The greatest roar from Gallagher-Iba Arena got here previous to a loss in a match by the Oklahoma State wrestling crew Friday against Northern Colorado.
While the Cowboys gained the dual, 24-10, the thrill from the devoted was for the collegiate debut Bixby native Zach Blankenship, a real freshman in this system.
Blankenship was inserted into the lineup extra out of necessity as high 15-ranked wrestler Trevor Mastrogiovanni was sidelined with an undisclosed damage sustained in his 6-0 loss to an unranked opponent at Colombia final weekend.
And it wasn’t a straightforward introduction to the house crowd for Blankenship.
He squared up with the Seventeenth-ranked wrestler at 125 kilos in a single of the final matches of the evening because the dual began at 149 kilos. While he suffered a loss in his first look for the Pokes, he did keep away from giving up any bonus factors within the crew scoring with a 5-0 determination to Stevo Poulin.
“It just shows him a little bit, and I think maybe gives him a chance to come firing back,” Cowboy coach John Smith stated.
Fortunately for Blankenship, the dual was nicely in hand previous to taking the mat.
That was, partly, due to the trio of Dustin Plott, Travis Wittlake and Luke Surber who picked up bonus-point victories within the center of the lineup following an upset loss by Wyatt Sheets at 165 kilos.
Plott picked up a 11-2 main determination at 174 kilos, whereas Wittlake (184 kilos) and Surber (197) matched one another’s closing rating with a 17-5 main determination.
“That’s kind of what we thought we could do (at those weights), and it was good to see them do it,” Smith stated.
With their matches giving the Cowboys a lead – and wrestling sooner than they usually would within the lineup – they had been in a position to absorb the second Blankenship made his debut.
For Plott, a fellow Oklahoma native who was thrust into the beginning lineup as a real freshman, he might relate. So a lot in order that he gave the wrestler that weight 50 kilos lower than him some recommendation heading into the dual.
“I told him just to have fun, try to enjoy the moment, because that was something I didn’t do as a freshman,” Plott stated. “I put a lot of pressure on myself and dealing with injury really made it miserable. So I was hoping he’d wrestling hard but have a little bit of fun.”
Smith stated he expects Blankenship to be within the lineup for a a while whereas Mastrogiovanni works his method again.
That means the previous three-time state champion within the state of Oklahoma will get one other alternative to choose up his first dual win a Poke on Sunday when Oklahoma State hosts West Virginia at 2 p.m.
“He was short-noticed on wrestling, so hopefully we’ll see a little better wrestling Sunday against some body even a little tougher,” Smith stated of Blankenship who will seemingly face No. 8-ranked Killian Cardinale.
Follow News Press sports activities editor Jason Elmquist on Twitter @jelmquistSW for updates on Oklahoma State and highschool athletics.
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