NCAA wrestling championships: Oklahoma State's Daton Fix, Dustin Plott lose in medal round
TULSA — An overall disappointing showing at the NCAA Championships ended with a pair of losses in the medal round for Oklahoma State wrestling.
Redshirt senior Daton Fix, who came into the event undefeated as the No. 2 seed, finished fourth after losing 2-1 to Arizona State’s Michael McGee on Saturday afternoon at BOK Center.
OSU junior Dustin Plott lost twice on Saturday afternoon, finishing in sixth place after a 4-2 defeat to Iowa’s Nelson Brands in sudden-victory overtime.
OSU concluded the event with 28 ½ points, tied for 18th place.
The frustration was evident from coach John Smith, whose team will finish outside the top 10 in back-to-back years for the first time in his tenure.
“I gotta analyze everything by the season and recognize my student-athletes,” Smith said. “They wrestled hard, they worked hard this year. It wasn’t a lack of effort. It wasn’t a lack of wanting. It was more a lack of skill, a little bit.
“Gotta appreciate guys that gave you a good year. As a season, you go 14-3. I know everything’s judged on the national tournament, and that’s fine. I know that we’ve had two poor tournaments in a row. That’s not fine.”
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Plott and Fix each earned All-America recognition again, Fix for the fourth time and Plott for the second.
For Fix, the event was a letdown, coming in with national title hopes but ending with the fifth and sixth losses in 107 college matches.
“Guys wrestled a little tight when you have no room to wrestle tight. That’s not good,” Smith said. “Daton wrestled a little tight, not putting enough pressure on people. … He’ll judge himself hard enough though. I don’t have to say too much.
“He’s a winner. Winners find ways to win again.”
McGee escaped in the second period, then rode Fix for the majority of the third to pick up a riding time point. Fix escaped with three seconds left in the match, and OSU coaches challenged that Fix had secured a reversal, but review confirmed the escape call.
That left the match tied at 1, with McGee winning via riding time.
A three-time national runner-up, this was the first time Fix didn’t reach the title match and the first time OSU was without a wrestler in the finals since 2018.
“I’m not gonna spend a lot of time thinking about it other than what the program can do to improve itself,” Smith said. “Nobody’s gonna sit around and accept it. … Gotta make some changes.
“With transfers and the portal and those type of things, we probably fell behind. Maybe, right? You gotta get in that game if you’re gonna stay in this game.
"When you get hit like we’ve been hit the last couple years… I don’t accept the results, but what I do need is I need to make sure we don’t beat our program up to the point where people become very uncomfortable wrestling for us. We need to gather up our troops and kick ass as we’re going forward. That’s what needs to take place.”
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Four-timers Club adds one
The NCAA chose to start the championship matches at 157 pounds, leaving the most dramatic moment for last.
At 149 pounds, Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis was seeking his fourth NCAA Championship, a feat only accomplished by four prior wrestlers.
And he punched his ticket to what is known as the most exclusive club in college wrestling with a 4-2 win over Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso.
The four-timers club also includes Oklahoma State’s Pat Smith, Iowa State’s Cael Sanderson — now Penn State’s coach — Cornell’s Kyle Dake and Ohio State’s Logan Stieber.
Another wrestler will have a shot at the four-timers club next year. At 184 pounds, Penn State’s Aaron Brooks became a three-time champion with a 7-2 win on Saturday.
After having his true freshman season wiped out by COVID, the senior has another year of eligibility remaining.
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Checking in on the champs
Here’s a look at some of those who won championships on Saturday night:
•Penn State won its 11th of the last 13 team titles, scoring 137.5 points, with Iowa in second at 82.5. Diakomihalis’ victory over Sasso secured third place for Cornell with 76.5 points and Ohio State took fourth with 70.5.
•In one of the most anticipated title matches, Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole defeated Iowa State’s David Carr, 8-2, at 165 pounds. O’Toole was the defending 165-pound champ, while Carr had won the 157-pound title last year before moving up.
•Nino Bonaccorsi of Pitt won the 197-pound title. Growing up in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, he did not win a high school state championship.
•Glory for Glory. Princeton’s Pat Glory won the 125-pound title, 4-1 over Purdue’s Matt Ramos. Princeton last had an individual national champion in 1951.
•Austin O’Connor of North Carolina finished off an undefeated season, improving to 23-0 with a 6-2 decision over Penn State’s Levi Haines at 157 for O’Connor’s second title.
•At 174 pounds, Penn State’s Carter Starocci landed a first-period pin of Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola at the 2:46 mark.
•Not only did Vito Arujau end the title hopes of OSU’s Daton Fix on Friday night, he ended Roman Bravo-Young’s quest for a third title at 133 pounds on Saturday. The Cornell wrestler won 10-4 and was named the event's Most Outstanding Wrestler.
•In a battle of an elite program vs. an upstart, the underdog pulled it out. Northern Colorado’s Andrew Alirez defeated Iowa’s Real Woods for the 141-pound title, Northern Colorado’s first individual champion since 1962.
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Attendance tops 95,000
With a crowd of 16,855 for the finals, this week’s attendance totaled 95,245 over six sessions.
Individual session numbers increased with each session, and the total number was the 11th highest attendance for an NCAA wrestling championship.
The record belongs to Cleveland in 2018, which was attended by 113,743 fans.
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Donald Trump takes in finals
Former President Donald Trump was at the BOK Center, seated on the front row in the corner of the arena for Saturday night's championship matches.
Wearing his customary red tie, Trump was recognized before the event began.
After each championship match, winners were escorted to the corner where Trump was seated, posing for photos and shaking hands with the former president.
This was not Trump’s first trip to the BOK Center. He held a re-election rally at the arena in the summer of 2020.
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Travis Wittlake recovering from arm infection
OSU coach John Smith said he was unable to do post-match interviews for Friday night’s final session because he had to leave the arena to check on wrestler Travis Wittlake, whose arm had become infected.
Wittlake was hospitalized while the issue was tended to.
“It needed some care. It happened pretty quick,” Smith said, adding that Wittlake was recovering well on Saturday.
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Iowa’s Lee 5th after injury
In one of the most captivating moments of the week, Purdue’s Matt Ramos pinned Iowa’s Spencer Lee in the 125-pound semifinals on Friday night, ending Lee’s run at a fourth NCAA title.
Lee ultimately dropped to fifth place, losing two matches on Saturday via medical forfeit.
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Coaches approve of BOK Center
Iowa State coach Kevin Dresser had his concerns about the NCAA Championships being held at BOK Center.
Having been to the arena the past several years for the Big 12 Championships, Dresser wondered if the floor area would be big enough to accommodate the eight-mat setup used in the first three sessions.
“As far as the way it was run and the space on the floor, it was more than I thought it was gonna be,” Dresser said.
Smith felt the arena added something to the event that should be continued at future NCAA Championship sites. Curtains were added in the locker room areas, with spots designated for each participating team.
In previous years, teams had to find space for themselves in a landrun style to claim property.
“This is probably the most comfortable our athletes have been, having our own spot and area,” Smith said. “We didn’t have to go chase it at 6 o’clock in the morning. I think we’ll probably see this setup that they have for the rest of the national tournaments. This is the way to do it.
“People were worried about Tulsa, and I think they’ve definitely overcome those worries.”
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Final 2023 NCAA wrestling team scores
No. 1. Penn State, 137.5
No. 2. Iowa, 82.5
No. 3. Cornell, 76.5
No. 4. Ohio State, 70.5
No. 5. Missouri, 64.5
No. 6. Arizona State, 55
No. 7. Michigan, 58.5
No. 8. Nebraska, 54
No. 9. Virginia Tech, 49
No. 10. NC State, 48
No. 11. Iowa State, 47
No. 12. North Carolina, 42
No. 13. Princeton, 37.5
No. 14. South Dakota State, 37
No. 15. Minnesota, 30.5
T-16. Northern Iowa, 29
T-16. Wisconsin, 29
T-18. Air Force, 28.5
T-18. Oklahoma State, 28.5
T-20. Lehigh, 28
T-20. Purdue, 28
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: NCAA wrestling championships: OSU's Fix, Plott lose in medal round
