Red-hot Oklahoma now sets sight on 32nd Las Vegas Invite

WIN’s College Notebook – Dec. 5

Sooners top Cowboys to highlight big duals weekend

Last weekend featured several college dual meets among several of the top NCAA Division I rivals … and none was bigger than the Bedlam Series in Norman, Okla., where Oklahoma University rallied from a 15-3 deficit to beat Oklahoma State, 16-15, on Nov. 1.

The win, which occurred in front of a sellout crowd of 3,355 people, marked OU’s first win over the in-state rival since Dec. 7, 2008.

“To tell you the truth, getting upset in two of the lighter weights, I was concerned, but I wasn’t feeling like we were completely out of it,” Sooner coach Mark Cody said. “But it doesn’t matter how I feel. It matters how the guys who are going to run out there and wrestle for us feel.”

After Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson blanked Eddie Klimara, 5-0, the Cowboys won the next five matches, including a 4-3 upset win by Josh Kindig over defending national champion Kendric Maple at 149 pounds.

But after Oklahoma State’s Tyler Caldwell defeated Clark Glass, 10-4, to give the Cowboys a 15-3 lead, the Sooners won their final four bouts … and none were bigger than No. 2 Andrew Howe’s 4-2 win over defending national champion Chris Perry at 174 pounds. This is Howe’s first season with OU after earning three All-American honors and one national championship for Wisconsin before transferring to Oklahoma last year.

Later, another Wisconsin transfer Travis Rutt, also in his first year at OU, scored a 12-3 major decision against All-American Blake Rosholt at 197 pounds.

The final match of the dual came at heavyweight where OU freshman Ross Larsen edged Austin Marsden, 3-2.

“I was ready to go,” Larson said of his bout. “Travis getting the major decision, I knew if I got the win, we were going to win the dual. I wasn’t nervous at all. I just carried the momentum into my match.”

In other notable dual meets:

            • Iowa won 11^th straight over in-state rival Iowa State, 23-9 —Among Iowa’s seven victories before 6,261 fans in Ames, Iowa, was a 3-1 victory over Mike Moreno at 165 pounds. While Iowa did score bonus points twice in majors by Tony Ramos (133) over Dakota Bauer at 133, and Mike Evans’ 10-1 victory over Tanner Weatherman at 174, freshman Cory Clark needed riding time to edge Earl Hall, 8-7, at 125 pounds.

            • Schiller leads Minnesota over Meeks and Oregon State in Corvallis — Junior Scott Schiller avenged an earlier-season loss over Oregon State’s Taylor Meeks by beating the Beaver, 3-1, in overtime to help the visiting Gophers beat OSU, 28-12. Another notable win by Minnesota was a 4-3 decision by Nick Dardanes over Scott Sakaguchi at 149 pounds. The biggest win by Oregon State was a pin by Alex Elder over Dan Zilverberg at 165 pounds.

• Freshmen lead Lehigh to 3-0 at NE Duals — Lehigh’s nationally-ranked Joey Napoli and Mason Beckman won all three bouts to help the Mountain Hawks defeat Central Michigan, Virginia and Columbia at the Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. But it was a pair of freshmen — Elliot Riddick and Laike Gardner — who tallied the biggest upset wins for coach Pat Santoro. Riddick defeated CMU’s Mike Ottinger and Virginia’s Stephen Doty, while Gardner defeated Virginia’s Joe Spisak.

“Elliot has a great gas tank,” Lehigh coach Santoro said. “You don’t see it if you make weight the wrong way. Today you saw it. He needed two takedowns in the second match and he got them. He got five takedowns in the third period of the last two matches and that was key.

Looking Ahead: What will happen in Vegas?

Among the more notable upcoming college events is the 32^nd Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, which will be held this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6-7, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Overall, 78 wrestlers — ranked by WIN in the Dec. 2 ratings — are expected to compete among the 28 NCAA Division I teams entered in this year’s event. (There are five non-Division I programs also competing.)

Of those ranked wrestlers, 34 are rated in the top 10 of their weight classes:

125 — No. 2 Nahshon Garrett (Cornell), No. 4 Jarrod Patterson (Oklahoma), No. 5 Tyler Cox (Wyoming), No. 7 Josh Martinez (Air Force), No. 9 David Terao (American U.) and No. 10 Dylan Peters (Northern Iowa) — Garrett, who moved up to No. 2 after beating Penn State’s two-time NCAA runner-up Nico Megaludis … but has also lost to Illinois’ defending national champ Jesse Delgado, already defeated Patterson at the Nov. 2 NWCA All-Star Classic.

133 — No. 6 Joe Colon (Northern Iowa), No. 8 Cody Brewer (Oklahoma) — Colon, who returned this season after being academically ineligible last winter, is coming off a victory over Wisconsin’s three-time All-American Tyler Graff last weekend.

141 — No. 1 Logan Stieber (Ohio State), No. 3 Devin Carter (Virginia Tech), No. 7 Joey Lazor (Northern Iowa), No. 8 Luke Vaith (Hofstra), No. 10 Mike Nevinger (Cornell) — Stieber, who is up a weight after winning the NCAAs the past two years at 133, has also won the last two Las Vegas Invitational championships.

149 — No. 2 Kendric Maple (Oklahoma), No. 5 Jake Sueflohn (Nebraska), No. 8 Scott Sakaguchi (Oregon State), No. 10 Gus Sako (Virginia) — Maple, the defending national champion at 141 pounds, has struggled a bit after moving up a weight class; losing three times (to Logan Stieber at NWCA All-Star Classic, Bloomsburg’s Bryce Busler in the Oklahoma/Brockport Open and to Oklahoma State’s Josh Kindig in last weekend’s Bedlam dual).

157 — No. 4 James Green (Nebraska), No. 9 Roger Pena (Oregon State) — Both Green (7^th) and Pena (5^th) rallied to earn All-American honors last March after losing first-round bouts.

165 — No. 3 Nick Sulzer (Virginia), No. 6 Mike Moreno (Iowa State) — All nine of Sulzer’s victories have been bonus-point wins; from two pins, two technical falls and five majors.

174 — No. 1 Andrew Howe (Oklahoma), No. 4 Robert Kokesh (Nebraska), No. 10 Matt Miller (Navy) — Howe, who is in his first year in Norman after earning three AAs and a national championship at Wisconsin before transferring last year, has defeated both 2013 NCAA finalists this year: beating Penn State’s national runner-up Matt Brown at the NWCA All-Star Classic and Oklahoma State’s defending national champ Chris Perry in last weekend’s dual.

184 — No. 4 Ryan Loder (Northern Iowa), No. 6 Jake Swartz (Boise State), No. 8 Boaz Beard (Iowa State), No. 9 Kenny Courts (Ohio State) — The top-three wrestlers competing in Vegas have seen little action this season as Loder is 3-0, Swartz is 2-0 and Beard has yet to wrestle because of an injury.

197 — No. 2 Taylor Meeks (Oregon State), No. 3 Kyven Gadson (Iowa State), No. 4 Travis Rutt (Oklahoma), No. 6 Nick Heflin (Ohio State) — Meeks was ranked No. 1 last week before losing to Minnesota’s Scott Schiller, while Rutt — who is also in is first year at OU after earning AA honors at Wisconsin — is coming off a victory over Oklahoma State’s Blake Rosholt last weekend.

Hwt — No. 3 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State), No. 5 J.T. Felix (Boise State) — Gwiazdowski is seeing his first action with the Wolfpack this year after transferring last year from Binghamton where he earned All-American honors as a freshman.