Bottom bummer Monday, January 31, 2022
Cowboys continue bottom position struggles in loss to Iowa State
Adam Engel Staff Reporter As the buzzer sounded, Wyatt Sheets crouched on the mat, panting from exhaustion. Seconds later, he walked to the center of the mat and flashed a fake smile as he shook hands with Iowa State’s David Carr. Carr, the defending national champion at 157 pounds, ripped off his headgear and ran toward the Cyclone bench while celebrating. Authentic smiles and a dominating win. That was a pattern for Iowa State. The struggles on bottom were evident as Oklahoma State dropped a 20-12 dual to Iowa State Sunday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena. With the loss, No. 3 Oklahoma State dropped consecutive home duals for the first time since 1993. “The weekend showed some things,” Cowboy coach John Smith said. “How easy it is to get distracted, and it can just throw you off. I feel like there’s been a lot of distractions this week and not to make excuses. But really, when you have multiple distractions, it doesn’t take a whole lot to throw you off. You go from being a pretty good team to average real quickly. We’re definitely average right now.” And like a night before, the Cowboys continued to struggle in the bottom position. Five of the Cyclones’ six individual wins resulted in riding time points. “When you’re losing matches with riding time, that’s just attitude,” Smith said. “It’s got something to do with skill. Trust me, skill is important, but really, it’s just attitude. Just a matter of wanting to get out. Determined to get out. That’s it.” ISU’s Kysen Terukina earned his first career win against OSU’s Trevor Mastrogiovanni with a 2-1 score at 125-pounds. Terukina accumulated 1:43 of riding time to defeat the previously undefeated Cowboy. At 133, Daton Fix was one of two Cowboys to win with riding time. He clocked 2:32 of it as he defeated Ramazan Attasauov 5-1. Even then, Fix expressed his frustrations with his weekend performance. “I need to change something,” he said. “Two disappointing performances from really a lot of us, even me. Two takedowns in two matches. That’s as minimum as it gets for me. It doesn’t really matter if the guy is not trying to wrestle. Shouldn’t matter. I gotta do more. Be more active. Create more opportunities to score.” Carter Young, OSU’s 141-pounder, dropped his third bout of the season. No. 11 Ian Parker completely limited No. 21 Young in a 4-0 bout with riding time. A bout later, No. 14 Kaden Gfeller earned a standing ovation with a 6-4 sudden victory win. In a fast-paced scrap that featured several reviews and scrambles, Gfeller’s offense continues to improve. He hasn’t lost since November. At 165 pounds, Travis Wittlake defeated ISU’s Isaac Judge 5-1 with 1:44 riding time. It was Wittlake’s first win since returning from an undisclosed injury. Dustin Plott used the frustration of a pin via loss Saturday night to dominate Joel Devine of Iowa State 6-1 with two minutes of riding time at 174. No. 8 Marcus Coleman of Iowa State pummeled No. 9 Dakota Geer 8-3 with riding time at 184-pounds. In a bout critical to the dual score, Geer failed to win. A win would’ve extended OSU’s 12-10 lead. Instead, ISU led 13-12 with two bouts remaining. It was Geer’s second consecutive loss and like many Cowboys, he failed to emerge from bottom and surrendered a riding time point. Smith attributed the defensive struggles to attitude and a lack of toughness. But how can OSU demonstrate that to overcome this negative? “A lot of ways,” Smith said. “We’ll get better. Not gonna tell you everything but I’ll just say we’ll get better. We’ll get better on bottom. I’m not too worried about it. We’re just behind maybe. I don’t want to take anything from any teams that we’ve competed about but definitely Iowa State has been the best. I think even yesterday, Northern Iowa, they wrestled us better than anyone.” Gavin Stika, OSU’s newest 197-pounder, allowed an 18-6 major decision with riding time to No. 16 Yonger Bastida. A win would’ve put OSU back in front, but instead, left heavyweight Luke Surber needing a pin in the final bout for the dual win. No. 29 Surber failed to record a takedown as No. 21 Sam Schuyler collected a 4-2 win and ultimately, a Cyclone victory.
Habbie Colen
Despite the loss, the Cowboys remain hopeful that this weekend was an anomaly. “I know this sucks, these two losses, but lets use it to help us achieve something better,” Gfeller said. “Something we haven’t done in a while, and I think we still can. We got the guys to do it. Call me crazy but we’ll see come March.”
Match results: 125: No. 19 Kysen Terukina (ISU) dec. No. 6 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OSU), 2-1
174: No. 8 Dustin Plott (OSU) dec. No. 18 Joel Devine (ISU), 6-1 184: No. 8 Marcus Coleman (ISU) dec. No. 9 Dakota Geer (OSU), 8-3 197: No. 16 Yonger Bastida (ISU) MD Gavin Stika (OSU), 18-6 HWT: No. 21 Sam Schuyler (ISU) dec. No. 29 Luke Surber (OSU), 4-2
133: No. 2 Daton Fix (OSU) dec. No. 33 Ramazan Attasauov (ISU), 5-1 141: No. 11 Ian Parker (ISU) dec. No. 21 Carter Young (OSU), 4-0 149: No. 14 Kaden Gfeller (OSU) dec. No. 21 Jarrett Degen (ISU), SV-1 6-4 157: No. 1 David Carr (ISU) MD No. 13 Wyatt Sheets (OSU), 12-3 165: No. 6 Travis Wittlake (OSU) dec. Isaac Judge (ISU), 5-1
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