Finally.
The Cowboys (13-1 overall, 3-0 Big 12) compiled a 5-1 record while away from Stillwater the past two weekends, winning in places like Pennsylvania and Iowa against top-ranked teams.
Now, OSU will spend the bulk of this month at Gallagher-Iba Arena. The homestand begins tonight at 7 p.m. with a dual against No. 12 Oregon State (9-4, 5-2 Pac 10).
“Oregon State is a solid team,” said wrestling coach John Smith. “They are really well-balanced and have ten solid weight classes. They’ve got four or five really good wrestlers that have done well this year. I look at them as a very balanced team and we’re going to have to go out and wrestle for seven minutes and not let upsets occur.
“I think it’s a team that, if you give them any hope, they’ll run with that hope. They are well-conditioned and well-prepared.”
Smith said the weekend road trips coming into the dual against the Beavers were a success, with one exception: winning the National Duals championship. Just two weeks ago, then second-ranked Minnesota beat OSU 20-12 in the finals to win the National Duals title. UM exacted revenge on the Cowboys for beating the Golden Gophers 25-12 on Jan. 7.
“At National Duals, we had a pretty good performance and wrestled pretty well,” Smith said. “We had our opportunities there in the final to win that dual meet, and we just didn’t capitalize on some of the situations where it could have made a difference in the wins and the losses in the match. But the team effort was good, we just didn’t quite get it done.”
Last weekend, OSU got back on track by winning back-to-back duals in Iowa. On Friday, OSU defeated Big 12 conference rival Iowa State 25-14 in Ames. The next night, the Cowboys crushed Northern Iowa 31-9 in Cedar Rapids.
“Last week was a good effort by this squad,” Smith said. “We really went up there to wrestle Iowa State, and that was a good outing for this team. We had some good wins and some good performances.
“At Northern Iowa the following day, I don’t feel like we looked as sharp. I felt like we were in some matches where we had to come through, and we did,” he said.
One wrestler who was solid all weekend long was 133-pound redshirt freshman Johnny Thompson. The No. 2-ranked Thompson pinned ISU’s No. 9 Matt Azevedo four minutes into the bout.
The next night, Thompson topped himself by pinning UNI’s Chad Boudreaux in 2:07.
“He’s wrestled well,” Smith said. “He has wrestled aggressive. He looked better last week than I thought he did at the National Duals.”
Even though Thompson earned two-straight matches, Smith said he can improve his wrestling.
“The real focus with him is to continue to get better and not be satisfied where he’s at,” Smith said.
“The important thing is that you beat (opponents) consistently, and beat them time and time again.”
In a lineup shuffle, senior Charles Walker is the starter at the 141-pound class for the rest of the year. After being knocked out of the starting position at 133 pounds, Walker has moved up to take over for Jerrod Sanders, who had been struggling in recent weeks.
“At this point, he is the ’41-pounder,” Smith said. “We’ve felt like Sanders has had a little bit of problem with his weight class, and doesn’t seem to have it under control.”
But for Smith and his team, the main objective is to wrestle well at home and continue to improve before OSU hosts the Big 12 Championships Mar. 2-3.
“There’s still time (to improve),” Smith said. “We had a tough January, and it’s going to be nice to be able to compete once a week for the next few weeks and be able to stay home.
“We’ll get a lot more done and probably get a lot better in the next couple of weeks.”
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