Cowboys open home with win over Oregon State

STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State wrestling team continued its undefeated season with a 27-9 victory over No. 16 Oregon State on Sunday afternoon at Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Cowboys moved to 8-0 with the win, while Oregon State fell to 5-3.

OSU fell behind early, facing a 9-5 deficit after three matches, but it rattled off seven straight wins to ultimately claim the dual. It was an afternoon full of tight matches, as four Cowboys picked up wins in either sudden victory or tiebreakers, OSU’s most in a dual since at least 2002-03.

The Cowboys are now 6-0 against ranked opponents and 13-1 in their last 14 duals overall. With the win, coach John Smith improved to 26-1 as OSU head coach in headto- head match-ups with his former wrestlers. Additionally, he trails Harold Nichols by just eight victories at 484 for second-most in Division I wrestling history.

Daton Fix got the Cowboys on the board at 133 pounds with a dominant 22-6 technical fall over No. 26 Gabe Whisenhunt, his fifth bonus-point win in just six matches this season.

With OSU trailing after three matches, Sammy Alvarez made his Gallagher-Iba Arena debut in a big match against No. 15 Nash Singleton at 149 pounds. The two wrestlers traded escapes and went to sudden victory, but Alvarez finally found his offense to secure the much-needed 4-1 decision.

Teague Travis then improved his dual record to 8-0 with a 4-2 decision over Isaiah Crosby, which was followed by Izzak Olejnik’s 10-1 major decision against Kekana Fouret. Olejnik suffered his first defeat of the season a week ago against West Virginia’s Peyton Hall, but responded well on Sunday with his 10th bonus-point win this season.

Holding a 15-9 edge, the Cowboys put the dual away with four straight wins over ranked foes by Brayden Thompson, Dustin Plott, Luke Surber and Konner Doucet.

Thompson took on Matthew Olguin, who entered Sunday as the No. 13 165-pounder in the country. The match made its way into sudden victory, but Thompson grinded out a takedown with just six seconds remaining for the 4-1 decision.

In the marquee match-up of the day, second-ranked Dustin Plott defeated No. 4 Trey Munoz 4-2 at 184 pounds. Plott got the key takedown early in the third period and was able to hold off Munoz for his second career top-five victory. His first was just 16 days ago against No. 5 Dylan Fishback of North Carolina State.

After missing much of the season due to injury, Luke Surber picked up his first dual win since the season opener, defeating No. 28 Justin Rademacher 9-6 in sudden victory.

At heavyweight, Konner Doucet faced No. 11 Boone McDermott for the second time this season after defeating the Beaver at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in December. Just as they did in Las Vegas, the two competed into tiebreakers, as a ride out by Doucet lifted him to a 2-1 decision.

The Cowboys are set to continue their home stretch this weekend with duals against No. 23 Northern Iowa on Friday and No. 4 Iowa State the very next day.