Cowboys Drop Dual to Rival Hawkeyes

Sunday, January 14

Iowa City, IA

3 P.M.

Oklahoma State University

Iowa

Photo by: Bruce Waterfield

January 14, 2018 | Cowboy Wrestling

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Oklahoma State wrestling team suffered its first loss of the season Sunday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, falling, 20-12, at the hands of seventh-ranked Iowa.

Faced with a hostile opposing crowd and a docked team point for a pair of bench warnings, the Cowboys (6-1, 3-0 Big 12) had their chances but were unable to overcome a couple of upsets on the road in the 52nd meeting between the two rivals.

"It wasn't one of our better matches," head coach John Smith said. "I actually don't know if we've wrestled a good match yet. The tight matches and the ones we needed to win, we didn't win. I thought we might need some bonus points somewhere and we didn't get bonus. It just wasn't enough."

"I think we're kind of finding our place," Smith said. "We're still finding out who we are. This should help us moving forward. We can learn some lessons from this dual meet and recognize a lot of those matches we could have won if we had outscored our opponent in the third period. We could have won the dual meet. We were in several of those matches where we got beat, and we didn't outscore them in the third."

The Hawkeyes struck first at 125 pounds, as Iowa freshman Spencer Lee defeated Cowboy Nick Piccininni in a 10-5 match. Lee used an early takedown and nearfall to take a 6-0 lead in the opening minute. Piccininni was able to score a couple of takedowns in the second and third periods, but it wouldn't be enough and Lee came away with the decision.

OSU took a 7-3 lead with a pair of wins from Cowboys Kaid Brock and Dean Heil. Brock had little trouble with Iowa's Phillip Laux, taking the Hawkeye senior down seven times on the way to a 16-6 major decision. Heil was able to shut out Vince Turk for a 4-0 decision to get back on track after a two-match skid.

The Hawkeyes regained the lead for good with three-straight wins from 149 to 165. In his second career start, Boo Lewallen took a 23-8 technical fall from No. 2 Brandon Sorensen at 149 pounds. At 157, Jonce Blaylock was able to prevent more bonus points from the Hawkeyes, but dropped a 9-2 decision to No. 2 Michael Kemerer. Chandler Rogers couldn't find a rhythm at 165, and gave up a 5-2 upset to No. 11 Alex Marinelli.

Jacobe Smith picked up a decision at 174 pounds to keep the Cowboys alive. Tied with Joey Gunther at one with under a minute to go, Smith remained poised and was able to score a takedown with 15 seconds to go in the bout. Smith rode out the remainder of the clock and came away with the 3-1 victory to pull the Cowboys within five team points.

Iowa responded with a Mitch Bowman 10-6 decision over OSU freshman Keegan Moore to stretch the deficit to 17-9.

Preston Weigel remained undefeated since his return at 197 pounds, picking up a big 6-0 win over No. 5 Cash Wilcke. Scoring a couple of takedowns and racking up over two-and-a-half minutes of riding time, Weigel was able to overwhelm Wilcke on top and lock up the win. The Cowboy junior is 4-0 on the season since returning to the lineup in December, including three ranked wins.

The dual came down to heavyweight, with the Pokes needing a Derek White tech fall over No. 3 Sam Stoll to tie or a pin to win. Despite being outsized by Stoll, White hung tough and led, 3-2, heading into the third period. Choosing down, Stoll was able to escape quickly in the third to tie it up and force sudden victory.

With no score after the first sudden victory period, the bout headed to tiebreakers where both wrestlers were able to escape from the down position and tie it at four. Finally, in the second sudden victory period, Stoll was able to convert on a takedown to take the 6-4 decision.

The Cowboys return home to open a seven-dual home stand on Friday against Big 12 foe West Virginia at 7 p.m. The Pokes will then wrap up the weekend on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Kent State.

No. 7 Iowa 20, No. 3 Oklahoma State 12*
Jan. 14, 2018 | Carver-Hawkeye Arena | Iowa City, Iowa
125: No. 9 Spencer Lee (IOWA) dec. No. 6 Nick Piccininni (OSU) 10-5
133: No. 4 Kaid Brock (OSU) MD Phillip Laux (IOWA) 16-6
141: No. 5 Dean Heil (OSU) dec. Vince Turk (IOWA) 4-0
149: No. 2 Brandon Sorensen (IOWA) TF No. 14 Boo Lewallen (OSU) 23-8
157: No. 2 Michael Kemerer (IOWA) dec. Jonce Blaylock (OSU) 9-2
165: No. 11 Alex Marinelli (IOWA) dec. No. 8 Chandler Rogers (OSU) 5-2
174: No. 14 Jacobe Smith (OSU) dec. Joey Gunther (IOWA) 3-1
184: Mitch Bowman (IOWA) dec. No. 19 Keegan Moore (OSU) 10-6
197: No. 3 Preston Weigel (OSU) dec. No. 5 Cash Wilcke (IOWA) 6-0
HWT: No. 6 Sam Stoll (IOWA) dec. No. 10 Derek White (OSU) 6-4
*OSU docked a team point