OSU wrestling not taking break lightly

By Lyndell Dalyrmple Daily O'Collegian

December 11, 2007

Stillwater, OK (CSTV U-WIRE) -- The Oklahoma State wrestlers will stay busy during the Christmas break.

Although it is a break for other students, it is a time to prepare for the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 18, nicknamed the "Toughest Tournament in America."

Senior Jake Dieffenbach said the practices over finals week help prepare for Reno.

"We'll probably have a rough few days of practice," Dieffenbach said. "Reno's coming up the 18th, so we'll be training for that. We'll just keep training and keep learning and we'll be better."

The Cowboys will get a few days off for Christmas from Dec. 23 through the 26. After that, the team will be back to prepare for the crucial part of the schedule.

Oklahoma State will travel north to face the University of Iowa. Iowa upset No. 1 Iowa State 20-13 Sunday by getting off to a fast start in the dual.

Junior Brandon Mason explained what the schedule will be for Christmas break.

"We've got finals this week," Mason said. "We practice during finals then we go to Reno. After that we have a few days off and prepare for January, February and March - that's the most important part of the season."

It was a rough weekend for the Cowboys, losing to Penn State on Sunday 21-18. The Cowboys had their chances to win, but in the end two pins by Penn State wrestlers shut the door on Oklahoma State.

"I didn't think we wrestled that bad," Coach John Smith said. "I think we didn't know what to do out there at times. I think it's something we can take and move forward from."

"We were in a pretty good position not to give up bonus points and then it got real ugly."

Sophomore Ben Ashmore, who wrestles at 125 pounds, was tied 2-2 with Penn State senior Mark McKnight when McKnight got a take down to win. Without the take down, Ashmore would have won the match 3-2 with a point for riding time.

"Other than losing, I'm not overly disappointed with our effort outside of just making some mental errors, such as getting taken down with four seconds left in the match at 125," Smith said.

Oklahoma State won matches at 133 and 141 pounds and the Cowboys led 6-3 after three matches.

The first of two pins for Penn State came with 18 seconds left in the fourth match at 149 pounds Sophomore Mike Bizzle was unable to avoid being pinned by Penn State wrestler Bubba Jenkins and the Nittany Lions took a 9-6 lead.

Senior Jake Dieffenbach and junior Brandon Mason scored major decisions and the Cowboys fought back to take the lead 14-12 with three matches to go. Then Penn State's junior Phillip Bomberger won at 184 pounds and Penn State led 15-14.

Cowboy freshman Clayton Foster wrestled with moxie against the No. 1 wrestler in the nation at 197 pounds, Phillip Davis. Clayton led 4-3 in the second period before being pinned by Davis in the third period. Davis' pin put Penn State in front for good.

"Obviously after a match like this you wish you had some of those situations back, but you don't get them back," Smith said.

"We have enough [to win]. We definitely had enough to win that match; we just didn't put it together."

Mason said there were many things that Oklahoma State could have done to avoid the loss.

"There's a bunch of things we did wrong that would have changed the dual," Mason said.

"At 125, Ashmore gave us a hell of a match and just stopped thinking there at the end. He gave up a takedown with four seconds. If he'd have won that match we would have won.

"If we hadn't given up the pins at 49 and 97 [149 and 197 pounds] we would have won. It's just the way it goes and we'll learn from it.

"If you look at all the matches, every match they won besides the two falls were one or two point matches. All of the matches we won, we got the major or we were close to the major decision."

Dieffenbach was disappointed with the loss, but thinks the best is yet to come for the Cowboys.

"It was a rough one today," Dieffenbach said. "I think we'll be ready for March, we're training for March. It's rough, but we learn from these losses."