A Century of Cowboy Wrestling: 2010s

The 2010s marked the beginning for yet another dominant Oklahoma State wrestler.

Jordan Oliver made his debut for the Cowboys as a redshirt freshman in 2010. He wrestled his way to a fourth place finish in the 133-pound division to earn All-America honors, but that was just the start.

The following season, Oliver defeated Boise State's Andrew Hochstrasser, 8-4, to clinch his first national championship and cap off an undefeated, 29-0, season.

In his junior year, Oliver finished as the runner-up in the 133-pound division, as he fell to Ohio State's Logan Stieber in the finals. Trailing, 4-3, late in the third period, Oliver controlled one of Stieber's legs and took him to the ground in the final seconds, but was not awarded the takedown necessary to win the match.

Despite the disappointing end to 2012, Oliver set a new single-season program record for pinning percentage as he won 60 percent of his matches by fall that year.

After the runner-up finish, Oliver jumped up two weight classes to 149 pounds. As a senior, he defeated another BSU Bronco, Jason Chamberlain, to win his second career national championship and become one of 13 Cowboys to earn All-America honors four times.

Oliver went 38-0 during his senior season to finish his OSU career with a record of 127-6. His dominance on the mat during his four years also left his name scattered throughout the OSU record books.

Oliver recorded the highest career bonus win percentage at 77.2 percent, the most career falls with 54, is tied for fourth in career wins with 127, ranks 10^th in career winning percentage at 95.5 percent and is tied for second in career bonus wins with 98.

During his senior season, eight Cowboys, including Oliver, won individual conference championships, breaking the program's previous record of seven.

Joining Oliver as conference champions were Eddie Klimara (125), Jon Morrison (133), Alex Dieringer (157), Tyler Caldwell (165), Chris Perry (174), Chris Chionuma (184) and Alan Gelogaev (285).

The conference title was the first for Caldwell as a Cowboy and he followed it up with an All-America honor at the 2013 NCAA Championships. As a senior the following year, Caldwell once again earned All-America honors – his second as a Cowboy.

Despite wrestling at OSU for just his junior and senior seasons, Caldwell posted a record of 63 wins and only nine losses during his time in Stillwater.

Prior to transferring to OSU, Caldwell was a two-time All-American for the Oklahoma Sooners. Collectively, Caldwell became one of the few wrestlers in NCAA history to ever earn All-America honors four times in their career.

Two of the other 2013 conference champions – Perry and Dieringer – went on to win multiple national championships during their careers.

Perry, who is the nephew of OSU head coach John Smith, won his third conference title during the 2013 season. At the NCAA Championships, Perry defeated Penn State's Matt Brown in overtime, 2-1, to win his first national title.

He followed it up the next season, his senior year, with a 4-0 victory over OU's Andrew Howe. A two-time national champion and three-time All-American, Perry finished his OSU career with a record of 122-11 – tying him for the ninth most wins in program history.

Today, Perry is the one of the wrestling club coaches here at OSU.

In 2013, Dieringer placed third at the NCAA championships to become one of 33 Cowboys to ever earn All-America honors as a freshman. As a sophomore he defeated Dylan Ness of Minnesota, 13-4, to win his first national title.

Dieringer jumped up a weight class in 2015, but that did nothing to slow him down.

Dieringer went into the 2015 season ranked as the No. 1 wrestler at 165-pounds and he remained there all season. He went 33-0, with 27 of those wins resulting in bonus points, and defeated Indiana's Taylor Walsh, 14-7, to earn his second national championship.

Three other Cowboys earned All-America honors at the 2015 NCAA Championships – Klimara, Dean Heil and Kyle Crutchmer.

Dieringer, Klimara, Heil, Crutchmer and 2014 All-American Austin Marsden all return to lead the No.1-ranked Cowboys into the 2015-16 season.

This season, Dieringer can become the 14^th OSU wrestler to earn All-America honors four times and the 16^th to win three national championships.

Not all of the Cowboys' success on the mat this decade has happened in the United States though.

Former OSU national champion Coleman Scott competed in the 132.3-pound division at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. John Smith also was in London as he coached the Olympic team for the second time in his career.

Scott, being coached by the same man that coached him at OSU, defeated Japan's Kenichi Yumoto to win the bronze medal.

On Aug. 13, 2015, Scott was named the head coach at the University of North Carolina.

There have also been three Cowboys inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame so far this decade.

1967 177-pound national champion Fred Fozzard was honored as a Distinguished Member in 2012. Three-time national champion and former Olympian Eric Guerrero was honored in 2014. And in next year's class, Bill Harlow will be inducted.

The NCAA runner-up at 177 pounds in both 1964 and 1965, Harlow moved up to 191 pounds the following season, where he was crowned a national champion. He finished his OSU wrestling career with a record of 54-5-2 and won Big Eight titles in 1965 and 1966. During his national title season of 1966, Harlow compiled a 21-0-1 record.

Through this decade's first six years, OSU has won five conference titles, six individual national championships, received 26 All-America honors and posted a record of 90-14-2, but is still looking for its first team title since 2006.

The 2015-16 season marks the 100^th year in program history and during the past century, OSU wrestling has earned the title of the greatest dynasty in American sports.

In that time, OSU has:

Won 34 NCAA Championships – 11 more than any other wrestling program and 7 more than any other individual NCAA sport.
Crowned 139 individual national champions and earned 444 All-America honors.
Won 47 conference championships, which includes 262 individual conference champs.
Had 26 coaches and wrestlers honored as Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, with a 27^thinductee coming next year (Harlow).
Earned the Outstanding Wrestler at the NCAA Championships 15 times.
Won 16 Olympic medals – 11 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
Posted a dual-record of 1,066-122-29 – an 87.6 winning percentage.

OSU has established itself as the gold standard of college wrestling over the last 100 years. This year's Cowboys will look to continue that dominance on the mat as they open the season against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium on Nov. 14.

The dual, tabbed as the "Grapple on the Gridiron" marks the first time in NCAA history that two NCAA wrestling teams will compete in a Division I football stadium. With more than 20,000 tickets already sold, the dual is expected to shatter the current NCAA wrestling attendance record of 15,996 set in 2013 when Penn State faced off with Pittsburgh.

OSU's first home dual will take place on Nov. 29, inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, as the Cowboys wrestle the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kyle Crutchmer

Alex Dieringer

Dean Heil

Eddie Klimara

Austin Marsden

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