Bedlam Beatdown: Spratley, Fix, Jamison spark fast start as Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma
Feb. 18—Tagen Jamison gives himself 15 minutes to go through his pre-match routine, but he had to rush it on Sunday.
Troy Spratley came into the locker room earlier than expected. The 125-pounder pinned Conrad Hendriksen in 63 seconds, and Jamison knew Daton Fix would make quick work of Gabe Vidlak in the 133-pound match.
Jamison threw his singlet on, ran onto the mat and pinned Carter Schmidt in 54 seconds. The fast start from the featherweights launched Oklahoma State to a 34-9 Bedlam win.
"It was just an exciting moment," Jamison said. "I didn't really have to prepare mentally or anything because Troy and Daton did that for me, keeping the crowd cheering as much as they were so it was nice ... being able to add to that."
Cowboy coach John Smith said he could barely remember those first three matches after the dual because of how quick they were.
"It's been a while since I've seen that," Smith said. "That's a way to start. We're 10 minutes into the dual and three matches are down. I thought we were going to do this dual in about an hour, and they started fighting back."
Oklahoma's Willie McDougald won a 5-2 decision over Jordan Williams in the 149-pound match. Smith said he thought Williams, a redshirt freshman, was a bit wide-eyed.
Teague Travis won an 11-1 major decision in the 157-pound match.
Travis beat Jared Hill in the state finals as a Stillwater Pioneer. This was their first match against one another as college wrestlers.
"I knew what to expect," Travis said. "I knew that I was going to have to be aggressive and go out there and score a lot of points."
Smith harped on the lack of aggression from true freshman Brayden Thompson in the 174-pound match. Thompson lost 6-2 in sudden victory to Tate Picklo, who he beat in Norman in December.
"(His) demeanor kind of went back to a little bit of that early season demeanor. The season gets tough," Smith said. "You can't get tired of that. If you do, you wrestle like that."
Dustin Plott picked up a technical fall over Giuseppe Hoose in the 184-pound match, and Luke Surber did the same over Carson Berryhill in the 197-pound match.
Smith said he wished Surber could have wrestled Stephen Buchanan instead to get a better feel for Surber, who was returning from an injury.
"It would have been nice, but it didn't happen for one reason or another," Smith said. "I imagine that (Buchanan) is battling something, and the dual meet's over. You don't got a shot to win and that's OK."
Konner Doucet needed five seconds of riding time to beat Josh Heindselman in the heavyweight match. Not only did he not get the five seconds, he got reversed and lost 2-1.
"I thought Konner really had a good match — I mean the match needed to have — just his tactic at the end there was a little bit careless and it cost him," Smith said. "I'll take a guy that gives me the match I'm looking for."
The undefeated No. 2 Cowboys close out the dual season on Sunday against No. 4 Iowa in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
