Dustin Plott wins U23 Freestyle National Championship, other Cowboys place

Dustin Plott will join Team USA Wrestling’s U23 World Team.

Plott, OSU’s 174-pound starter, won the U23 Freestyle National Championship at 79 kg in Geneva, Ohio, for the second-straight year on Sunday, clinching him a spot in U23 World Championships in Tampere, Finland, from Oct. 23-29.

More than a dozen Cowboy wrestlers competed at the U20 and U23 World Team Trials this weekend, highlighted by Plott’s title and OSU wrestling signee Christian Carroll taking home the U20 title at 125 kg to send both to the World Championships. Luke Surber finished second in the U23 at 92 kg. Over the weekend, Plott went 7-0 but faced his toughest challenge in the best-of-three finals against Carson Kharchla, a 2022 All-American from Ohio State. Kharchla jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening match, but Plott stormed back quickly and scored 20 unanswered points – most of which came from a single leg lace series – to tech fall Kharchla 21-10. In the second match, Plott, a two-time AllAmerican, pinned Kharchla to win the title.

Carroll, the No. 1 pound-for-pound recruit in the 2023 recruiting class, will join the Cowboys for the 2023-24 season, but first he’s headed to Warsaw, Poland, in September to represent Team USA at the U20 World Championships. Carroll swept the championship series, winning

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201 S. Perkins Rd · 405-372-7170 both matches 10-0, with the second match win coming in 17 seconds. sports.ed@ocolly.com

Surber made the U23 92 kg finals against Jacob Cardenas, an All-American from Cornell, and took the first match in a 10-0 tech fall. However, Cardenas pulled out a close 18-15 win in the second match and 10-0 tech in the final match to earn Surber a runnerup finish.

In the U20, incoming redshirt freshman Troy Spratley, a transfer from Minnesota, was runner up at 57 kg. Incoming freshmen Cael Hughes (61 kg) and Brayden Thompson (86 kg) finished second in their weights as well. Jordan Williams (65 kg) and Hayden Simpson (125 kg), both freshmen in 2022-23, earned eighth-place placings in their respective classes. Simpson also placed fourth in the U20 GrecoRoman division at 130 kg.