The Pokes Prepare for Two Duals in Two States in One Day
STILLWATER -- The Cowboys are set to hit the road for a couple of road duals this weekend, but the interesting thing is that they're not being wrestled a few days a part. Rather, they'll be wrestled just a few hours a part.
That's right, the Pokes are set to face Air Force this coming Saturday at noon, then they'll turn around and head north to Wyoming for an 8 p.m. start that same night. But they'll be able to ride the momentum of a home win against Missouri this past weekend.
While it came as no surprise that Oklahoma State took care of business against old Big 12 foe Missouri, it was a nice surprise that sophomore Wyatt Sheets came away with the upset of No. 11 at 157 in Jarrett Jacques 8-6 in overtime.
The win also secured Sheets Big 12 Wrestler of the Week honors.
"He had a nice win, but they've got to get better" coach John Smith said. "Hopefully, you're wanting to be an All-American and be in that category. I can't imagine us thinking other than that. He's still not in that position at this point, but that was definitely a start and good win for him."
But what's strange, especially to John Smith, is that this is the first time this season that Oklahoma State has brought home that honor.
"I was a little surprised at that, that that's our first one," said coach Smith. "It might tell you that the conference is getting a lot tougher, I think you can see that it's getting tougher. I don't think we've got our strongest team right now; I think we've got the capability of being a lot better next month if some things materialize. We've got some guys that really will themselves towards their goal, but there isn't any question the conference is young and it's a lot better and we're going to continue to see it improve."
Speaking of a young conference, the Pokes are headed out to face Air Force and Wyoming on the same day, this coming Saturday. While it seems like it's going to be a challenge, John Smith doesn't really see it that way.
"The good thing is that they're close enough [together], a couple of hours from each other," said coach Smith. "We have a number of dates that you have to abide by and we had an opportunity to pick up an extra dual meet at home, so that's the reason why we moved it. I've done it in the past, probably four or five times in my career; usually on the road always. It is what it is, it's not a bad deal; you wrestle a match at noon and seven, you've got time in between to rest. I mean, it's like a tournament. A tournament, you're going to wrestling a couple of matches, three matches in a day, so no disadvantage."
Coach Smith joked about how easy guys have it nowadays when it comes to travel. The Pokes will be taking a bus from Colorado Springs up to Laramie. It's a 3 hour and 16 minute drive up through Denver and Fort Collins, CO, which doesn't seem too bad, but I've been on a close to nine hour bus ride and really anything over four hours really isn't fun.
There's no doubt that Oklahoma State is the better of the three teams, but the Pokes will have their work cut out for them at certain weights. While Air Force is 3-4 on the season and 1-3 in conference, they've had some close losses and same with Wyoming who's sitting at 7-7 overall and 3-1 in conference.
"We've wrestled well; we need to roll it over into this week," said coach Smith. "I think definitely Wyoming's going to be the tougher of the two matches. We have some good match ups individually as both teams have some good guys. The dual meet in Laramie's always been real competitive."
The duals are set for 12 noon against Air Force and 8 p.m. against Wyoming, and you can catch the Wyoming dual on flowrestling.
