Cowboys Send Complete Lineup to NCAA Championships

The Basics
The No. 4 Oklahoma State wrestling team (14-1 overall; 8-0 Big 12) closes its season this weekend at the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Kansas City, Mo., beginning on Thursday, March 21, and running through Saturday. OSU is one of seven teams to be sending its entire lineup to this weekend's event and is joined by Missouri and Virginia Tech as the only teams to do so in back-to-back seasons. The Cowboys are coming off a competitive run at the Big 12 Championships, where they racked up 141.5 team points, most ever by a second-place finisher at the tournament. With all 10 Cowboys securing an automatic qualifying spot, Oklahoma State was the nation's only team to complete conference championship weekend with its whole lineup already in the NCAA field. Individually, Daton Fix was victorious once again at 133 pounds to become the first five-time champion in Big 12 history.

On the Air
The entire NCAA Championships will be broadcasted nationally through ESPN networks. Sessions 1, 3 and 5 can be seen on ESPNU each morning with Shawn Kenney, Rock Harrison, Tim Johnson and Quint Kessenich on the call. The evening sessions of 2, 4 and 6 are set to air on ESPN with a crew of Mike Couzens, OSU alumnus Daniel Cormier, Jordan Burroughs, Rock Harrison and Quint Kessenich. Shane Sparks and Anthony Robles will also provide the MatCast coverage on ESPN+. The tournament can also be heard on the radio as Rex Holt provides coverage on Hot 93.7 KSPI-FM all weekend. Live stats and results will be provided on TrackWrestling.com, while the @CowboyWrestling page on X will also provide updates as they become available.

Championship Schedule
The NCAA Championships are divided into six sessions over three days of competition. Each day will consist of a morning and evening session. A look at the full schedule (all times CT):

Thursday, March 21
Session 1 - 11 a.m. on ESPNU
First Round
Eight Mats

Session 2 - 6 p.m. on ESPN
Second Round, Consolation First Round
Eight Mats

Friday, March 22
Session 3 - 11 a.m. on ESPNU
Quarterfinals, Consolation Second and Third Rounds
Eight Mats

Session 4 - 7 p.m. on ESPN
Semifinals, Consolation Fourth and Fifth Rounds
Six Mats

Saturday, March 23
Session 5 - 11 a.m. on ESPNU
Consolation Semifinals, Medal Matches
Four Mats

Session 6 - 6 p.m. on ESPN
Championship Matches
One Mat

About the Cowboys
Oklahoma State completed the regular season with a 14-1 record and as the No. 4 team in the final NWCA Coaches Poll, both its highest win total and final ranking since 2019. The Cowboys racked up a dozen dual wins over ranked opponents in the regular season, including three in the top-five, before placing second at a highly competitive Big 12 Championship two weeks ago. OSU posted a team score of 141.5, the most by a second-place finisher in league history. All 10 Cowboys secured an automatic qualifying spot, making OSU one of just three teams to send its whole lineup to NCAAs in back-to-back seasons.

Of the 10 Cowboys headed to Kansas City, five earned top-10 seeds at their respective weight class. Daton Fix received the top seed at 133 pounds for the third time in his career shortly after becoming the Big 12's first five-time individual champion. Fix is a perfect 17-0 this season and has the chance to become OSU's first five-time All-American as he pursues an NCAA title. Dustin Plott was seeded third at 184 pounds with a 27-3 record and team-best 21 bonus-point victories. Plott finished sixth at the NCAA Championships in each of the last two years, but Thursday marks his first run at NCAAs since bumping up a weight class this past summer. Troy Spratley makes his NCAA Championship debut as the No. 6 seed at 125 pounds. The redshirt freshman holds a 21-6 record and finished as runner-up at the Big 12 Championships, while also defeating three of the top-eight NCAA seeds in the regular season. Izzak Olejnik and Tagen Jamison join the others in the top-10 with seeds of No. 7 and No. 10, respectively. Olejnik was an All-American in 2023 at Northern Illinois, while Jamison enters his first NCAAs with three wins against fellow top-10 seeds.

Jordan Williams and Brayden Thompson received seeds of No. 20 and No. 25, respectively, to give OSU four freshmen at the NCAA Championships, second-most in the country. Williams upset his way to a runner-up finish at the Big 12 Championships, while Thompson placed third. After going an impressive 21-6 this season, Teague Travis also makes his NCAAs debut as the 16th-seeded wrestler at 157 pounds. Heavyweight Konner Doucet and 197-pounder Luke Surber bring experience to the upper weights, combining for five NCAA Championship bids throughout their careers. Doucet is seeded 12th at heavyweight, while Surber is the No. 27 seed following his automatic qualification at Big 12s.

Cowboys at the NCAA Championships
The Oklahoma State wrestling program boasts 34 NCAA team titles all-time, making it the winningest program in all of college sports. Cowboy wrestlers have combined to win 143 NCAA individual titles and 485 All-America honors throughout the years, far surpassing the second-place totals held by Iowa of 85 champions and 363 All-Americans.

At the 2023 NCAA Championships, the Cowboys added two All-Americans to the lengthy list. Daton Fix placed fourth at 133 pounds to become the program's 15th four-time All-American and can become Oklahoma State's lone five-time All-American this weekend. Dustin Plott also finished sixth at 174 pounds for the second straight season. He'll go for his third All-American season in a row in Kansas City, this time at 184 pounds.

Fix For History
Daton Fix has become one of the best wrestlers in program history since breaking into the starting lineup as a redshirt freshman in the 2018-19 season. Now entering his final stretch as a Cowboy, he has the opportunity to further cement his name all throughout the Oklahoma State record books. In Tulsa, Fix conquered the 133-pound bracket once again to become the first five-time champion in Big 12 history. He went 4-0 with a pair of bonus-point wins and capped the performance off with an 8-5 decision over Iowa State's No. 7 Evan Frost in the finals. Only nine other Cowboys have ever brought home four conference championships.

This weekend, Fix will be aiming to become Oklahoma State's first five-time All-American has he pursues the ultimate goal of his first NCAA title. He will make that pursuit as the top seed at 133 pounds for the third time in his career. Fix previously reached the finals three times prior to placing fourth in 2023 and appears ready for another deep run this year. During the 2023 NCAA Championships, Fix became the 45th Cowboy to reach 100 career wins. Now with 119 career victories, Fix ranks 18th in program history and can crack the list's top-10 with a solid outing in Kansas City. Fix's career winning percentage of 95.2% would rank him 13th in Cowboy history if the season today, and he is one of just five wrestlers in OSU's long history with 100+ wins and less than six career losses. The Sand Springs native travels to the NCAA Championships with a perfect 17-0 record and nine wins over the 133-pound field. He's earned bonus points in 11 matches this season while beating the same number of ranked opponents. Fix's best win of the season came on January 5 against third-seeded Kai Orine of NC State, when he picked up an 11-3 major decision in OSU's big road victory over the Wolfpack. Fix also defeated Iowa's Brody Teske in the regular season finale to complete his career with a perfect 36-0 record inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Konner Doucet

Daton Fix

Tagen Jamison

Izzak Olejnik

Dustin Plott

Troy Spratley

Luke Surber

Brayden Thompson

Teague Travis

Jordan Williams

Oklahoma State University Athletics