OSU Wrestling: Schedule No Longer Includes Trip to Italy, Dual With Minnesota

Oklahoma State wasn’t planning on loading up so many of its starters on the bus to Saint Charles, Missouri, for the Lindenwood Open this weekend.

The Cowboys’ schedule has nearly a month between its season-opening win against Bucknell on Nov. 10 and their next dual against Lehigh on Dec. 8. Because of the lull, over 30 OSU wrestlers competed at the Lindenwood Open on Saturday. The only other action between then and that next dual with Lehigh is the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1-2.

OSU’s schedule for 2023-24 wasn’t supposed to be this way, though. Instead of traveling to Saint Charles, Missouri, for an open tournament this weekend, John Smith said the Cowboys should have been taking on Minnesota.

“Minnesota was scheduled,” Smith said. “We worked with them for, I don’t know, hell, three months, seemed like. Somehow they wiggled out of it. That’s about the best word I can use. I was thinking of something worse than that. …

“Anyway, it leaves us a date. First time in, I don’t know, my whole career that our schedule was set and we had to go back and change it. It’s never happened.”

Another change on OSU’s schedule that was quietly announced last week was the Cowboys’ dual with North Carolina State changed locations. The two were set to meet at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, Italy on Dec. 30. OSU announced, though, that “the two programs mutually decided on the change,” turning the agreement into a home-and-home series at both campus sites. This season’s dual will now be on Jan. 5 at Raleigh, North Carolina. The dual in Stillwater will be in 2025.

“I understood that,” Smith said. “That was something that really wasn’t my decision, but I felt like it was a really, probably important that we did that. Not gonna make any excuses for why we’re not. There are obvious reasons why we’re not traveling. …

“That’s gonna help our schedule a little bit, because we have a really good home dual meet schedule this year. That’s gonna add some strength to it.”

No other details about the location change were announced by either university.

The Cowboys will return to Gallagher-Iba Arena at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 to host Lehigh.