fix. He was the No. 1 overall recruit in his class, and is an absolute world class wrestler as a junior champion and multiple-time world medalist.

The kid will open up his college career against two NCAA finalists in defending champ Gross, and finalist from 2017 Ethan Lizak. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Daton is without a doubt one of the best in the country on his feet. The big unknown is what can he do against elite riders. Both Lizak and Gross are that.

One interesting thing is that John Smith coaches these big matchups toward March. It’s probably to Daton’s advantage in these matches to take neutral and avoid being on bottom. My guess is Smith won’t have him do that as he’ll want him to get the work to build toward the postseason. It’ll be interesting to see the strategy they go with here.

Piccinnini has a top 10 matchup with All-American Sean Russell. OSU landed two transfers from Edinboro, Dakota Geer and Andrew Shomers, after their coach took over at WVU. Minnesota had the same fortune with Russell, who is also from Edinboro. Russell’s good, he and Piccinnini have gone back and forth a bit in their career, and it’s typically been a fairly even matchup.

Kaid Brock and Mitch McKee are another well-established rivalry. Brock owns the series in folkstyle and McKee seems to have the advantage in free. Brock will look to continue that as they both make the jump from 133 to 141 this season.

I put a question mark on the White-Steveson match as Steveson is a true freshman that is currently still under a redshirt. He has Daton Fix-like expectations. Top overall recruit in his class, Junior World champ, etc. White is ranked third in the country currently and has a legitimate shot at a NCAA title this year.

If Stevenson rips off the redshirt he’s an immediate contender as well. This could be a huge match. We just don’t really know if it will happen. In their university release, Minnesota teased that it is a possibility.

Overall Dual Expectations

Cowboys will win the dual over South Dakota State comfortably, but the Fix-Gross match is huge in a number of ways.

If Minnesota wins all four of the big individual matchups, they could make that one close, but OSU ”should” win that dual as well.

How to Watch and Follow Along

• Sat. Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m.: South Dakota State
• Sun. Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.: Minnesota

Flowrestling will carry both. It does require a subscription.

Stillwater Radio will broadcast. Due to football and basketball they will be on 94.3 FM in the Stillwater area vs 93.7 FM where it usually is. You can stream it live here.

The OSU wrestling Twitter does a solid job of providing updates and naturally we’ll have a weekend recap.