Cowboys Wrap Up NCAA Championships in Medal Rounds

Thursday, March 15

Cleveland, OH

All Day

Oklahoma State University

NCAA Wrestling Championships

March 17, 2018 | Cowboy Wrestling

Brackets and Team Scores After Session 5
Session 5 Photo Gallery

CLEVELAND – The Oklahoma State wrestling team finished up its weekend at the NCAA Championships on Saturday afternoon in the tournament's fifth session, with four Cowboys locking up their placements on the All-American podium.

"It was a tough tournament for us," head coach John Smith. "Obviously, we had four All-Americans but we were hoping to have a little bit better of a day today. It's something that we have to take and get better from. In the end, we just had tough matches; we won some of them, we lost some of them but we lost at the wrong time. That was the difference in having a little bit better of a tournament."

"This was an odd year for us," Smith said. I knew it was going to be a struggle. Any time you experience some of the things we did this year, it's going to get tough. It's hard to build team chemistry, but in the end we need to go back, go to work and move forward."

Two-time All-American Kaid Brock finished fifth, while Chandler Rogers in his second All-American effort finished eighth. First-time All-America honorees Boo Lewallen and Jacobe Smith finished eighth as well.

Brock split his two matches on the day, dropping his consolation semifinal match to No. 3 Luke Pletcher before coming back and controlled Rutgers' Scott Delvecchio with four takedowns to record a dominant major decision in the fifth-place match.

In the 149 pound seventh-place match, Boo Lewallen came up just short against former NCAA Champion Jason Tsirtsis of Arizona State. The riding time point for Tsirtsis was the difference as Lewallen nearly scored a takedown on the edge of the mat in the final 30 seconds to take the lead, but was whistled out.

"(It was nice to see) Boo Lewallen finishing up as an All-American," Smith said. "He went through two years of major injuries and had a tough season. Nothing came easy for him."

Jacobe Smith dropped a 7-2 decision to South Dakota State's David Kocer in his seventh-place match to finish eighth in his first NCAA Championships appearance after coming back from a midseason injury.

Oklahoma State will return all four of this season's All-Americans next season and seven total Cowboys who have reached the All-American podium in their careers.

Of this season's starters, the Pokes will lose standout Dean Heil who was a two-time NCAA Champion and three-time All-American. Heil finished his decorated career with 116 wins which ranks 22^nd all-time in program history.

"I can't take away from what he's done in his career," Smith said. "He's won two NCAA Championships. There's no shame in his career by any means."

The Cowboys currently sit in 13^th in the team standings with 37.5 points and cannot finish lower than 15^th with one session remaining.

2018 NCAA Wrestling Championships | Session V

Consolation Semifinals
133: No. 3 Luke Pletcher (Ohio State) dec. No. 4 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State), 12-8

Fifth-Place Matches
133: No. 4 Kaid Brock (Oklahoma State) MD Scott Delvecchio (Rutgers), 10-1

Seventh-Place Matches
149: No. 10 Jason Tsirtsis (Arizona State) dec. No. 8 Boo Lewallen (Oklahoma State), 2-1
165: No. 16 Jonathon Chavez (Cornell) dec. No. 8 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State), 10-5
174: No. 11 David Kocer (South Dakota State) dec. No. 13 Jacobe Smith (Oklahoma State), 7-2

Team Standings After Session 5 (Top 15)
1. Ohio State - 130.5
2. Penn State - 124.5
3. Iowa - 93.0
4. Michigan - 80.0
5. NC State - 76.0
6. Missouri - 61.5
7. Virginia Tech - 47.5
8. Nebraska - 47.0
9. Cornell - 44.0
10. Rutgers - 42.5
11. Arizona State - 39.0
12. South Dakota State - 38.0
13. Oklahoma State - 37.5
13. Illinois - 37.5
15. Lehigh - 36.5