Iowa Favored at Weight for Sunday's Dual with the Cowboys

Cowboys Head Coach John Smith can't remember it. This time Iowa is favored from start-to-finish.

STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State and Iowa hold the acclaim of having won 57 NCAA wrestling team national championships between them. The Cowboys have won 34 and Iowa has 23. The two powerhouse schools have met 53 times in the past with Oklahoma State owning the series 29-22-2. However, this edition of the Cowboys vs. the Hawkeyes on the surface looks like no other. Every Hawkeyes wrestler will step onto the mat favored to win, and in some cases, fairly heavy favorites.

"It looks a little lopsided this year," Smith said. "People look forward to this match-up, but it does look lopsided as to who is favored at each weight. We're going to have to wrestle our best match. I see it competitive and not as lopsided as some people think."

Weight - OSU Wrestler	Record	Ranking	Iowa Wrestler	Record	Ranking
125 - Nick Piccininni	23-1	#4	Spencer Lee	14-0	#1
133 - Reece Witcraft	16-7	UR	Austin DeSanto	13-2	#3
141 - Dusty Hone	18-7	UR	Max Murin	11-1	#5
149 - Boo Lewallen	18-1	#6	Pat Lugo	17-1	#2
157 - Wyatt Sheets	17-6	UR	Kaleb Young	15-2	#5
165 - Travis Wittlake	25-1	#6	Alex Marinelli	16-1	#2
174 - Joe Smith	7-3	#13	Michael Kemerer	12-0	#1
184 - Anthony Montalvo	19-5	UR	Abe Assad	19-5	#9
197 - Dakota Geer	19-6	#16	Jacob Warner	14-3	#6
Hvy - Austin Harris	5-9	UR	Tony Cassioppi	15-2	#3

It is not pretty for the Cowboys, who won last season in Stillwater as the No. 2 ranked team beating No. 3 Iowa 27-12. Only two Cowboys return off that team to wrestle this season with wrestlers like Daton Fix at 133, Kaid Brock at 141, Chandler Rogers at 174, Jacobe Smith at 184, Preston Weigel at 197, and Derek White at heavyweight. The Cowboys got pins last year in Gallagher-Iba from Piccininni, who pinned Spencer Lee. Lee got a measure of revenge in the NCAA Tournament. Chandler Rogers got the pin at 174 pounds as well over unranked Mitch Bowman.

It's a good thing that John Smith and his staff have the top-ranked recruiting class in college wrestling coming into Stillwater next season as the Cowboys can't afford to dig themselves a hole and crawl in it with the power of the Big Ten schools including Iowa, Penn State, and Ohio State.

The class of eight signees includes No. 1 pound-for-pound wrestler AJ Ferrari and No. 2 overall recruit and top 182-pounder Dustin Plott of Tuttle, Okla. Joining the top two recruits are Blair Academy standout Trevor Mastrogiovanni, Jakason Burks, Luke Surber, Konner Doucet, Daniel Jezik and Alexander Yokubaitis. Allen, Texas native Ferrari is projected to go at 197 pounds for the Cowboys. Oklahoma's own Plot is a three-time Oklahoma high school state finalist and two-time champion. The future Cowboy owns KC Stampede and Geary Tournament titles and finished runner up at Fargo this summer. Mastrogiovanni also verbally committed to OSU in 2018. Out of Blair Academy, he projects as a lighter weight and holds the No. 11 overall spot in this year’s senior class along with the second place ranking at 126 pounds.

They can't help on Sunday but they will be welcomed and Fix will return next season from his Olympic red-shirt season pursuing a chance to wrestle for the USA in Tokyo. None of those guys will be in Iowa City on Sunday night at 7 p.m., so if Smith and the Cowboys pull this off it won't rival the Miracle on Ice, which celebrates it's 40th anniversary this weekend, but it will be a minor miracle on the mat.

"We need to help ourselves as a team," Smith added. "Imagine what that would do getting a win up there before the postseason. That would do a lot for us and that is my message to my team."