Oklahoma State University Athletics
John Smith Breaks Down Weight Classes, Previews 2014-15 Season
November 05, 2014 | Cowboy Wrestling
The Oklahoma State wrestling team is preparing for a 2014-15 season that will pit the Pokes against some of the toughest teams in the country.
With the departure of two-time NCAA champion Chris Perry and All-Americans Tyler Caldwell, Jon Morrison and Blake Rosholt, the Cowboys return a national champion in Alex Dieringer, two other All-Americans in Josh Kindig and Austin Marsden, and three Big 12 individual champions in Dieringer, Marsden and Anthony Collica.
Despite several young faces and some wide-open spots in the lineup, Coach John Smith said that he thinks the team can still emerge strong.
“There's a lot of 'what ifs' on this team right now,” Smith said. “Just from the standpoint of 125, 133 and 141, there could be new faces in the lineup. 157 is a question mark from the standpoint of 'who's going to emerge there?' 174 and 184 are weight classes that right now you might think that you have something, but you're going to have to earn it, and that's the thing that I'm really focused on right now. This team on paper looks pretty good and might have an opportunity, but we're going to have to get a lot better. There's nothing easy when I look at it, it's going to be hard work, discipline and people will have to buy in and recognize. Wisdom is going to be extremely important in this season with this young group.”
Once again, the Cowboys will have one of the toughest schedules in college wrestling with big names such as Iowa, Oklahoma and the 2014 NCAA championship team Penn State making visits to Stillwater. OSU will face Big 12 rival Iowa State on the road as well as OU, with a second meeting to be held in Norman in February. The reigning National Duals champion Minnesota, defending MAC champion Missouri and rising programs such as North Carolina and North Carolina State will also host the Pokes.
“This is a tough schedule for this team,” Smith said. “It's the toughest that I can remember. It's a little similar to last year's schedule, but I like that our first match in Gallagher-Iba Arena this year is Bedlam. Of course with Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Missouri, Iowa State and Penn State we've got a pretty tough schedule. Even at the end of the season with our last two dual meets, we have two teams that have shown great improvement in NC State and North Carolina, so it's a challenging schedule for this group. I'm sure there are going to be some ups and downs, but I don't think you can't have ups and downs when you're dealing with so much youth, but I also know that I have a lot of confidence that we have good people in this program that just need to be developed. This schedule that we have is quickly going to help them develop.”
Below is Smith's breakdown of each weight class:
125 pounds
“I think we're in pretty good shape from a standpoint of numbers. We have several guys in the weight class, we're looking at redshirting Donald Cannon, but we have several guys who can wrestle here in Connor Cline, Zac Gentzler, Eli Hale, Austin Miller and Eddie Klimara, so we're in pretty good shape because we have guys available to us. I'm sure we're going to see several of them wrestle through the year, but we'll just have to wait and see how this weight class develops.”
133 pounds
“More than likely we'll see Michael Magaldo, Dusty Hone and Gary Wayne Harding redshirt. We could see Dean Heil and Brian Crutchmer, the redshirt freshman and sophomore. I think there's a chance that we're going to see both of those guys wrestling. I will say at this point in time, from what I've seen in practice is that Heil appears to be the leader at the weight the way he's competing, but I feel like this is a weight class that we're going to need to develop through the year.”
141 pounds
“Right now the guy we'll be looking at is probably Davey Dolan. Davey is a redshirt freshman from Berryhill, Okla. I would definitely give him the nod here. He's a great competitor and he's competed in a lot of tournaments throughout his career. He's been a winner his whole life, and I really believe that with Davey, we're going to have a solid guy there. Academically he's solid, his lifestyle is solid, so I'm kind of excited about the opportunity for him. Lincoln Lemon as well as Joe Schumacher, both of those guys are definitely in the hunt at this weight class.”
149 pounds
“Obviously we're returning our senior in Josh Kindig. He had a great year, finished second in the nation. Michael Martin, the redshirt junior, will be a solid backup for us. I think we could see Anthony Collica if he doesn't redshirt this year. He could be in this weight class, but I think at this time we're looking at him at 157 possibly. So Josh Kindig at 149, in his senior year he's got one thing left and that's an NCAA championship.”
157 pounds
“We have a list of several guys, but the one guy that could be coming out of the gate for us is Keilan Torres, the redshirt freshman from Altus, Okla. We do have a slew of guys—true freshmen—that could make this weight class interesting. So this is a weight class, again, that is going to take some time to iron out and see who emerges at the weight class.”
165 pounds
“Obviously Alex (Dieringer) wrestled his first two years at 157, and going into his junior year he's moving up a weight class. Anytime you move up a weight class, it could present a challenge because you start dealing with people that are a little bit stronger and bigger, but I do believe it's a weight class that he can handle, and I think it is going to be important for him to prepare like he's always prepared. Alex had to do a lot of additional training throughout the year to control his weight and I hope that he maintains that additional training because I think it's made a difference for him in competition. Sam Mehan could back him up and we have some true freshmen behind those two.”
174 pounds
“I think you're looking at Jordan Rogers and Kyle Crutchmer. Both of them are moving down from a year ago. With Chris Perry being at 174, they both moved up for an opportunity to try and start, and now both of them are in the weight class they need to be in. We're hoping to see better efforts from both of them. They're going to need to make some personal changes to really show that they're better and that's mostly attitude in the practice room and in tough situations. I think for both of them, they'll definitely show great improvement throughout this year. I expect this weight to be a solid weight for us. I would be disappointed with anything less.”
184 pounds
“Nolan Boyd at 184 had a pretty good year, ended up making the team at that weight and just needs to kind of solidify his offense and the things that he does. Sometimes he just throws everything at everybody, and I think he just needs to slow down and stay within his style that can make him really successful. I think Landry Chappell could be a backup there, as well as Quinten Patterson. I would definitely be looking at Nolan Boyd as our starter, though.”
197 pounds
“We've got Austin Schafer, the redshirt sophomore. We did get a transfer in Luke Bean from Arizona State, and Ben Laures, who is a redshirt sophomore. I'm hoping to be able to redshirt Preston Weigel, the kid from Kansas. Austin Schafer, we're just going to have to wait and see, but I do think that he's shown some signs that he could be really good at this weight. He's going to have to get in there and get some experiences and recognize some of the things that he needs to do to have success at this weight.”
285 pounds
“Returning will be Austin Marsden in heavyweight. He's a returning All-American. I just hope that he brings the attitude that he had at the end of the year and start the season with that. I felt like we had to build him up all year, and I hope that he's learned some of his lessons through the year from last year and bring it right to the start of the season with that attitude and performance he had at the NCAA Championships. He needs to deliver that type of performance he had at NCAAs right from the start of the season this year.”
