With six wrestlers who competed at the NCAA Championships in March returning for next season — including two NCAA champions — Oklahoma State coach John Smith had room to give his new recruits to grow.
“It’s strong,” OSU coach John Smith said about the returning group. “It’s a good core to be coming back with.”
Smith inked one of the best recruiting classes in the country after his team captured Oklahoma State its 31st wrestling title earlier this year, bringing in a balanced recruiting class. Ryan Davis and James Frishkorn are two highly touted OSU signees that ended their prep career ranked at the top of their respective weight classes. Smith said he felt one of the strengths of this recruiting class is the mix of weight classes and the depth that it provides for future seasons.
“It’s kind of a mix right now of weight classes that we brought in,” Smith said. “I felt like we definitely filled the positions we needed to fill. We were real glad about getting some upper weights at the end of the recruiting season. I do believe that this is a class that will fall into place rather quickly for us.”
Even with a recruiting class coming in next season that is widely considered to be one of the top classes in the country, Smith hopes to give each of his recruits a redshirt year.
“I think we’re in good position right now, so my goal is to redshirt them all and keep them in redshirt regardless of if they’re making the team or not,” Smith said. “I think we’re in pretty good position so we can go with the team that we have. I sure would like to keep them all in redshirt if possible. But if that’s not possible, an injury or two, we may have to relook at it.
“We’ve got a good core group coming back, and we’re in good position to be able to go with those guys and use this signing class as a redshirt year for them.”
By losing only four senior starters, Smith had the flexibility to move some of his wrestlers from weight classes.
A big decision made was to move Zack Esposito up a weight class from 141 to 149. Esposito, who was ranked No. 2 at 141 for much of last season, will fill the hole left by Jerrod Sanders at 149.
At 125, Smith says he feels that sophomores Derek Fleenor and Derek Stevens will battle Cody Stites for the spot left by Skyler Holman. Sophomore Johny Hendricks, who went 10-0 for the Cowboys last season, will move in at 157. Hendricks was a highly touted recruit for the Cowboys last season from Edmond Memorial, where he was a national champion.
NCAA champion Johnny Thompson will return at 133 with sophomore NCAA champion Jake Rosholt at 184. Junior Chris Pendleton will return at 174 along with three-time All-American Tyrone Lewis at 165. Senior Willie Gruenwald will close out the Cowboys at heavyweight.
With Esposito out of the picture at 141, Smith said junior Ronnie Delk should be a starter at the beginning of the season.
“At this point, you’ve got a little bit of the nod to Ronnie Delk,” Smith said. “He’s been in and out of the lineup the last two years, and I think he’s really looking for an opportunity to get back in there.”
Toward the end of the recruiting season, Smith picked up several upper weights which he felt a recruit would split time with sophomore Rusty Blackmon. Smith was concerned that Blackmon wouldn’t be able to compete at 197, but he said that Blackmon is where he needs to be to compete at that weight in the fall.
“At 197 was where I felt a recruit could be sharing some time with Blackmon, but Rusty is looking good right now,” Smith said. “He’s really built himself into that weight. That was one of my biggest concerns going into this signing date was he going to be big enough for the weight. But it appears he’s put that weight on, so we feel pretty confident with him right now. He’s really developed into what we were really counting on him to do.”
While Smith is happy with having his older wrestlers compete the majority of the time, he said that there might be some surprises where the younger wrestlers come in and take a spot. More than anything else, Smith stressed the depth that this and previous strong recruiting classes brings to the team.
“We have a lot of good young kids,” Smith said. “But there’s going to be some surprises. Johnny Hendricks is at 157, but there’s Kevin Ward there too and Kyle Shelton as well that are going to be trying out for those spots. We’re just kind of naming the top guys right now that are maybe likely to be in there, but there’s definitely several guys that plan on making the team that we’re not mentioning.
“We feel good about where we’re at depth-wise heading into this coming season.”
Whoever Smith uses as his starters at the beginning of the season, they will be forced to compete against some of the toughest teams in the country.
Smith deliberately set a tough schedule, with home duals against strong national teams such as Minnesota, LeHigh, and Oklahoma. The Cowboys won’t slouch on the road either, matching up against an improved Michigan State team and Iowa.
“We wanted it as tough as we could get it,” Smith said. “Our home meets will hit some of the top teams.”
Last year, Oklahoma State started the season ranked No. 2 before improving to No. 1 after the first dual.
The Cowboys rolled the rest of the way undefeated before finally capturing the national championship for the first time since 1994.
“We won’t be a surprise,” Smith said. “This past year, early in the year we weren’t really considered a threat. By the end, we were dominating. This year, there’s no question that we’ll get the best of every team that we compete against. But that’s what makes it fun.
“Let’s tie our shoes up and get after it.”
Loading ...
All Articles