Oklahoma State
After a down year in 2018, Oklahoma State returned to the trophies, placing 3rd (84 points) with 5 All-Americans. Oklahoma State went a perfect 15-0 in duals last season, highlighted by victories over Iowa, Missouri and Lehigh. The Cowboys placed second at the Southern Scuffle and won by their usual wide margin at the Big 12 Championship with 6 individual champions and qualifying 9 wrestlers into the NCAA Championship.
There are a lot of line-up changes for Oklahoma State this season with the departure of two All-Americans at 197 (Weigel) and Heavy (White), another All-American taking an Olympic redshirt (Fix) and a former All-American already out with a season ending injury (Brock). Even with all the losses, this team is still deep (except at heavyweight). Oklahoma State returns two All-Americans from last season (Picc and Geer) and two former All-Americans (Joe Smith and Lewallen). Gfeller at 141 is also plenty capable of becoming an AA. While another 3rd place finish seems unlikely, the Cowboys should stay in the top ten.
Oklahoma State has a packed schedule this year with 16 dual meets (including the return of the home/away series with Oklahoma). The non-conference schedule includes Drexel, Lehigh, Minnesota, Princeton, Pitt, Missouri and Iowa. They also return to the Penn State-less Southern Scuffle.
125
Nick Piccininni (Sr) <Ward Melville, NY>
Piccininni returns for his final season at Oklahoma State trying to dethrone the reigning 2-time champ. After a disappointing round of 12 finish in 2018, Picc went on a tear last season winning 31 straight matches going into the NCAA Championship and finishing the season with an impressive bonus rate of 76%. At the NCAA Championship, Spencer Lee avenged an earlier loss by fall against Picc in the semi-finals. Piccininni ended up placing 4th after a loss to Vitaly Arujau (Cor). <Bonus: 75.7%, RPI: .699>
133
Reece Witcraft (Fr) <Broken Arrow, OK>
With Daton Fix out with an Olympic redshirt <edit: maybe> and Kaid Brock out due to injury, the Cowboys are turning to true freshman Reece Witcraft as the starter at 133. Witcraft is a two-time Oklahoma state champion, 2018 Ironman champion and a 2017 Cadet Fargo champion. He is ranked #5 at 132 by InterMat.
Last season, Daton Fix went 35-2 and finished 2nd behind Nick Suriano (Rut) in an exhilarating title match that will be replayed over and over again in wrestling fans’ memories. Fix’s only other loss during the season was to Micky Phillippi at a dual versus Pitt.
141
Kaden Gfeller (So) <Heritage Hall, OK>
Gfeller drops back down to man 141 this season. Last season at 149, he went 28-6 overall and won the Big 12 Championship but had a disappointing NCAA Championship, going 0-2 from the 7 seed. <Bonus: 50.0%, RPI: .662> {I’m looking forward to a Nick Lee-Gfeller rematch.}
Last season at 141, two-time AA (@133) Kaid Brock went 22-9 but couldn’t return to the podium, losing to Kyle Shoop (LHU) in the Round of 12.
149
Boo Lewallen (Sr) <Yukon, OK>
Lewallen returns to the lineup after an injury shortened season in 2018/19. Lewallen placed 8th at the NCAA Championship at 149 in 2018.
157
Wyatt Sheets (Jr) <Stillwell, OK>
Andrew Shomers (Sr) <Lewiston-Porter, NY>
Sheets was the only starter last season for the Cowboys to miss qualifying for the NCAA Championship. He went 19-13 and placed 4th at the Big 12 Championship (1 allocation). He did have some victories over national qualifiers, including two that made it to the Round of 12: Taleb Rahmani (Pitt) and Josh Humphreys (Lehigh). <Bonus: 25.0%, RPI: .564>
Shomers was a national qualifier for Edinboro at 157 in 2018. He went 9-6 in spot duty at 157 and 165 for the Cowboys last season.
165
Travis Wittlake (Fr) <Marshfield, OR>
“It’s easier to starve someone else’s son than your own son” – John Smith. (No, he didn’t say that. Don’t get mad at me Cowboy fans, I’m just having a little literary fun.) Wittlake enters the Cowboy starting lineup after going 16-2 at 174 during his redshirt season. He wrestled against one NCAA qualifier, a loss to Seldon Wright (ODU). His other loss was to Abner Romero (Fresno City College). Who is Abner Romero you may ask? Romero won the California JC title last season and will be with Oregon State this season. He went 29-10 as a redshirt for Old Dominion in 16/17.
174
Joe Smith (Sr) <Stillwater, OK>
After a late season wrestle-off, Smith moved down to 165 and beat out 2-time AA Chandler Rogers for the spot. Smith placed 5th (6 allocations) at the Big 12 Championship and received the 33 seed at the NCAA Championship. After winning his pigtail, Smith had an early lead against #1 seed Alex Marinelli before wearing out. He made it to the Round of 16 where he lost to Demetrius Romero (UVU).
Last season at 174, outgoing senior Jacobe Smith was unable to repeat his AA performance from 2018. Smith went 2-2 from the 7 seed.
184
Anthony Montalvo (Fr) <Buchanan, CA>
Montalvo went 18-3 last season as a redshirt. He only wrestled one NCAA qualifier, a loss to Tate Samuelson (Wyo).
197
Dakota Geer (Jr) <Franklin Area, PA>
Another immigrant from Edinboro, Geer is moving up to 197 this season. He placed 3rd at the Big 12 Championship and 7th from the 26 seed at 184 for the Cowboys last season at the NCAA Championship, beating Shakur Rasheed along the way. He went 30-7 splitting time between 197 and 184 (hence the poor seeding at the NCAAs).
Last season, Preston Weigel came back from injury and finished his career strong, becoming an AA for the second time and placing 3rd with his only loss of the season coming against Kollin Moore (Tosu).
Heavy
Cornelius Putnam (Jr) <Blair Academy, NJ>
Putnam went 8-5 in opens last season with no wins against D1 wrestlers. He’s the only heavy listed on Oklahoma State’s roster.
Last season, Derek White also finished his career strong, getting the #1 seed for the NCAA Championship, going 32-2 overall and capped it off by becoming an All-American for the first time. As every Penn State fan knows, White finished the NCAA Championship as the runner-up to the Gopher-slayer, Anthony Cassar.
New Faces
Oklahoma State has three ranked wrestlers coming in this season (their 20/21 class is already looking very strong).
Reece Witcraft <Broken Arrow, OK>
Listed above at 133
Brevin Balmeceda <South Dade, FL>
Balmeceda is a 4-time Florida state champion, a 3-time NHSCA champion and a Super 32 champion (among many other accolades). Balmeceda is ranked #4 at 160 by InterMat. He’s listed at 141 on the OSUwebsite roster (let the weight cutting jokes commence).
Daniel Manibog <Katy, TX>
Manibog is a three-time Texas state champion. He’s ranked #8 at 160 by InterMat.
After a down year in 2018, Oklahoma State returned to the trophies, placing 3rd (84 points) with 5 All-Americans. Oklahoma State went a perfect 15-0 in duals last season, highlighted by victories over Iowa, Missouri and Lehigh. The Cowboys placed second at the Southern Scuffle and won by their usual wide margin at the Big 12 Championship with 6 individual champions and qualifying 9 wrestlers into the NCAA Championship.
There are a lot of line-up changes for Oklahoma State this season with the departure of two All-Americans at 197 (Weigel) and Heavy (White), another All-American taking an Olympic redshirt (Fix) and a former All-American already out with a season ending injury (Brock). Even with all the losses, this team is still deep (except at heavyweight). Oklahoma State returns two All-Americans from last season (Picc and Geer) and two former All-Americans (Joe Smith and Lewallen). Gfeller at 141 is also plenty capable of becoming an AA. While another 3rd place finish seems unlikely, the Cowboys should stay in the top ten.
Oklahoma State has a packed schedule this year with 16 dual meets (including the return of the home/away series with Oklahoma). The non-conference schedule includes Drexel, Lehigh, Minnesota, Princeton, Pitt, Missouri and Iowa. They also return to the Penn State-less Southern Scuffle.
125
Nick Piccininni (Sr) <Ward Melville, NY>
Piccininni returns for his final season at Oklahoma State trying to dethrone the reigning 2-time champ. After a disappointing round of 12 finish in 2018, Picc went on a tear last season winning 31 straight matches going into the NCAA Championship and finishing the season with an impressive bonus rate of 76%. At the NCAA Championship, Spencer Lee avenged an earlier loss by fall against Picc in the semi-finals. Piccininni ended up placing 4th after a loss to Vitaly Arujau (Cor). <Bonus: 75.7%, RPI: .699>
133
Reece Witcraft (Fr) <Broken Arrow, OK>
With Daton Fix out with an Olympic redshirt <edit: maybe> and Kaid Brock out due to injury, the Cowboys are turning to true freshman Reece Witcraft as the starter at 133. Witcraft is a two-time Oklahoma state champion, 2018 Ironman champion and a 2017 Cadet Fargo champion. He is ranked #5 at 132 by InterMat.
Last season, Daton Fix went 35-2 and finished 2nd behind Nick Suriano (Rut) in an exhilarating title match that will be replayed over and over again in wrestling fans’ memories. Fix’s only other loss during the season was to Micky Phillippi at a dual versus Pitt.
141
Kaden Gfeller (So) <Heritage Hall, OK>
Gfeller drops back down to man 141 this season. Last season at 149, he went 28-6 overall and won the Big 12 Championship but had a disappointing NCAA Championship, going 0-2 from the 7 seed. <Bonus: 50.0%, RPI: .662> {I’m looking forward to a Nick Lee-Gfeller rematch.}
Last season at 141, two-time AA (@133) Kaid Brock went 22-9 but couldn’t return to the podium, losing to Kyle Shoop (LHU) in the Round of 12.
149
Boo Lewallen (Sr) <Yukon, OK>
Lewallen returns to the lineup after an injury shortened season in 2018/19. Lewallen placed 8th at the NCAA Championship at 149 in 2018.
157
Wyatt Sheets (Jr) <Stillwell, OK>
Andrew Shomers (Sr) <Lewiston-Porter, NY>
Sheets was the only starter last season for the Cowboys to miss qualifying for the NCAA Championship. He went 19-13 and placed 4th at the Big 12 Championship (1 allocation). He did have some victories over national qualifiers, including two that made it to the Round of 12: Taleb Rahmani (Pitt) and Josh Humphreys (Lehigh). <Bonus: 25.0%, RPI: .564>
Shomers was a national qualifier for Edinboro at 157 in 2018. He went 9-6 in spot duty at 157 and 165 for the Cowboys last season.
165
Travis Wittlake (Fr) <Marshfield, OR>
“It’s easier to starve someone else’s son than your own son” – John Smith. (No, he didn’t say that. Don’t get mad at me Cowboy fans, I’m just having a little literary fun.) Wittlake enters the Cowboy starting lineup after going 16-2 at 174 during his redshirt season. He wrestled against one NCAA qualifier, a loss to Seldon Wright (ODU). His other loss was to Abner Romero (Fresno City College). Who is Abner Romero you may ask? Romero won the California JC title last season and will be with Oregon State this season. He went 29-10 as a redshirt for Old Dominion in 16/17.
174
Joe Smith (Sr) <Stillwater, OK>
After a late season wrestle-off, Smith moved down to 165 and beat out 2-time AA Chandler Rogers for the spot. Smith placed 5th (6 allocations) at the Big 12 Championship and received the 33 seed at the NCAA Championship. After winning his pigtail, Smith had an early lead against #1 seed Alex Marinelli before wearing out. He made it to the Round of 16 where he lost to Demetrius Romero (UVU).
Last season at 174, outgoing senior Jacobe Smith was unable to repeat his AA performance from 2018. Smith went 2-2 from the 7 seed.
184
Anthony Montalvo (Fr) <Buchanan, CA>
Montalvo went 18-3 last season as a redshirt. He only wrestled one NCAA qualifier, a loss to Tate Samuelson (Wyo).
197
Dakota Geer (Jr) <Franklin Area, PA>
Another immigrant from Edinboro, Geer is moving up to 197 this season. He placed 3rd at the Big 12 Championship and 7th from the 26 seed at 184 for the Cowboys last season at the NCAA Championship, beating Shakur Rasheed along the way. He went 30-7 splitting time between 197 and 184 (hence the poor seeding at the NCAAs).
Last season, Preston Weigel came back from injury and finished his career strong, becoming an AA for the second time and placing 3rd with his only loss of the season coming against Kollin Moore (Tosu).
Heavy
Cornelius Putnam (Jr) <Blair Academy, NJ>
Putnam went 8-5 in opens last season with no wins against D1 wrestlers. He’s the only heavy listed on Oklahoma State’s roster.
Last season, Derek White also finished his career strong, getting the #1 seed for the NCAA Championship, going 32-2 overall and capped it off by becoming an All-American for the first time. As every Penn State fan knows, White finished the NCAA Championship as the runner-up to the Gopher-slayer, Anthony Cassar.
New Faces
Oklahoma State has three ranked wrestlers coming in this season (their 20/21 class is already looking very strong).
Reece Witcraft <Broken Arrow, OK>
Listed above at 133
Brevin Balmeceda <South Dade, FL>
Balmeceda is a 4-time Florida state champion, a 3-time NHSCA champion and a Super 32 champion (among many other accolades). Balmeceda is ranked #4 at 160 by InterMat. He’s listed at 141 on the OSUwebsite roster (let the weight cutting jokes commence).
Daniel Manibog <Katy, TX>
Manibog is a three-time Texas state champion. He’s ranked #8 at 160 by InterMat.
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