Session I Recap: Cowboys Go 8-2 on Thursday Morning at NCAA Championships, Second to Penn State

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The Cowboys are in a good spot after the opening session in Philadelphia — even despite suffering an upset loss.

Oklahoma State went 8-2 at the opening session of the NCAA Championships, securing five bonus-point wins. Things were mostly chalk for the Cowboys, but Luke Surber was upset in what was a chaotic opening round for the 197-pound bracket.

The Cowboys sit in second in the team race after the morning session, trailing only runaway favorite Penn State. OSU’s 15.5 team points after one session is the most the program has scored in an opening session since 2005 when applying the current scoring system.

How does that happen? Well, Troy Spratley, Dean Hamiti Jr. and Dustin Plott all opened their tournaments with technical fall victories. Wyatt Hendrickson pinned his first-round foe.

“I think we had a good round this morning,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “We went 8-2, scored some bonus points, got the ball rolling. It’s the national tournament — nothing’s easy. You just gotta focus on seven minutes at a time. So now no matter what happens, the guys that won, we get some rest, we gotta come back, next seven minutes. The guys that lost, same thing. We gotta come back. We gotta refocus seven minutes. It’s just a one-match-at-a-time mentality in this tournament. I feel like our energy looks good. I think our guys are focused. It’s just a matter of just taking one match at a time.”

OSU 149-pounder Teague Travis was the first Cowboy to take the mat Thursday morning. Travis entered as the 33 seed after missing most of the season with injury before bumping down a weight and earning an automatic qualification at the Big 12 Championships. He wrestled a pigtail match against Campbell’s Wynton Denkins, where Travis proved he’s no ordinary 33 seed. Travis beat Denkins with an 11-1 major decision.

Travis’ reward for that win was a matchup with top-seeded Caleb Henson, who hasn’t lost this season. Travis gave Henson some troubles. Travis was in on a leg on the edge of the mat in the second and third periods, but Henson was able to get to the end of the period both times and beat Travis 4-0. That competitive outing against a top seed shows Travis can make some noise in the consolations. He’ll start his consolation run against Army’s Trae McDaniel on Thursday evening.

Hendrickson closed the Cowboys’ morning by pinning Michigan State’s Max Vanadia in 1:18. Hendrickson is the 2 seed in this heavyweight bracket behind only Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, an Olympic champion. It’s going to be tough for anybody to best Steveson this weekend, but for what it’s worth, Hendrickson pinned his opening-round opponent seven seconds quicker than Steveson did his.

Spratley didn’t give up a point in his opening-round bout, pummeling Virginia’s Keyveon Roller 15-0 in two periods. He gets Northern Colorado’s Stevo Poulin in the second round.

Hamiti also won via a tech fall, besting Lock Haven’s Avery Bassett 18-1 after taking Bassett down early in the third period to end it. Hamiti will matchup with NC State’s Matty Singleton in the next round. Hamiti beat Singleton 8-4 in a dual in January.

Plott made quick work of his first opponent, as he teched Princeton’s Kole Mulhasser 18-1. He’ll wrestle Columbia’s Nick Fine up next.

The 197-pound bracket is in chaos, and unfortunately for the Cowboys, Surber was included in that. Surber led The Citadel’s Patrick Brophy 7-2 after a second-period escape, but Brophy came out on the right side of a scramble in that second period and managed a seven-point move with a takedown and four nearfall points. Down 9-7 going into the third, Surber was pushing for a takedown and was taken down and ended up on his back again, dropping the bout 18-7.

Surber is the 8 seed and was one of four in the top 10 seeds of the 197-pound bracket to lose in the opening round. Compounding that disappointing outing, Surber now has to wrestle 9 seed Zac Braunagel (Illinois) in the first round of the consolations, as Braunagel was also upset. The loser of that match will be done after just two matches.

There wasn’t a ton of chaos outside of the 197-pound bracket, but there was a big upset at 149. Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson, the 4 seed and Big 12 champion, dropped his opening match to 29 seed Jack Gioffre in tiebreakers.

Top 10 in Team Standings

Session II

What: Second round, consolation first round
When: 6 p.m. (CT) Thursday
Watch: ESPN/ESPN+