Way Too Early Lineup Look: 2020-21 Oklahoma State Cowboys
Way Too Early Lineup Look: 2020-21 Oklahoma State Cowboys
Is Daton Fix back for Oklahoma State? We dive into that and a million other questions about the Cowboys next year.
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With the 2019-20 wrestling season wrapped up thanks to the coronavirus, it’s time to look to the 2020-21 season and project what we think lineups will be next season. I’m going to take a stab here at how things could shape up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Lineup Looks: Iowa | Penn State | Cornell | Michigan | Ohio State | Missouri | Nebraska | Stanford
125: Will Fix drop down?
For the past four years there hasn’t been much uncertainty on who would be the guy at 125. Nick Piccininni has held down that job since his freshman year and now the two-time All-American and four-time Big 12 champ will be lost to graduation.
What I think will end up happening — and also end up being one of the biggest stories in wrestling next season — is Daton Fix will cut down to 125. I haven’t spoken directly with anyone in OSU’s camp to know this is definitively the plan, but I do know the cut for Daton, at least last year when going to 57KG, wasn’t as bad as many believe. He really just went up to 133 because everyone felt that was the best team scenario. This would open up OSU to bring Kaid Brock back down to 133 and set up the best-case lineup scenario for OSU.
There is a real possibility that I’m wrong here and Daton cannot make 125. We also have no idea if Olympic redshirts next year will be a possibility and if Fix may take another. If one of those turns out to be the case, then the Cowboys could roll out a few options here. Currently on the roster they have transfers Rhett Golowenski and Dallas Wilson, as well as two very highly-touted incoming freshmen with Jakason Burks and Trevor Mastrogiovanni. If Fix is up at 133, I see a similar scenario here to what OSU had at 133 this season where they evaluate things early to watch the performance of the true freshmen and decide if they want to go ahead and wrestle them instead of redshirting.
133: Fix back or Brock down?
If Fix doesn’t go down to 125 he could return here after his Olympic redshirt from last season, but there’s also a theoretical scenario in which Fix takes another Olympic redshirt and doesn’t wrestle at all. If either of those happen we should see Kaid Brock here. Brock, the two-time All-American, was unable to wrestle this season after being sidelined with a knee injury, and though he wrestled up at 141 last year most believe he could easily return to 133 where he competed his entire career until he moved up to 141 his junior season. Nothing official has been announced on Brock’s medical hardship waiver at this point.
Another theoretical scenario includes the possibility of Brock going back to 141 or not getting a medical redshirt. If that’s the case and Fix either goes to 125 or takes another Olympic redshirt (acknowledging that we don’t even know if that’s an option at this point) we could see Reece Witcraft return here, but with the expectation that Brock and Fix will both likely return, it makes sense for Witcraft to take his still available redshirt.
141: Brock, Hone, Gfeller, or Balmeceda?
See above on Brock’s scenario and the possibility we see him at 133.
If that doesn’t play out, Brock was the guy at 141 his junior year over Hone and Gfeller, though both Hone and Gfeller wrestled parts of the season at 149. So as long as his injury doesn’t linger, one would expect him to win out the job here.
This season most expected to see Kaden Gfeller as the starter at 141; that never materialized and the Big 12 champ only competed sparingly throughout the season. It’s unclear what his status is. In Gfeller and Brock’s absence, Dusty Hone performed well and even qualified for the NCAA tournament. Another option we could see is Brevin Balmeceda, the highly-touted prospect who shocked everyone by coming in at this weight and will come out of redshirt this season
There’s just really a lot of moving parts here, but ultimately we could see three or four NCAA qualifier caliber guys battling it out for the job.
149: Boo Lewallen, RSSR
Here’s the first weight that’s really just not that complex. As long as he’s healthy, All-American Boo Lewallen will be the starter here and there’s little to doubt that.
157: Wyatt Sheets, RSJR
This is another that I feel is pretty clear about. Sheets has been good here and really seemed to be scratching his way up to the All-American caliber level as he moved throughout the season. There are a few young guys coming out of redshirt that I expect may try and throw their hats in the ring, but it will be tough to unseat Sheets who really came on this season.
165: Will Wittlake stay down?
This is another one that I’m fairly confident in. Wittlake had a great redshirt freshman campaign at 165 and it’s hard to see things changing, but he did wrestle at 174 as a true freshman and with the exit of Joe Smith and Andrew Shomers to graduation, maybe there’s a possibility he moves up? I doubt that happens and fully expect Wittlake to return here, but could see a slim shot he returns to 174.
174: Will they wrestle the true freshman?
OSU has one of their best recruiting classes in years coming in and one of the top pieces in that group is Dustin Plott; the last time we saw him, he was wrestling up a bit, but he could definitely make this weight and is truly of the caliber that could immediately compete at the D1 level.
If OSU or Plott feel it’s best for him to redshirt there are other options here. Most notable to this point in his career is Gavin Stika. The Ohio state champ and redshirt sophomore-to-be made the podium at a few opens this year and seems to have an edge on the rest of the current roster.
184: Anthony Montalvo, RSSO
I expect Montalvo to return to his starting spot here for the Cowboys and continue his rise. Montalvo ranked #13 in Flo’s end-of-season rankings at 184 and with the graduation of a few wrestlers ranked ahead of him, could project as an All-American next season.
197: Will Dakota Geer return to his post or will Ferrari throw his hat in the ring?
I would expect OSU to do the same thing from last season here with inserting All-American Dakota Geer. He’s up from his previous weight of 184, but there’s really nothing to indicate a potential move back down. Only other variable at play is incoming freshman superstar AJ Ferrari. If he decides he wants to try and compete as a true freshman, it could push Geer back down to 184. I don’t really see this happening as it makes the most sense to me to have Ferrari redshirt and Geer wrestle his senior season here, but you never really know.
285: Harris, Doucet, or could we see Streck?
This is the only weight on the Oklahoma State roster where the Cowboys did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. Austin Harris and Cornelius Putnam have shared starting duties at heavyweight this past season, but things could change up a bit this season.
Shawn Streck, a round of 16 wrestler at Purdue a few years ago, was enrolled at and took courses at Northern Oklahoma College last semester. For people that are not close to Oklahoma State, this is a two-year college that is tied directly to Oklahoma State and typically used as a gateway program for students that need some sort of bridge to get their grades up or resolve other issues before they transfer to Oklahoma State. If he can get in at OSU and eligible to wrestle, I would expect him to grab the starting job.
The other option here is true freshman Konner Doucet. Doucet was a four-time state champ out of Comanche, OK, and wrestled at 220 last season. He projects as a college heavyweight and if he emerges as the top heavyweight on the roster I would expect him to wrestle here as a true freshman.
Seth Duckworth is a Stillwater-based writer who covers Oklahoma State University wrestling for Pistols Firing Blog, the best OSU news and community site on the internet. Follow Seth on Twitter.