NUMBERS in STRENGTH

THEY SAY THAT

COLLEGE ATHLETICS IS A BUSINESS. AND THAT’S TRUE — BUT ONLY PARTIALLY SO.

COLLEGE ATHLETICS IS ACTUALLY A LOT OF BUSINESSES.

IT’S A PEOPLE BUSINESS, A TRAVEL BUSINESS, A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS, A FUNDRAISING BUSINESS, A FRIEND-RAISING BUSINESS AND A MEGA-PERSONNEL OPERATION.

AND SOMETIMES IT’S JUST ABOUT THE ACCOUNTING.

The ABSOLUTE HUB for all of those operations at Oklahoma State is the southeast corner of Gallagher-Iba Arena where the business operations of Oklahoma State Athletics is housed. It is safe to say that every employee in the athletic department knows that corner of OSU very well.

Taking a recruiting trip, booking team travel, need a reimbursement, it’s all handled by the business office . Improving your facility, making a new hire, balancing your budget or worse (not balancing your budget), again it all runs through the business office.

From head coaches to department heads to administrative assistants to student employees, the business office is on a first name basis with each one of them.

The business office staffers are PART HALL MONITOR AND PART CONFIDANTE . They can keep secrets, but they are an open book — by state law. They monitor numerous budgets with too many line items to count (by anyone but them).

AS THEY SAY, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE GOING OUT OF BUSINESS YOU NEED AN ACCOUNTANT. WHEN YOU ARE IN BUSINESS YOU NEED AN ACCOUNTANT. AND WHEN YOU ARE IN A LOT OF BUSINESSES, LIKE COLLEGE ATHLETICS, YOU NEED THE BUSINESS OFFICE OF OKLAHOMA STATE.

Designs On

Ask Alex Dieringer

IF HE THOUGHT HE WOULD MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF IN ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST DOMINANT SPORTS DYNASTIES, AND HE WOULD TELL YOU WITHOUT HESITATION AND WITH BEAMING CONFIDENCE … “Yes!” And he’s done just that.

DIERINGER CAME TO OKLAHOMA STATE IN 2012 FROM PORT WASHINGTON, WIS., AND REDSHIRTED HIS FIRST SEASON AS A COWBOY WRESTLER.

HE ADMITTED TO HAVING HIS SHARE OF STRUGGLES WHEN HE GOT HIS FIRST TASTE OF COLLEGIATE WRESTLING.

“It’s a big difference from high school,” Dieringer said. “The main thing is being able to finish a takedown. Once you get to college, it’s really hard to finish on the really good guys. They practice a lot of defense. That was the hardest thing. I pretty much flipped a switch halfway through the season and just started winning some matches. I had to make a change and make it quick, and that’s what happened.”

However, Dieringer didn’t win just some matches. He won almost all of them during his redshirt season, compiling a 17-1 record as he competed exclusively in open tournaments.

Although a redshirt season may not mean much to onlookers, it was crucial for Dieringer as it gave him a chance to acclimate to collegiate-level wrestling.

Dieringer came out strong in the 2012-13 season, rolling through his competition on a weekly basis. In fact, he started the season 14-0 before his first hiccup of the year, falling to Penn State’s James Volrath in a tiebreaker match at the Southern Scuffle. Just three matches later, he came face-to-face with the first roadblock in his career — Iowa’s Derek St. John.

That mindset helped Dieringer as he flattened Ness, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first period with a takedown and near-fall. He added a pair of takedowns, another near-fall and a riding time advantage of more than two minutes to seal his first NCAA title.

“I WAS READY FOR HIS FUNKY STYLE OF WRESTLING,” Dieringer said. “Two weeks before winning my national title, Jordan Oliver worked with me every day. He actually helped me with the Dylan Ness gator bacon move. We didn’t know I was going to end up wrestling him, but Jordan got me prepared for it and I was ready for it and ended up coming away with a pretty DOMINANT win.”

Dieringer didn’t get the semifinals matchup against St. John like he hoped, but he achieved what he had worked so hard for.

“It was bittersweet,” he said. “I wanted to wrestle [St. John] because I hadn’t beat him before, but then again, I went up against a good opponent that I had beaten before and it made my journey to my first title a little bit smoother. I DON’T NECESSARILY WANT IT TO BE SMOOTH, BUT I ENDED UP WITH THE TROPHY SO THAT’S WHAT MATTERS.

“Ever since I was really young, my main goal was to be a national champ. That goal is what I have been working for since I was in fifth grade. I’ve been working a long time for this so to reach that goal of becoming a national champ was an incredible feeling.”

Dieringer finished the 2013-14 season with a 32-1 record, which included 10 wins over ranked opponents and 19 bonuspoint wins. In the end, it didn’t matter that his season record had just one small blemish — he was a national champion and proved he was the guy to beat.

“I JUST WANTED TO DOMINATE When I won at 157 pounds, I competed pretty well. I had 19 bonus-point wins, and I knew I could do better than that so the next year, I came in and said that I wanted 10 more than that. I went up a weight, too, so I just wanted to prove that I’m still the guy to beat and that I CAN CONTINUE TO DOMINATE.”

DOMINATE, HE DID.

The junior debuted at a new weight, 165 pounds, when he was invited to compete at the prestigious NATIONAL WRESTLING COACHES ASSOCIATION’S ALL-STAR CLASSIC . He was pitted against 2014 NCAA fourth-place finisher Nick Sulzer of Virginia, who was a seasoned 165-pounder. The Cowboy showed that he belonged in the new weight class, securing the only takedown of the match and defeating Sulzer, 4-2.

As the season progressed, it became clear that there was no stopping Dieringer, who held a yearlong No. 1 ranking.

Throughout the season, he met up with four opponents who were ranked in the top five. With each matchup, Dieringer began to separate himself more and more from his competition, including a 14-4 beating of No. 2 Mike Moreno of Iowa State at the 2015 Big 12 Championships in Ames, Iowa. It was Dieringer’s thirdconsecutive Big 12 title.

“I always respect my opponents, but I just tell myself that I’m going to win the match. I picture myself winning in 20 different ways before I wrestle, and I just have to keep a positive mindset,” he said. “I want to dominate so badly. If I win by less than a major decision, I get frustrated. Having that mindset is huge. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m different. A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE WRESTLING FOR SECOND, NOT FIRST. I have this mindset where if I don’t DOMINATE, I get irritated and I go back to the room and I work on it.”

That mindset propelled Dieringer to another successful season and put him in a position to take the NCAA title at 165 pounds.

He entered the tournament with a perfect record and LED THE TEAM IN WINS, DUAL WINS, BONUS-POINT WINS, WINS BY FALL, WINS BY TECHNICAL FALL, DUAL TAKEDOWNS AND DUAL NEAR-FALLS.

His 2015 tournament run was just as impressive as the previous year. He opened with two secondperiod falls. He also notched an 18-6 major decision over Jackson Morse of Illinois in a match that saw the Cowboy give up only his second takedown of the season.

A lot of talk surrounded his semifinal matchup with Ohio State’s fifth-ranked Bo Jordan. It was their first meeting, and they were known as two of the most dominant athletes in their respective conferences. Dieringer hushed any doubters, putting Jordan away with a 6-1 win to make his second-consecutive appearance in the NCAA finals.

As usual, Dieringer put on an exciting show in the finals as he defeated the nation’s leading pinner, Taylor Walsh of Indiana, 14-7, to not only secure his second national title but also his 100th career win. In reaching the century mark, he joined the likes of fellow Cowboy greats John Smith, Pat Smith, Kenny Monday and Kendall Cross, just to name a few.

WITH HIS SENIOR SEASON UNDERWAY, DIERINGER SITS ON A 49-MATCH WIN STREAK, A CAREER RECORD OF 100-4 AND HOPES OF BECOMING THE FIRST COWBOY WRESTLER TO WIN THREE NATIONAL TITLES SINCE 2006.

WHAT’S HIS GOAL THIS SEASON?

CONTINUE TO DOMINATE.

“If I want to be one of the best OSU wrestlers to ever compete, I have to dominate like last year, maybe even more. If I do that, I’ll be one of the most dominant guys to ever come out of this program, and that’s what I’m aiming for,” he said. “I HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT OF WORK THIS YEAR AND FOCUS ON THE GOAL. I JUST KEEP ATTACKING — ALWAYS. I CAN’T BE SCARED TO GET TAKEN DOWN. I HAVE TO KEEP TAKING SHOTS. If I’m constantly doing that in the room and creating those habits, that’s going to translate into success on the mat.”

This season, as the Oklahoma State wrestling program celebrates 100 years of history, Alex Dieringer is making it his mission to assure his place w ithin the tradition of the program.

“I KNEW COMING HERE WITH ALL THE TRADITION AND SUCCESS THAT THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE,” Dieringer said.