Smith, Cowboys Preview Season Opener

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STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State wrestling team opens the 2016-17 dual season Sunday afternoon against Bucknell in Miami, Okla. Before Wednesday's practice, head coach John Smith, and Cowboys Dean Heil and Kyle Crutchmer previewed the match.

Head Coach John Smith

On the excitement level going into the first duel:
"I think you have a lot of anxiety and you're always concerned about your performance in your first outing. You'll see a lot of things that you will scratch your head at and say, 'You know what, we haven't even worked on that.' I don't know what those are, but we will see. The first competition, especially being down in weight for the first time, I don't think you ever get what you want, but nobody gets what they want. I'm just looking for a good strong start. Hopefully be able to create a little momentum to start."

On Bucknell:
"Bucknell is a pretty good team. We are pretty high on this team. I don't know my lineup. I won't know it till Friday. We will have some competition Friday afternoon to kind of decide the team. We will have the lineup Friday night. You will see different guys than you think in the lineup. That is strictly because their weight is a little better in control or they look better in the room this week. We also have a tournament at OCU in Oklahoma City that we will have several guys going to as well."

On wrestling at NEO and what that does for both programs:
"NEO is part of our umbrella at Oklahoma State. It's nice to see the start of a program, I guess they are in their fifth year, and they have had a lot of success. A lot of opportunities for Oklahoma kids to continue to wrestle, and that was exciting to see. I feel commitment to NEO from the standpoint of a school and a team that's going to send out a lot of wrestlers all over the country. We have been fortunate enough to pick up two of them over the last year. It's good to see them winning and being successful. That doesn't hurt anyone."

Senior Kyle Crutchmer

On the team's current mentality:
"We're excited. We've got a match coming up on Sunday and this is what we've been training all summer and fall for. As a team, you're tired of wrestling each other every day and we just want to wrestle someone else and wrestle some different competition. We want to put on a singlet and go up against somebody from a different school. It's the first dual of the season, so we'll see if we can't put on a show."

On his eagerness to get back on the mat after last season's injury:
"I missed about six months and didn't really get to train or do much of anything so I'm excited. It was a long road and it had a lot of ups and downs every day. Being able to come back and have one more year to wrestle for this university is a blessing."

On how rehabbing from his injury changed him:
"I'm a lot more humble. I got to study a lot more wrestling because I had a lot of downtime and I got to talk to a lot of people to hear their stories about their own comebacks. I just feel like it's made me a lot more humble and I'm blessed to be able to get to do this for another year."

Junior Dean Heil

On being a defending national champion entering this year:
"I just have to know that I have to stay humble and know that I'm the guy. Everybody is out to beat me, so I've got to stay level-headed and not get too high or too low. I said that all throughout nationals as well and that helped me get to the title so I've got to keep that same mentality that I had last year and maintain it through the entire season now."

On how Alex Dieringer's leadership affected him and his teammates:
"Everybody saw how hard he worked. It impacted me because I got to see what he did in the mornings and what he did at practices and I was around him more than most guys were just because I saw him when he was doing his weight cuts at night; I was the only guy there with him so I got to see a lot of what he did outside of the room. For me, that just made me want to set myself apart as well and lead by example. I want to be that guy. My expectation is that I'm going to do the best I can to fulfill that role."

On being the top guy in the 141-pound division this season:
"For the most part I went unnoticed last season. I was always No. 1 or No. 2 all season long, but guys didn't really pay attention to me just because of how open (the weight class) was. The returning national champion wasn't in the class last year so it was a lot more open. This year we've got the returner back in the weight class so people will be gunning for me. I've just got to be ready for, basically, a national championship match every match. Guys are going to be going out there and gunning for me and I can't overlook anybody and just take it one match at a time."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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