Smith: 'Minimum' effort from Cowboys in win over Lehigh

Jan. 24—John Smith used the word "minimum" in excess following Sunday's dual against Lehigh.

The Oklahoma State wrestling coach ran through his lineup after a 26-9 win over the 16th-ranked team and repeated the word in terms of effort he felt he saw from members of his lineup.

"We have the tendency to do the bare minimum," Smith said. "... There were some matches we didn't even score points."

The Cowboys managed just three bonus-point victories inside Gallagher-Iba Arena — despite having five matches in which Lehigh didn't even have a ranked wrestler on the mat.

After a 5-1 decision by No. 6 Trevor Mastrogiovanni over No. 20 Jaret Lane at 125 pounds, Cowboy leader Daton Fix got the first of those bonus points by pinning 18th-ranked Malyke Hines in the first period.

"I wrestled him at nationals and it was a close first period, so I knew going into the match that I needed to be intense," Fix said. "I knew that going in and I had the opportunity to get him on his back and once I got in there, I really wanted to get the fall."

And while a fall would typically be followed by some momentum carrying over for the Cowboys, it went flat with the first trio of wrestlers Smith was disgruntled with.

True freshman Carter Young, ranked 22nd at 141 pounds, had to get a late takedown to avoid losing his second-straight match — though this opponent was unranked in a 5-4 decision.

Kaden Gfeller also had a low scoring affair against an unranked wrestler. After getting a takedown early in the match, the 13th-ranked wrestler at 157 pounds scored a reversal to start the second period — and then a riding time bonus with over four minutes on top — to win a 5-1 decision.

And then the Cowboys suffered their first loss with 13th-ranked Wyatt Sheets unable to pull off an upset of No. 8-ranked Josh Humphreys. In fact, Sheets' only offensive points came via a reversal in the second period in a decision he lost 7-3.

"I'll just throw all those guys in the same level of what I thought: minimum," Smith said. "Let's do the minimum. ... You've gotta bring a different level to the mat and it just didn't seem like we wanted to do that today, and kind of looked like we worked towards doing the bare minimum in trying to win matches.

"Sheets not getting off the mat, that's crazy. That kid is good on top, I know he's good on top, but Sheets not getting up off the mat? You don't give up two takedowns in the first period, the second one being at the end of the period. Come on."

Lehigh won a second-straight match with a 2-0 decision at 165 pounds by No. 24 Brian Meyer as OSU's Jalin Harper wrestled in place of fifth-ranked Travis Wittlake — who Smith said is still nursing a minor injury that kept him out of the lineup a week earlier.

No. 8-ranked Dustin Plott followed with a win at 174 pounds, but it was once again another highly-ranked Cowboy unable to get big points against an unranked opponent.

Despite wrestling an opponent with a losing record, Plott needed a takedown in the third period to make the difference in a 5-3 decision.

That trend changed in the following two matches, however, with Dakota Geer and AJ Ferrari getting bonus points.

However, even those were matches that Smith would have liked to see more from the 10th-ranked wrestler at 184 pounds and the defending national champion at 197 pounds, respectively.

Geer won by 23-10 major decision but wasted time trying to flip his opponent in the second period instead of building points with a barrage of takedowns — a move he did in the third instead with half of his takedowns coming in the final frame.

"Whenever he had the steam that can be dangerous at times, and I think that's where some of my sloppy finishes were coming from — was him trying to do some of the crazy moves," Geer said. "And (Coach Smith) was exactly right, I needed to take some of the steam out of him before I go for those turns — which I can do because I feel like my cardio is usually better than those guys."

Fresh off a fall a week earlier, Ferrari mustered just three takedowns and a four-point nearfall — which came in the first period — to narrowly get a major decision, as well, with a 12-2 score.

At heavyweight, No. 30-ranked Luke Surber was held in check by seventh-ranked Jordan Wood with a 6-0 decision.

Things won't get any easier for the Cowboys.

OSU will host Northern Iowa — which is ranked 22nd in the tournament rankings by InterMat Wrestling but unranked as a dual team — on Saturday before being right back inside Gallagher-Iba Arena the next day for a tilt with Iowa State, which is ranked sixth in the dual rankings.

"You gotta bring that intensity into the room," Fix said. "We do a lot of technique and stuff in the room, but we've got away from going hard in the room, and I think we might need to do a little more of that, some more live wrestling just to get that intensity."