Oklahoma State wrestling dominates Bedlam for Cowboys' 20th consecutive win vs. Sooners
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
NORMAN — Even the more-orange-than-red crowd of OU's McCasland Field House couldn’t drown out what must’ve been the loudest screams of Reece Witcraft’s life.
Witcraft, the Oklahoma State wrestling team’s 133-pound starter, let out a mighty yell, then pulled off his headgear and howled again, having just completed a wildly unexpected turnaround to pin his OU opponent.
Nearly two hours later, OSU won the Bedlam dual, 35-3 on Friday night, but the final eight matches felt more like a formality in finishing the third-ranked Cowboys’ 20th-straight win over their rivals.
From the moment Witcraft put OU’s Cleveland Belton on his back, this was the Cowboys’ night.
“Holy cow,” OSU coach David Taylor said of Witcraft’s wild win. “It was another opportunity for Reece where things didn’t go his way and he just stayed the course and found a way. He could’ve stopped wrestling. He didn’t and he found a way to get himself in a good situation.
“It was big. Good momentum for us, a little deflating for the opposition. That’s wrestling. You wrestle til the whistle’s blown, and he was able to keep doing that.”
What made Witcraft’s pin so impactful was that the redshirt senior from Broken Arrow had been inches away from getting pinned by Belton only a few minutes earlier.
“I got to my back and said, ‘This ain’t good,’” Witcraft said with a deadpan smile. “I got on my head and I tried to sprint out. Just kept fighting.”
With his body arched from his heels to his head, Witcraft somehow kept his shoulders up. Then he went on the attack.
Trailing 8-2 in the third period, he faked a low shot, then went high, turning Belton’s shoulders and putting him on his back for the pin with over a minute left in the match.
As soon as he got to the locker room, Witcraft texted his father.
“After the Las Vegas tournament, my dad said to me, when I throw people to their back, keep running my feet,” Witcraft said. “I texted my dad right after, ‘I ran my feet, man.’”
Witcraft’s pin put the Cowboys up 10-0, having followed a major decision by OSU’s Troy Spratley at 125 pounds.
Though OU’s 149-pound Willie McDougald pulled out a 7-6 decision in tiebreaker overtime, the Cowboys essentially dominated from the start.
Fish finishes with flurry
OSU’s Caleb Fish, who had been set to redshirt until making his Cowboy debut at 157 pounds last week in Las Vegas, was working to preserve a 1-0 lead in the closing seconds of his match, but ended up with a 6-0 win.A senior who transferred from Michigan State, Fish had already secured a riding time point and maintained top position on OU’s Carter Schubert.
But rather than a simple rideout, Fish worked his way to a four-point nearfall.
“We just like to see guys scoring at the end of periods,” Taylor said. “We like to see guys finishing periods on top, finishing matches on top. Those are good things.
“You want to finish that way, so it was really good for him. And we take some pride in committing the top position. Getting a rideout and then a turn at the end, that’s good.”
Fish has made it to the NCAA Championships in each of his previous three seasons, and brings valuable experience to the 157-pound class for the Cowboys. He is 11-3 for the season, but 8-1 since pulling his redshirt just over a week ago.
Cowboys level up with bonus points
One of the biggest keys to the Cowboys’ success early this season has been their knack for bonus points.Friday night was the same story.
The Cowboys started the night with a pair of bonus-point wins, then added to it with major decisions by Cameron Amine at 165 pounds and Dustin Plott at 184.
The night ended with OSU heavyweight Wyatt Hendrickson, one of the Cowboys’ most prominent bonus-point scorers, adding to the mix.
His 19-4 technical fall over OU’s Juan Mora was Hendrickson’s eighth bonus win of the season, with four technical falls and four pins in 10 matches.
“Taylor emphasizes it heavily,” Witcraft said of the team’s drive for bonus points. “Obviously, you want to score majors, get bonus points, but it’s mainly just wrestling the next moment, the next exchange.
“It’s just staying in there, wrestling every moment and getting the next takedown.”
One last special touch of the night was OSU’s new orange singlet, which had the team’s well-known chevrons on the back and the script “Cowboys” across the front.
“We talk about having pride in wearing the orange singlet,” Taylor said. “We got a mix of the traditional chevron and the newness with the cursive ‘Cowboys’ on the front, and keeping the tradition of the orange singlet.
“The guys looked good, and the singlets looked good, too.”
Bedlam wrestling results
At McCasland Field House, NormanOSU 35, OU 3
125: Troy Spratley, OSU, major dec. Antonio Lorenzo, 10-1
133: Reece Witcraft, OSU, pinned Cleveland Belton, 6:42
141: Tagen Jamison, OSU, dec. Mosha Schwartz, 8-3
149: Willie McDougald, OU, dec. Carter Young, 7-6, TB
157: Caleb Fish, OSU, dec. Carter Schubert, 6-0
165: Cameron Amine, OSU, major dec. Tate Picklo, 14-3
174: Dean Hamiti, OSU, dec. Gaven Sax, 4-0
184: Dustin Plott, OSU, major dec. DJ Parker, 19-6
197: Luke Surber, OSU, dec. Bradley Hill, 8-2
HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson, OSU, tech. fall, Juan Mora, 19-4
