Cowboys Battle Bucknell in Season Opener

Sunday, November 6

Miami, OK

2:00:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Bucknell

November 04, 2016 | Cowboy Wrestling

STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State wrestling team opens the 2016-17 season this Sunday when it travels to Miami, Okla., to face Bucknell at NEO Fieldhouse on the campus of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. The event is set to begin at 2 p.m. and will serve as the first match of a doubleheader, with NEO hosting Labette Community College following the Cowboys' match.

Live Stats and Play-By-Play
Fans can follow the action online through live results and play-by-play on www.trackwrestling.com. Simply go to the site and the link to live results and play-by-play will be prominently displayed.

Listen to the Dual Live
Fans can listen to the dual live on 93.7 KSPI-FM or okstate.com with Rex Holt and Roger Moore on the call.

About the Cowboys
Facing the challenge of replacing three starters from last season's squad, including three-time NCAA Champion Alex Dieringer and two-time All-American Austin Marsden, the 2016-17 Oklahoma State wrestling team is up to the task of chasing the program's 35th team championship.

There is reason for optimism, as the Pokes' roster boasts plenty of wrestlers that can make an impact this upcoming season. Head coach John Smith returns 2016 NCAA Champion at 141 pounds Dean Heil, along with All-Americans Nolan Boyd, Anthony Collica and Joe Smith from an NCAA Runner-Up finish at the NCAA Championships in Madison Square Garden last spring.

Along with Smith, who enters his 26th season at the helm of the Oklahoma State wrestling program, the Cowboys are led by associate head coaches Eric Guerrero and Zack Esposito, along with volunteer assistant coach Chris Perry.

In the Polls
The Cowboys open the 2016-17 season ranked No. 1 in both the USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll and the Intermat Tournament rankings. Bucknell is receiving votes in the USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll.

Individually, Oklahoma State has nine potential starters ranked in at least three polls and eight who are ranked in all four. Returning NCAA Champion 141-pounder Dean Heil enters the season ranked No. 1 in all four major polls. Aside from Heil, seven other Cowboys received top-eight rankings from Intermat, including Kaid Brock (133, No. 6), Anthony Collica (149, No. 4), Joe Smith (157, No. 3), Chandler Rogers (165, No. 5), Kyle Crutchmer (174, No. 6), Nolan Boyd (184, No. 5) and Preston Weigel (197, No. 7).

Bucknell has one projected starter ranked in his weight class by Intermat. Tyler Smith starts his season ranked No. 19 at 141 pounds.

Host of Cowboys Head to OCU Open
A number of Cowboys will travel to Oklahoma City on Sunday for the OCU Open. The OSU roster for the event features 12 Cowboys, including Tanner Allen (285), Blake Andrews (285), Kyle Garcia (133), Lincoln Lemon (133), Mike Magaldo (141), Andrew Marsden (184), Geordan Martinez (149), Tristan Moran (141), Lincoln Olson (133), Wyatt Sheets (149), Jacobe Smith (174) and Derek White (197).

Last season, the Cowboys racked up 11 titles at the tournament. Eddie Klimara (125), Brian Crutchmer (133), Anthony Collica (149), Jordan Rogers (184), Austin Schafer (197) and Austin Marsden (285) each took championships in the open division. Current junior transfer Jacobe Smith earned the 174-pound title as well, although he competed for Northeastern Oklahoma last season.

In the freshman/sophomore division, every OSU wrestler placed and the squad took home five champions. Nick Piccininni (125), Kaid Brock (133), Tristan Moran (141), Joe Smith (157) and Preston Weigel (197).

The Series
Sunday's meeting between the Cowboys and the Bison will serve as the fifth all-time meeting between the two progams. Oklahoma State leads the series, 4-0.

The Cowboys and Bison first met in 2010 in Gallagher-Iba Arena, also the opener of the 2010-11 season, in which OSU would prove victorious, 39-3. Oklahoma State took the last meeting, 40-6, in Stillwater in 2013.

Of the four previous meetings, three have come in Stillwater and one in Lewisburg. This Sunday's match will be the first contested at a neutral site.

Creeping Up On 100
Oklahoma State seniors Anthony Collica and Nolan Boyd each enter the season within 15 wins of joining the program's 100-win club. The exclusive club currently features 39 former Cowboy greats, led by John Smith, who wrapped up his career with 152 wins.

Collica currently owns 86 career wins to go against 29 losses, putting him only 14 wins away. With a 93-30 overall record for his career, Boyd is only seven wins away from breaking onto the list.

No current Cowboy wrestlers are on the list as it stands now; however, all four members of the OSU coaching staff are part of the club.

2015-16 Wrap-Up
Oklahoma State celebrated 100 years of wrestling history as well as 25 years of John Smith at the helm of the program, ending the season with a second-place finish at NCAAs, a 50th team conference championship, six All-Americans, two NCAA individual champions, a Hodge Trophy recipient and a 13-3 dual record.

Held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri the Big 12 Championships were hosted at a neutral site for the first time. It also featured six new teams as Big 12 affiliates for a 10-man bracket at each weight. OSU sent nine wrestlers to the finals and clinched the team title before day one had concluded. Seven Cowboys claimed Big 12 titles and just weeks later, all 10 Pokes stepped onto the mat in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, in New York City.

Aside from All-Americans Nolan Boyd, Joe Smith, Austin Marsen and Anthony Collica, the Pokes brought home two national champions, increasing Oklahoma State wrestling's total to 141 NCAA champions.

Dean Heil, a sophomore for the Cowboys, put up a 32-1 record on the season, dominating the 141-pound weight class. He entered the season ranked No. 1 and maintained the ranking despite suffering a sudden-victory loss to Joey Ward of UNC at home in February. He avenged the loss in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, controlling No. 8 Ward, 8-3. Another 8-3 win in the semifinals sent him to the championship bout, where he faced new Big 12 rival Bryce Meredith of Wyoming. The Cowboy edged out Meredith with a 4-3 effort. He finished the season an NCAA champ, a two-time All-American and a two-time Big 12 champion.

Alex Dieringer lived up to the country's expectations, winning his third NCAA championship. The Cowboy senior served up a 33-0 record last season, recording bonus points in all but six matches. His 27 bonus-point wins included 12 falls—10 of which came in the first period—eight major decisions and seven technical falls. He proved his dominance even more as he allowed only one takedown last season and just three takedowns the past two seasons.

Back in the Saddle
The Cowboys will get a couple of wrestlers back in the lineup whose 2015-16 campaigns were cut short due to injury, including 2015 All-American Kyle Crutchmer, a 174-pound senior, and 133-pound redshirt freshman Kaid Brock, who made noise in his first dual match when he pinned defending national champion Cody Brewer of Oklahoma shortly before his season-ending injury.

2015-16 OSU Statistical Leaders
Overall Wins: 34, Joe Smith
Dual Wins: 16, Alex Dieringer
Ranked Wins: 14, Alex Dieringer
Bonus Point Wins: 27, Alex Dieringer
Wins by Fall: 13, Chandler Rogers
Wins by Technical Fall: 7, Alex Dieringer and Eddie Klimara
Wins by Major Decision: 9, Austin Marsden
Dual Takedowns: 47, Alex Dieringer
Dual Nearfalls: 16, Austin Marsden

Wrestling's House of Horrors
No venue in America has a richer wrestling tradition than Gallagher-Iba Arena, home of Oklahoma State wrestling since 1939. In its beginning as Gallagher Hall, the gymnasium was named for Edward Clark Gallagher, the Oklahoma A&M wrestling mentor who never wrestled competitively but became the greatest coach of his time.

Since wrestling began in Gallagher-Iba Arena, the Cowboys have won 25 NCAA titles and have had 40 unbeaten and untied campaigns at home. One of their longest winning streaks ran with the arena's opening in 1939 and lasted until Feb. 16, 1951. During that period, Oklahoma State won 37 straight home duals, including no ties.

Gallagher-Iba Arena has proved to be one of the most difficult venues for opponents to win in across all of college sports, as the Cowboy wrestling program boasts an impressive 475-39-6 overall record in the arena.

From the final dual of 1959 through the first five home duals of the 1967 season, Oklahoma State wrestled 67 duals without a loss, finishing with an impressive 60-0-1 record before the streak was broken by Oklahoma, 19-13.

OSU's latest home winning streak of 50 consecutive duals was the second-longest such streak without a loss or tie, as it began near the end of the 1986 season and lasted until Jan. 30, 1993.

Cowboy Wrestling Tradition
Oklahoma State wrestling celebrated 100 years of history last season. The Cowboys, then known as the Oklahoma A&M Tigers and led by A.M. Colville, wrestled their first match in 1915 against the University of Texas. It was a rough start for OSU as it fell to the Longhorns in its lone dual of the season. But the Cowboys pulled through and went on to win 34 NCAA team championships (the most by any school in any sport), 141 individual champions and 450 All-Americans. Overall, the Cowboys hold an incredibly impressive 1,079-125-23 overall record.

Collica to Compete at NWCA All-Star Classic
Oklahoma State wrestling senior Anthony Collica has been selected to compete at the 51st annual National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic, set for Saturday, Nov. 5 at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio, the organization announced Friday. At 149 pounds, Collica is set to do battle with Lavion Mayes of Missouri.

Collica and Mayes are no strangers to each other on the mat, with this meeting marking the seventh time the pair have met, with the series between the two currently deadlocked at three wins apiece.

All in the Family
This season's squad features two sets of brothers and a father-son combo, along with a handful of Cowboys whose family members formerly wrestled at Oklahoma State.

Dalton and Tristan Moran are originally from Arizona. Dalton transferred to OSU two seasons ago from South Dakota State, Tristan is a sophomore this year. The Rogers brothers, Chandler and Jordan, round out the group of brothers.

Coach John Smith and son Joe, who is a sophomore and returning All-American for the Pokes, make up an exciting father-son duo.

The 2016-17 roster also features freshman Wyatt Sheets, whose father is two-time national champion 167-pounder Mike Sheets. Senior Kyle Crutchmer and redshirt freshman Andrew Marsden's brothers Brian and Austin both wrestled for OSU last season.

Champs in the Classroom
Oklahoma State landed five wrestlers onto the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 first team last year. OSU's first-team honorees included Nolan Boyd, Anthony Collica, Gary Wayne Harding, Dean Heil and Preston Weigel. The selections marks the second-straight first-team selection for Collica and Heil.

Live from Rio
After bringing home two Olympic gold medals as a wrestler and coaching Team USA at the Olympics three times, Oklahoma State wrestling coach John Smith took on a different role this year at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, serving as an analyst for NBC Sports' coverage of Olympic wrestling.

Collica, Hale Produce Top-Eight Finishes at University Nationals
Cowboy wrestlers Eli Hale and Anthony Collica finished fifth and seventh, respectively, at their weights at the 2016 University Freestyle Nationals this weekend in Akron, Ohio.

Hale, who wrestled at 57 kilograms, picked up two decisive victories to open the tournament before he was bested by Joe DeAngelo in the quarterfinals, 10-4. On the backside of the bracket, he earned consecutive technical falls, winning both 10-0. In the consolation semifinals, Hale fell to Skyler Petry and was sent to the fifth-place match. There he met up with Jens Lantz, who he defeated in just over 30 seconds, 10-0.

Collica had a solid start at 70 kilograms, taking out two opponents with tech falls and also notching a 6-3 win. In a quarterfinal match against Michael Kemerer, Collica suffered a loss by pin, sending him to the consolations. He won another match before getting edged by Colin Heffernan, 7-6. The loss put him in the seventh-place match, which he won by injury default.

Also representing the Cowboys at the tournament was Tristan Moran (65 kg), Luke Bean (86 kg), Andrew Marsden (97 kg) and Austin Schafer (125 kg).

John Smith Wraps 25th Year as OSU Head Coach
Not only did John Smith leave his legacy on Oklahoma State wrestling as a competitor, Smith continues to do so as he wrapped up his 25th year as the head coach of the Cowboy wrestling team last season. In 1992, John Smith, along with Kenny Monday, took over as co-head coaches for the squad, and Smith took over on his own in 1993. Since taking over, Smith has led his squad to five NCAA team championships and 18 conference championships. He leads all active coaches in NCAA champions coached (31), and has also seen his wrestlers earn All-American honors 117 times. He is the Cowboys' winningest coach with a 384-59-6 record as he begins his 26th season.

Home, Sweet 'Homa
The 2016-17 Cowboy wrestling roster features more of a local taste than usual with 22 of its 39 total wrestlers hailing from Oklahoma. Aside from the five Stillwater Cowboys (Kaid Brock, Tristan Moran, Andrew Nieman, Chandler Rogers and Joe Smith), the OSU roster features wrestlers from Blackwell, Tulsa, Edmond, McAlester, Guthrie, Berryhill, Miami, Collinsville, Tahlequah, Yukon, Welling, Stilwell and Muskogee.

ASICS All-Americans Live Here
There are three different wrestlers on this year's Oklahoma State roster who were ASICS first-team All-Americans during their prep days:

Jordan Rogers      2012
Nick Piccininni       2014 and 2015

Fargo Champs, Too
There are three different wrestlers on this year's Oklahoma State wrestling roster who won titles at the ASICS Junior Freestyle National Championships in Fargo, N.D., during their prep days:

Jordan Rogers      2011
Anthony Collica     2012 and 2013
Joe Smith              2015

Coached by the Best
When you come to wrestle at Oklahoma State, you are coached by the best. Members of the Oklahoma State wrestling staff combine for six world championships and two Olympic gold medals. They also combine for eight NCAA championships and 14 All-America honors. The breakdown:

Olympic Medalists
John Smith            1988 and 1992 Gold

Senior World Championships Medalists
John Smith            1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991 Gold

NCAA Individual Championships
John Smith            1987, 1988
Eric Guerrero        1997, 1998, 1999
Zack Esposito        2005
Chris Perry            2013, 2014

Big 12 Expansion
Last year the Big 12 conference added six new affiliate members for wrestling, bringing the conference to a total of 10 teams. Joining the Big 12 is Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming.

With the addition of the new members, the Big 12 Championships will now serve as a qualifying tournament for the 2016 NCAA Championships.

Looking Ahead
Following the Cowboys' matchup with Bucknell, the team will head north to Minneapolis, Minn., to face off with No. 15 Minnesota on Nov. 17 before wrapping up their season-opening road trip with a Bedlam match at No. 18 Oklahoma on Dec. 2.

Follow Cowboy Wrestling
Stay up to date with the Oklahoma State wrestling team on the following social media:
               Twitter: @CowboyWrestling
               Facebook: facebook.com/cowboywrestling
               Instagram: @CowboyWrestling
               Snapchat: OSUathletics
               YouTube: youtube.com/osuathletics