Wolverines Fall to Oklahoma State

OREM, Utah — Utah Valley put together a number of tightly contested matches, but in the end the Big 12 power and fourth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys proved to be too much as OSU defeated UVU 37-0 in Big 12 Conference action in front of 3,522 fans at the UCCU Center on Monday night.

The Wolverines (5-2, 0-2 Big 12) made OSU (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) work on the night by dropping six of the 10 bouts by five points or less, while the nine-time defending Big 12 champion Cowboys (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) managed to pull out the other four matches by bonus points.

The 3,522 fans on Monday marked the second largest home crowd in UVU wrestling history.

"I would love to see this type of environment every time we take the mat here at home. The UVU brand is getting better all of the time and our wrestlers showed that tonight," head UVU coach Greg Williams said. "We had a couple of freshmen and back-ups out there for us tonight that were right in those matches with top-10 ranked opponents. Utah knows its wrestling and for them to come out and see our young squad competing against a team like Oklahoma State probably surprised some people here this evening."

The fourth-ranked Cowboys struck first with a 5-0 decision from seventh-ranked Trevor Mastrogiovanni over UVU freshman Yusief Lillie at 125 pounds to give the Pokes an early 3-0 lead.

The Wolverines then wrestled tough at both 133 and 141 pounds, as 16th-ranked freshman Haiden Drury and returning NCAA qualifier Ty Smith stayed with their Cowboy counterparts but in the end, OSU managed to pull out both tightly contested contests by decision. With Drury and the two-time NCAA finalist and second-ranked Daton Fix all knotted up at 2-2 at the end of two periods of action, the two-time All-American Fix managed to pull ahead with an escape, a pair of takedowns, and an additional riding time point to win 8-3.

The redshirt freshman 141-pound Wolverine Smith and Cedar City, Utah native Dusty Hone for OSU then found themselves in a scoreless battle deep into the third period at 141 pounds. With Smith in the top position and looking to turn Hone for some back points, Hone managed to slip Smith's hold and gain the decisive reversal with 30 seconds to go. The Cowboy grappler then picked up just over one minute of riding time to get an additional point and defeat Smith by a score of 3-0 to give OSU a 9-0 lead.

OK State then followed with a second period fall from No. 15 Kaden Gfeller over UVU redshirt freshman James Emmer at 149 pounds to extend OSU's lead to 15-0. The Cowboys then followed with back-to-back major decision victories from two-time All-American and 12th-ranked Wyatt Sheets (157), 14-1, followed by a 12-3 major from fellow two-time All-American and fifth-ranked Travis Wittlake (165) to make it 23-0.

UVU redshirt freshman and current honorable mention ranked grappler Kekana Fouret then wrestled tough against ninth-ranked Cowboy Dustin Plott, but a late penalty point, an escape, and a riding time point proved to be the difference resulting in a 5-1 win by Plott.

Following a 17-2 technical fall victory from three-time All-American and sixth-ranked Dakota Geer for OSU at 184, 23rd-ranked Wolverine sophomore Evan Bockman then gave the defending national champion and top-ranked 197-pound grappler AJ Ferrari a tough battle. With Ferrari up 3-0 in the second, Bockman was then awarded a penalty point on an unnecessary roughness call to make it 3-1. Bockman then followed with a pair of third-period escapes to make it 5-3, but Ferrari held riding time to win by a score of 6-3.

Then in the match of the night at heavyweight, UVU sophomore Jayden Woodruff and OSU sophomore Luke Surber went right down to the wire. With Surber holding to an 8-4 lead midway through the final period, Woodruff responded with a clutch takedown to make it 8-6 with just over 30 seconds to go. The Wolverine heavyweight was then awarded a penalty point via stall call on Surber to pull Woodruff within a point, but the clock was not in Woodruff's favor as it ran out with Surber holding on to a mere one-point victory at 8-7.

Both returning UVU All-Americans Taylor LaMont (125) and Demetrius Romero (165) were sidelined on Monday, as well as fellow 2021 UVU NCAA qualifier Cameron Hunsaker (149). All 10 of UVU's competitors on Monday were underclassmen, as they are either freshmen or sophomores.

"Overall, I felt like our guys competed," Williams added. "We had a couple of contests where our guys were outmatched, and that is going to happen against a team of this caliber. But we love this group, and you can tell that every one of our guys wrestled hard tonight."

The fourth-ranked Cowboys marked the second highest ranked opponent that UVU wrestling has ever hosted. The Wolverines previously welcomed Cael Sanderson's No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions to town in February of 2012.

The contest marked UVU's final competition before the Christmas holiday and of the 2021 calendar year. It also marked UVU's first-ever meeting on the mat against OK State.

The Wolverines will next return to the mat on Sunday, Jan. 2 in a neutral-site contest against Oregon State of the Pac-12 at Columbia High School in Nampa, Idaho. UVU will then return home for three straight duals beginning Jan. 14 when it welcomes North Dakota State to town.

Final Results
#4 Oklahoma State 37, Utah Valley 0
125: #7 Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OSU) DEC Yusief Lillie (UVU), 5-0
133: #2 Daton Fix (OSU) DEC #16 Haiden Drury (UVU), 8-3
141: Dusty Hone (OSU) DEC Ty Smith (UVU), 3-0
149: #15 Kaden Gfeller (OSU) FALL James Emmer (UVU), 3:34
157: #12 Wyatt Sheets (OSU) MD Jaxon Garoutte (UVU), 14-1
165: #5 Travis Wittlake (OSU) MD Danny Snediker (UVU), 12-3
174: #9 Dustin Plott (OSU) DEC Kekana Fouret, HM (UVU), 5-1
184: #6 Dakota Geer (OSU) TF Hunter Morse (UVU), 17-2 (5:14)
197: #1 AJ Ferrari (OSU) DEC #23 Evan Bockman (UVU), 6-3
285: Luke Surber (OSU) DEC Jayden Woodruff (UVU), 8-7

Orem, Utah - UCCU Center
Officials: Matt Zites, Don Christensen
Attendance: 3,522

Individual rankings listed are the highest ranking taken from the latest InterMat, FloWrestling, WIN Magazine, and The Open Mat polls.