Oklahoma State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
January 24, 2010 | Cowboy Wrestling
Jan. 24, 2010
Oklahoma State Coach John Smith
On the dual as a whole
"It was tough. It was very back-and-forth. I think a lot of experience came through for Iowa State and some good hard wrestling, not that we didn't. Just again we can't afford to make a lot of mistakes."
On the mentality during the event
"I'm not disappointed in our effort for the most part. Some of the matches we just didn't appear to keep it together mentally. But I really felt like we competed as well as we could."
On Jamal Parks' pin at 141 pounds
"I was real pleased with Jamal Parks. After coming off a loss at Iowa, it was good to see him have a spark. When he wrestles, he is just really fun to watch. He does a lot of good things. He still sometimes reverts to some silly immature things, but he is a work in progress and as long as he continues to do what he is told to do he is going to be in good shape."
On Jared Rosholt's win over No. 2 David Zabriskie
"Jared looked like he was in total control and then all of the sudden it's going to the end. He had a 5-1 lead at one time, but for the most part I like seeing the heavyweight picking up three take downs."
OSU Heavyweight Jared Rosholt
On the dual
"Those were just tough matches, the ones we lost. They could have gone either way and most of them didn't go our way. We knew they would be close, but it's kind of disappointing that we didn't pull off any upsets. It doesn't really change anything. It's nice to get a win as an individual, but that's not what really matters in the end."
On beating No. 2 David Zabriskie
"I've won three out of the last four against him. He beat me last year in overtime off a reversal out at Iowa State, then I never saw him again the rest of the season."
"One thing I thought about this week was, `When you take a shot, go all the way through and finish it. Don't get caught in a position where he can grab your ankles because he's real good there.' I knew if I kept a pretty decent pace and kept coming out with hard hands, I knew I could definitely frustrate him and take some good shots and finishes. It kind of slowed down in the end, but I was still working into that."
Jamal Parks
On losing at Iowa and winning today
"Iowa was a hard venue - 15,000 fans just got to me a little bit. There were other factors, but you live and you learn. Just coming and rebounding off that, I worked real hard leading up to this match trying to forget about Iowa because it really doesn't matter at this point."
On if he expected to win so dominantly
"I always expect to go out and dominate. No wrestler thinks they're going to go squeak out a 2-1 victory. Everyone wants to win big."
On the pin building his confidence after the Iowa match
"I know it's always been there. You just have to push through the little things like I didn't do before Iowa. I didn't do everything that I needed to in practice. Coach was really on me after that match, saying that I'd be winning a match 3-1 in the room, but that doesn't translate sometimes on the mat out there in an actual match. I really kind of coasted through practice up until Iowa and you can't do that if you want to win a national title."
Iowa State Coach Kevin Jackson
On the importance of bonus points
"After the 141 pound match where they got the six point pin, it kind of set the tone for their team and gave them a lot of life. So coming back at 149 and winning that match at 157 was huge. That one was really the one that decided the dual, along with Jake's fall. It's great to walk out of Gallagher with the win."
On outscoring OSU in the third period of bouts
"We try to install a very exciting kind of wrestling that ensures that the guys wrestle for the whole seven minutes. So no matter what the score is going into the third period, we will continue to work hard and try to score points and continue to wrestle. That's exciting to us and as we get to the NCAA tournament we're going to have to come from behind and get bonus points, and I think if you're training to do that and you do it in a dual match it's going to carry over to the NCAA tournament. That's really what we're working for and what we're stressing."
On the highly anticipated match at 197
"Jake is the very best wrestler in the nation, hands down the very best. I told him all week long he'd pin the kid. I know (Gelogaev) very well. I've seen him wrestle in the summer and I know he's got a couple Russian techniques, but Jake is a world-class wrestler himself, making the world team and wrestling in the world championships and really gave himself a great chance to blow him out of the water. I've got a lot of respect for Gelogaev and a lot of respect for what John Smith does with his team but Jake is the very best wrestler in the country and his result was not a surprise to me at all."
On coming to Oklahoma and winning at both OSU and OU
"Well if you look at Oklahoma State they're hurting in a couple weight classes still. They've got some kids out, as all the schools around the country do. We're disappointed we don't have Gallick. I believe if we had him in the lineup that we're winning in a dominating fashion but it is what it is and guys get hurt all the time and we're going to push ahead."
Players Mentioned
