Oklahoma State wrestling coach John Smith befuddled by lack of intensity in Iowa loss
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State coach John Smith said what most of the folks in the sold-out Gallagher-Iba Arena were thinking.
“I wasn’t expecting that, that’s for damn sure,” Smith said after fourth-ranked Iowa’s 22-9 dismantling of the second-ranked Cowboys on Sunday afternoon.
Though OSU (14-1) had the better team ranking, Iowa (12-2) came in with more higher-ranked wrestlers, and from Smith’s perspective, more fight, thanks to a couple of difficult losses earlier this season.
“Got a team that’s been bruised up a little bit in Iowa,” Smith said. “And we hadn’t been bruised up. We have now. Let’s see what we can do from this point forward now. A lot of fight in Iowa. A lot of the matches where it seemed like we could’ve made the difference, they won.
“Just not enough. We gotta have way more intensity. The intensity wasn’t there. The shot ratio wasn’t there. They were taking the shots and we were defending.”
More: Oklahoma State vs. Iowa wrestling: Why old-school showdown, rivalry remains important to sport
The Cowboys entered undefeated in duals, and the battle was back-and-forth in the early matches. Each won two decisions to start, but Iowa took over at 157 pounds, earning two decisions, then a major decision at 174.
That left OSU needing three wins in the final three matches, and at least two bonus points. to pull out the victory. Yet only Dustin Plott at 184 won his match.
The Cowboys’ biggest highlight of the day came early, when third-ranked 133-pounder Daton Fix earned a 7-2 decision to conclude his OSU career undefeated in matches at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Fix, Plott and redshirt freshman Jordan Williams were the only victorious Cowboys — with Williams defeating former OSU wrestler Victor Voinovich at 149 pounds. Voinovich was filling in for the injured Caleb Rathjen, who is ranked eighth at the weight.
Fix scrapped his usual entrance music for the Frank Sinatra song “My Way,” which played before improving to 13-0 on the season, then celebrating his final home match by taking a bow for the crowd.
“Just to say thank you,” Fix said. “It was really special to be able to wrestle again in front of a sold-out Gallagher-Iba. Obviously I wish we could’ve given them more to cheer about, but I just wanted to thank all the fans for supporting me my entire career.
“Hopefully I can finish the job here in a couple weeks and give them something to cheer about at nationals.”
More: Oklahoma State wrestler Daton Fix hopes Sunday vs. OU isn't his final Bedlam dual
The postseason comes into focus now for the Cowboys, who will be in action at the Big 12 Championships March 9-10 at the BOK Center in Tulsa before heading to Kansas City, Missouri for the NCAA Championships later next month.
With a couple weeks to prepare for the Big 12 Championships, Smith knows the next few days are important to get his team back in the right mindset after its first loss.
“We’ve got enough competitors on the team, we’ll be fine,” Smith said. “Gotta get up each and every week. You can’t take a week off emotionally or you’re gonna find yourself in a lot of trouble, like we did tonight. Need to gather the troops up and push forward.
“I gotta be careful right now. We just need to grow up a little bit, learn some lessons from it and go kick ass in the Big 12.”
Smith and Fix both praised the OSU crowd for coming out, resulting in the third-largest crowd for a wrestling dual at GIA with 13,721 in attendance. That also helped OSU set what is believed to be the season record for per-dual attendance, averaging 5,871 fans over nine duals.
“That crowd was awesome,” Smith said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t give ‘em more. When you have that opportunity — you don’t get it all the time, so when you have that opportunity, you want to make sure you give ‘em something to bring ‘em back.
“This team’s better than that. They didn’t perform well tonight, for one reason or another. Come back and see this team wrestle again. They’ll be better.”
Oklahoma State wrestling results
Sunday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater
Iowa 22, Oklahoma State 9
125: Drake Ayala, Iowa, dec. Troy Spratley, 8-1, SV
133: Daton Fix, OSU, dec. Brody Teske, 7-2
141: Real Woods, Iowa, dec. Tajen Jamison, 4-1
149: Jordan Williams, OSU, dec. Victor Voinovich, 7-3
157: Jared Franek, Iowa, dec. Teague Travis, 10-4
165: Michael Caliendo, Iowa, dec. Izzak Olejnik, 7-2
174: Patrick Kennedy, Iowa, major dec. Brayden Thompson, 12-3
184: Dustin Plott, OSU, dec. Gabe Arnold, 5-1
197: Zach Glazier, Iowa, dec. Luke Surber, 4-1
HWT: Ben Kueter, Iowa, dec. Konner Doucet, 5-1
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU wrestling: John Smith befuddled by lack of intensity in Iowa loss
