OSU Wrestling Releases 2018-19 Schedule

Oklahoma State released its upcoming 2018-19 wrestling schedule on Tuesday.

Get your calendars marked; it's all set! The Cowboys are at GIA for seven duals, including a Feb. 24 bout with Iowa! #OKState https://t.co/cUsWnyIk8i pic.twitter.com/wvoJk3mbgT

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) September 11, 2018

We had received bits of the scheduled in advance based on other schedules. Namely, OU releasing theirs and there only being one Bedlam matchup this season.

The Cowboys open up with the OCU open tournament on November 4th. There are no public ranking matches listed on the schedule, something we discussed earlier this year. This tournament is as close as it gets to having one. It’s an open, so it’s usually lower division schools, club teams, and OU and OSU.

What that ultimately results in is a lot of weights where the tournament final consists only of Cowboys and those matches end up indicating who will start. You also get to see how a lot of the younger wrestlers are developing. For me personally, these types of tournaments can almost be more intriguing than duals.

The first dual is a Big 12 matchup with South Dakota State on the road. OSU as a whole will be favored fairly heavily, but probably one of the more intriguing matchups in the entire Big 12 will happen when either Daton Fix, Nick Piccininni, Kaid Brock, or Kaden Gfeller take on defending NCAA champ Seth Gross. I say all four of those guys because it’s still not clear what weight Gross or even our guys will be at.

Minnesota will have some intrigue at both 133, 141 and 285. There should be a couple other solid matchups, but those will both be worth the price of admission. Then the Cowboys return to Stillwater for Wyoming and Bedlam. They’ll be massive favorites in both, but a few good matches for each dual.

Northern Colorado on the road is strange. OSU went there last year. Also, OU, UNI, and ISU are all coming to Stillwater for consecutive years. And I’m not sure why that’s the case.

The two tournaments over Christmas break are the Reno TOC and the Southern Scuffle. Both are very tough tournaments every year. Typically, OSU only sends starters to one with the tournaments so close to each other, so I’d guess that’s what happens here.

The Cowboys go on the road for two-straight weekends in January wrestling Princeton/Rutgers and Pitt/WVU. Rutgers is the most intriguing of those. They then come back for a home stretch with ISU, UNI, Lehigh, and Air Force.

The Cowboys save the best for last with Missouri on the road and the final home dual vs. Iowa on February 24. In the first preseason rankings released the Cowboys were No. 3 and Iowa was No. 4. Mizzou was ranked 10th. Both teams won duals over OSU last year.

Naturally, it’s closed out in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.

Overall, it’s a pretty good schedule. At least one big tournament, which the starters didn’t get last year. Two sure to be heavily-attended home duals with OU and Iowa. And the rest of the schedule has plenty of individual matchups worth getting out for as a fan and tough road tests that will push the team.