Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Face Missouri in Big 12 Action
January 21, 2006 | Cowboy Wrestling
Oklahoma State hits the road for a Big 12 dual at against Missouri at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo., on Sunday at 2 p.m. The dual will be televised live nationally by CSTV. The Cowboys are coming off a pair of dual wins over Cal Poly and Fresno State. OSU won each dual convincingly defeating Cal Poly 36-8 before defeating shorthanded Fresno State, 44-3. The Cowboys got solid individual performances from Nathan Morgan and Zack Esposito. Morgan defeated third-ranked Darrell Vasquez, while Esposito recorded two falls on the evening. OSU leads the all-time series 32-1. The only win for Missouri came early in the 2003-04 season. OSU has won both meetings since then avenging that loss at the National Duals and then winning the only meeting last year, 31-9.
Scouting the Tigers
Missouri is currently 8-3 on the year and ranked 11th by the NWCA/Intermat coaches' poll. The Tigers are coming off of an eighth-place showing at the NWCA National Duals. Mu lost to Arizona State on criteria in the seventh-place match. The Tigers are led by sophomore Ben Askren. Askren has set rewritten the Missouri record books. He currently owns both the single season and career record in falls. Askren comes into the contest with a 30-0 record and 23 falls. He is the top-ranked wrestler at 174. Seven of Missouri's 10 wrestlers appear in the individual rankings. Only Askren and Matt Pell at 165 are ranked in the top 10.
Morgan Takes Bakersfield Crown
When Nathan Morgan sepped on the mat against Cal Poly, his opponent was someone he was quite familiar with. Darrell Vasquez was a four-time state champion in California out of Bakersfield High School, while Morgan was a three-time state champion and four-time finalist from from Bakersfield as well. Morgan looked up to Vasquez in high school, but now the roles have been reversed when Morgan scored a late takedown in sudden victory to beat his longtime friend. Vasquez will be looking up at Morgan when the new individual rankings are released next week.
A Gopher in the Side
Oklahoma State has dominated collegiate wrestling since the NCAA started conducting a championship in 1928. The Cowboys have been even more dominating of late winning the last three NCAA titles and compiling a 101-7 record over the last six seasons. There has been one team that has continually stuck out and that is Minnesota. The Gophers have handed OSU four of those seven losses and have won six of the last nine meetings in the series. Oklahoma State still leads the all-time series at 16-8, but Minnesota is closing the gap.
Freshmen Become Sophomores
Head coach John Smith made a decision last winter to pull two freshmen out of redshirt because the Cowboys were struggling at both 125 and 133. Coleman Scott and Nathan Morgan both became Big 12 champions later on that year, while Scott went on to finish eighth at the NCAA Championships at 125. The freshmen have become sophomores and have turned into two of the better wrestlers at their weight class in the country. Scott recently defeated ninth-ranked Paul Donahoe of Nebraska and avenged an earlier loss to Arizona State's sixth-ranked Jeremy Mendoza. Morgan has the best record on the team at 20-1 and is ranked second by the NWCA/Intermat Individual Rankings at 133 after defeating fourth-ranked Mack Reiter of Minnesota and third-ranked Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly.
