Oklahoma Dual

[Jon Perkins]

WVU starts their BIG 12 season on Sunday with their first of "4 or so" BIG 12 teams. This should be a very good dual on Sunday with just about every match being very competitive. The Mountaineers came close to upsetting Oklahoma last year and with a better lineup this year, I think they stand a very good chance of winning this year.

[Pottstd]

I agree, while I still say wait to see, in my mind WVU is actually the favorite in this dual. Even if not, there will be a few really nice match-up that will tell us were some of WVU's guys are at. Matches are assumed to be below based on Oklahoma's last lineup, with my predictions:

125: Strickenberger v. Hendriksen - dec. Strickenberger (3-0 WVU)
133: Rhoads v. Koelzer - dec. Koelzer (3-3)
141: Titus v. Schwartz - great matchup, and a toss up. I hope I'm wrong my gut goes with the experience and strength of Schwartz by dec. (3-6 OK)
149: Watters v. McDougald - a close to top 30 opponent for Watters and we will see dominant he can be, maj. dec. Watters (7-6 WVU)
157: Dowling v. Wiley - while Wiley is ranked higher, I expect a Dowling dec. here. But another toss up. (10-6 WVU)
165: Hall v. Carlson - a top 25 opponent for Hall to get back on track with, dec. Hall (13-6 WVU)
174: Conley v. Picklo - another great matchup, time to see how good Conley is. To me this is a toss up match. Dec. Picklo. (13-9 WVU)
184: Robin v. Hoose - Robin can be uncertain but should be the better wrestler here if he wrestles close to potential, dec. Robin. (17-9 WVU)
197: Cooley v. Buchanan - OK's best wrestler, and too much for Cooley, lets hope Cooley shows toughness and keeps it close, maj. dec. Buchanan (17-13 WVU)
HWT: Wolfgram v. Heindselman - Wolfgram won last year, but hasnt looked to the same level recently. Conversely Heindselman appears to be right on track. a toss up match but I unfortunately need to lean Heindselman by dec. (17-16 WVU)

So I predict a WVU win, but there is alot of question marks to me. 141, 157, 174, 184 (to a lesser degree), and HWT are all anyone's match. Should be a fun one to watch if nothing else!

[Geoswaff]

I also think its going to be close. It may be decided by bonus points for sure and I think WVU may have an edge there as their bonus rate has been awesome so far.

[Jon Perkins]

I agree, while I still say wait to see, in my mind WVU is actually the favorite in this dual. Even if not, there will be a few really nice match-up that will tell us were some of WVU's guys are at. Matches are assumed to be below based on Oklahoma's last lineup, with my predictions:

125: Strickenberger v. Hendriksen - dec. Strickenberger (3-0 WVU)
133: Rhoads v. Koelzer - dec. Koelzer (3-3)
141: Titus v. Schwartz - great matchup, and a toss up. I hope I'm wrong my gut goes with the experience and strength of Schwartz by dec. (3-6 OK)
149: Watters v. McDougald - a close to top 30 opponent for Watters and we will see dominant he can be, maj. dec. Watters (7-6 WVU)
157: Dowling v. Wiley - while Wiley is ranked higher, I expect a Dowling dec. here. But another toss up. (10-6 WVU)
165: Hall v. Carlson - a top 25 opponent for Hall to get back on track with, dec. Hall (13-6 WVU)
174: Conley v. Picklo - another great matchup, time to see how good Conley is. To me this is a toss up match. Dec. Picklo. (13-9 WVU)
184: Robin v. Hoose - Robin can be uncertain but should be the better wrestler here if he wrestles close to potential, dec. Robin. (17-9 WVU)
197: Cooley v. Buchanan - OK's best wrestler, and too much for Cooley, lets hope Cooley shows toughness and keeps it close, maj. dec. Buchanan (17-13 WVU)
HWT: Wolfgram v. Heindselman - Wolfgram won last year, but hasnt looked to the same level recently. Conversely Heindselman appears to be right on track. a toss up match but I unfortunately need to lean Heindselman by dec. (17-16 WVU)

So I predict a WVU win, but there is alot of question marks to me. 141, 157, 174, 184 (to a lesser degree), and HWT are all anyone's match. Should be a fun one to watch if nothing else!

I think you are right on with your predictions. I think Titus gets the win over Swartz though. Last year it was a close match but this year Titus is bigger and looks much better. And don't overlook McDougald, I can't remember for sure but two years ago he was in the lineup and if he didn't AA at the national championships he came very close, he is or has the potential to be very talented. With all of the close matches and toss up matches WVU has the potential to win 7 matches and they also have the potential to lose 7 matches. None the less it is going to be very entertaining and fun to watch.

[Jon Perkins]

Small correction from my last post concerning McDougal from Oklahoma. Two years ago he lost in the BIG 12 finals and then went on to finish 2-2 at the National Tournament. I knew he had a good post season but still a little ways from being an All American.

[Jon Perkins]

Well that had a lot of ups and downs…

[armyscot0873]

Lots of close matches but a little disappointed. Without the injury default the score is worse than it appears.

[JohnK73]

Is there such a thing as an anti-home ref? I think Dowling should have won that match. The stall calls on WVU came at the beginning of matches where there was action (Hall, Cooley come to mind), but didn’t so the same on OK. Flynn was livid. While I don’t see Titus pinning Moshe, I think he would have won the match, so 3 less points at most

[Geoswaff]

Conditioning seemed to an issue at 125 and HWT. McDougal had a good counter attack strategy against Watters but I think Watters figures it out and buries him at Big 12's. At 125 it looked like Strickenberger had no clue how to wrestle someone that short and then gassed out in the 2nd period. Wolgram left it all in the 1st and ran out of gas but still almost pulled it off, shoulda waited for the stalemate. Looks like Hall is sharpening up and Conley was impressive as well. Overall I thought WVUs attack rate was way down. The dual was great and I was at the edge of my seat, but gotta think that overall this was a disappointment for WVU.

[Jon Perkins]

Totally agree about the stalling calls, some were warranted but others not so much and I definitely thought Dowling should have had 4 near fall points instead of just the two. It would have been nice to see more of the Jordan Titus and Mosha Schartz match. I hate to see him get hurt like that and it looked like a nasty injury, I hope it wasn't too serious and he is back on the mat soon. I was impressed by Brody Conley, Gerrit Nijenhuis is a solid competitor and a very good athlete. That was a very nice win for him early in the season, so lets hope he can build on that and carry it on throughout the year.

[Pottstd]

That was a wild dual to watch, and frustrating in alot of spaces, but as I said earlier it was a fun one to watch. I agree with alot of above, alot of ups and downs for WVU. Much of this did not go the way I thought. I also agree the ref seemed to not be giving WVU any calls. Whenever there is a struggle at 125 I always wonder about weight issues vs. conditioning, but we cant know that for sure. At HWT condition was a factor, but I also think there was some poor decision making w/ Wolfgram on a leg late. He was in good position to finish or simply release it and instead hold on to try a roll through leg pass to give up an exposure takedown with under 20 second in the match.

Overall, I think the biggest issues is the WVU simply did not look crisp, instead they looked a little off. While this happens during the year, it should not have been an issues after a break from wrestling since Nov. 18 at division II Millersville tournament. I think having an over two week break did not do good things for WVU.

Still competitive at pretty much every weight even when the outcome was not what you wanted, and not an alarm, but not what you wanted to see from WVU. Hopefully this shakes the cobwebs off from that big break and we see them round back into form moving forward.

[Jon Perkins]

Just to add one more thought...Even though it liked conditioning was a factor at 125, I don't believe that was the case in this particular match. I've seen Jett wrestle several times this year and conditioning is not an issue with him. I think it was more than obvious he was sick. Hopefully he gets healed up before this weekends road trip and can put on a good showing against Tucker Owens from AF and Stevo Poulin from Northern Colorado, both being tough competitors.

[Letsgooo]

Gave this dual away. Was practically handed the win with the medical forfeit and Hall’s pin. All we needed was one of our higher ranked guys who lost to pull out a win and wvu upsets Oklahoma.

[Letsgooo]

Nice win over Northern Colorado. Thought they wrestled way better. How did we not get a transfer at 133. They had to know this was a monster hole. It’s a good day if the other team only gets 4 points here.

I wonder if Titus going 141 screwed this up but it’s no excuse since Flynn and company have known for over a year that they’ve needed a 133. It’s really the only big hole in the lineup. Well 197 is weak as well.

[NJwvu12]

Nice win over Northern Colorado. Thought they wrestled way better. How did we not get a transfer at 133. They had to know this was a monster hole. It’s a good day if the other team only gets 4 points here.

I wonder if Titus going 141 screwed this up but it’s no excuse since Flynn and company have known for over a year that they’ve needed a 133. It’s really the only big hole in the lineup. Well 197 is weak as well.

We might get a year of Rune Lawrence at 197 before he grows out of it , or we may see Robin move up to 197 and Conley to 184 next year as well , either way Cooley will hold it down this year

133 may be a big weakness still but Flynn pulled one of the best steals of a transfer portal by bringing in Strickenberger he already has a win over an AA, a R12 finisher and a guy who was 2-2 at ncaas last season and looks like WVU best AA threat so far

You may be right about Titus , he wrestled Peterson whose the 125 for Rutgers at whose #1 his senior year and I expect he was recruited to be a 125 and 133 but he had a growth spurt sometime between his senior year and his redshirt season but he seems to be settling in nicely to 141 …all and all this is the best WVU line up in a long time 3 -4 possible AA contenders (Jett, Hall, Titus, Conley, and another 4-5 NQs (every other weight but 133)