Cowboy Wrestling Set to Take on NCAA Championships

NCAA Championships Notes

STILLWATER - The Oklahoma State Cowboy wrestling team (13-4 overall; 6-3 Big 12) travels to the 2022 NCAA Championships in Detroit, Michigan, this week with eight NCAA qualifiers with the exception of 165 and 197 pounds. Action will begin Thursday, March 17 and run through Saturday, March 19 with two sessions a day at Little Caesars Arena.

Tournament Details
The NCAA Championships are divided into six sessions over three days of competition. Each day will consist of a morning and evening session. Here is a full look at the schedule:

Thursday, March 17
Session 1: 11 a.m.
First Round Matches

Session 2: 6 p.m.
Second Round & Consolation First Round

Friday, March 18
Session 3: 10 a.m.
Quarterfinals & Consolation Second and Third Rounds

Session 4: 7 p.m.
Semifinals and Consolation Quarterfinals

Saturday, March 19
Session 5: 10 a.m.
Consolation Semifinals and Medal Matches

Session 6: 6 p.m.
Championship Matches

Tune In
TV: ESPNU (Sessions 1, 3 and 5)
ESPN (Sessions 2, 4 and 6)
Listen: Hot 93.7 KSPI-FM
Live Stats: Trackwrestling.com

About the Cowboys
Four Cowboys head into the NCAA Championships as top-10 seeds in their respective brackets, including Big 12 champions Daton Fix (133), Kaden Gfeller (149) and Dustin Plott (174). 125-pounder Trevor Mastrogiovanni is the other Cowboy to claim a top-10 seed after a third-place finish in Tulsa. Fix has been dominant per usual for the Cowboys, putting together a 21-0 record with a team-leading 15 bonus-point wins, including five falls on the season. He will enter the NCAA Championships as the second seed at 133 behind only Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State. In his final campaign as a Cowboy, Gfeller has been a welcomed addition back in the OSU lineup going 18-2 in his first full season since 2019 when he won his first Big 12 title. Making their second appearances in the NCAA tournament, Dustin Plott and Trevor Mastrogiovanni earned the highest seeds of their young careers after successful seasons up to this point. Plott has put together a 17-3 record to go with his first individual conference championship that landed him the No.6 seed at 174 pounds, while Mastrogiovanni will wrestle as the No. 7 seed at 125 pounds after compiling an 18-3 record. The Cowboys have a couple of veterans who have been successful in the postseason before, but relied on at-large selections to qualify for their final tournaments. Senior Dakota Geer will enter his last NCAA Championships looking to become the 15^th four-time All-American in program history . After a fifth-place finish at the event last season, Geer has gone 15-6 this season and received one of the four at-large bids at 184 pounds where he will wrestle as the No. 16 seed. Wyatt Sheets is also a multiple-time All-American for the Cowboys who received an at-large bid at his weight with a 10-8 record. Two Cowboys will be making their first NCAA Championships. At 141 pounds, true freshman Carter Young has been the starter for Oklahoma State since the Minnesota dual on Nov. 29 and has compiled a 12-7 record. Similar to Young, Luke Surber has held the starting role for the entire season at heavyweight but will be making his first NCAA appearance in Detroit. After an up-and-down regular season, Surber had a fantastic Big 12 tournament that saw him make a run to the championship round as the seven seed.

John Smith at the NCAA Tournament
John Smith has led the Cowboys to five NCAA titles and has coached 33 NCAA individual champions in his time as the head coach at Oklahoma State, including last season's 197-pound champ, AJ Ferrari. He has mentored 148 All-Americans since taking over the program in 1991-92 with an average of nearly five All-America honorees each season. His 33 NCAA Champions and 148 All-Americans led all active coaches across NCAA D1 wrestling. In Smith's 30 completed seasons, the Cowboys have finished among the top three teams a total of 16 times.

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Players Mentioned

AJ Ferrari

Daton Fix

Dakota Geer

Kaden Gfeller

Trevor Mastrogiovanni

Dustin Plott

Wyatt Sheets

Luke Surber

Carter Young

Oklahoma State University Athletics