Cowboys Take Big 12 Team Title Again and Piccininni, Lewallen, and Wittlake Win Individual Titles
TULSA -- The team championship was clinched before the championship session even began, but that did not impact the four Cowboys wrestling for individual championships as each one had a huge reason to win on Sunday night. Travis Wittlake at 165-pounds was looking for his first Big 12 championship. At 157-pounds Wyatt Sheets was locked into a battle of sons of championship wrestlers, Boo Lewallen was looking to make up for missed opportunities due to season ending shoulder injuries. Finally, actually initially Nick Piccininni was looking for Big 12 perfection and a fourth straight Big 12 individual championship.
Piccininni broke the ice on the scoreboard late in the first period as he got behind Alex Mackall of Iowa State and took him down for a 2-0 lead. Piccininni started down for the second period and quickly escaped for a 3-0 lead.
The low scoring defensive oriented match started the third period with Mackall down and his escape made it 3-1. Piccininni could have been called for a stall as he was careful and moved around keeping Mackall's attempts to get to his legs or body as just grasping for air. It didn't matter the style, it was winning a fourth consecutive Big 12 title for Piccininni.
The post-match interview with the four-time champ.#okstate | #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/EeKKiYvTPG
— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) March 8, 2020
"It sounds right," Piccininni (26-2) answered when asked by the Fox Sports interviewer how it sounded, "Big 12 Champion." "It is a good accomplishment but hopefully it is not my last. I'm looking forward to the NCAA. I knew if I would go on defense that he couldn't score and get to my legs."
Maybe the most emotional Oklahoma State wrestler throughout the Big 12 Tournament was Boo Lewallen. Lewallen struck a pose on Saturday in the semifinals when he cruised by No. 4 seed Jarrett Degen of Iowa State with a third period fall. Sunday night the No. 5 ranked Lewallen had to handle No. 9 ranked Henry Pohlmeyer of South Dakota State.
Pohlmeyer just bear hugged Lewallen for the first take down that finished with a tackle. Lewallen quickly escaped and it was 2-1 in favor of Pohlmeyer after the first three minutes.
Lewallen was down to start the second and got a quick escape to tie the match. Then Pohlmeyer got Lewallen's left leg and tripped the right foot for a second take down and a 4-2 advantage. Another escape made it 4-3. Just before the end of the second period Lewallen got a single leg and put Pohlmeyer on the mat for his first take down.
In the third period Lewallen scored another take down and he also built up his riding time advantage over a minute and finished with an 8-5 decision and a championship.
The post-match interview with the two-time champ!#okstate | #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/SK3eHz0O6k
— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) March 9, 2020
"I've got a good support group and my coaching staff has been there for me," Lewallen said of being able to come back from his two shoulder surgeries to win a second Big 12 Championship. "I want to be the best I can be and I have just one goal and that is in two weeks (NCAA)."
A flashback in time, that is what the 157-pound Big 12 Championship match was as the son of two-time Oklahoma State NCAA Champion Mike Sheets, Wyatt squared off against David Carr, the son of Iowa State wrestling legend Nate Carr.
Carr, at 17-1 on the season, was the top seed and Sheets, the No. 3 seed. After a scoreless first period, Carr broke through starting the second period on the bottom and getting a quick escape. Carr is tremendously quick and athletic, but Sheets hung in with him losing a hard fougth 6-4 decision.
Afterwards, Carr holstered make believe pistols on the mat and admitted that it was a big emotional thrill to beat an Oklahoma State wrestler in an orange singlet in the BOK Center in Tulsa to win the Big 12 title. Sheets will go to the NCAA with a 20-6 record.
Red-shirt freshman Travis Wittlake out of Coos Bay, Ore. has been impressive all season and he was again in Tulsa. Going against senior Andrew Fogarty of North Dakota State, Wittlake kept working Fogarty with both wrestlers on the mat and finally worked control for a first period take down. The Fogarty escape made it 2-1 after the first three minutes.
Wittlake escaped to start the third for a 3-1 lead and then used a single leg to get a 5-1 lead and he rode out the second period.
In the third Fogarty got an escape to make it 5-2, but Wittlake used an ankle pick to grab another take down and a 7-2 lead as he built the riding time to an extra point. Fogarty got a reversal late, but it was an 8-4 win for Wittlake and his first Big 12 Championship. He immediately turned to the mostly orange crowd and did the O-S-U with his arms as the crowd chanted.
The post-match interview with OSU's latest freshman champ.#okstate | #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/zco82jL2wx
— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) March 9, 2020
"This is crazy and it is still surreal," Wittlake told Fox Sports. "I started wrestling when I was four-years-old and haven't stopped since. It has been a grind and a lot of ups and downs, but it is all worth it."
The work of the three champions and the second-place points for Sheets just added to a total that was already good enough for a Big 12 Championship.
The Cowboys went 9-0 in the Sunday morning consolation finals session, wrapping up with four third-place finishers and another in seventh place. The Oklahoma State team total of 135.5 points was 27 points ahead of second-place Iowa State and was insurmountable no matter what took place in the final championship session.
“It was a good round,” coach John Smith said of Sunday morning. “You talk about it being a little tougher in some of these gut matches that you wrestle in these consolations as we’ve seen over and over again in conference and national tournaments… It takes a lot of energy to wrestle. If you think about how hard it’s going to be and know that going into it will help your performance. We did a good job of that today.”
OSU’s third-place finishers included Dusty Hone (141), Joe Smith (174), Anthony Montalvo (184) and Dakota Geer (197), who each went 2-0 in the session. It was the first Big 12 appearance for Hone and Montalvo, the second-straight third-place finish for Geer and the third top-three finish for Joe Smith.
That means all four of those wrestlers join Piccininni, Lewallen, Sheets, and Wittlake as qualifying for the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. in on March 19.
Cowboy 133-pound freshman Reece Witcraft was OSU’s seventh-place finisher, as he went 1-0 with a technical fall on the final day of his first appearance at the conference tournament.
Because the Big 12 has eight qualifiers for the NCAA at 133-pounds, Witcraft gets in. Oklahoma State will only be missing a heavyweight when they go to Minneapolis.
That is about as good as could have been expected and the results in the Big 12 actually were better than seeded.
