Oklahoma State Overcomes Upsets to Top Gopher Wrestlers 18-14 in Stillwater
February 3, 2008
Despite picking up key upsets from Tyler Safratowich (165 pounds) and
No. 11 Gabriel Dretsch (174 pounds), the defending national champion Golden Gopher wrestling
team could not pull off the dual meet victory Sunday afternoon in
Stillwater, Okla., falling to the third-ranked Cowboys 18-14. The
Gophers won four of six matches, but close losses at 133, 141 and 184
pounds doomed the reigning Big Ten champions to their second loss of
the weekend.
In a heated battle between the two programs that have combined to win
the past seven NCAA team titles, the Cowboys got the better of J
Robinson’s Gophers for the first time in the last four meetings between
the schools. The oss drops the fourth-ranked Gophers to 11-5 overall,
while OSU improves to 13-2-1.
Minnesota also lost a 20-13 decision to No. 1 Iowa Friday night at
Williams Arena, giving the Gophers their second pair of back-to-back
losses of the season (the team also lost their final two meets at this
year’s NWCA National Duals).
Things started well enough for Minnesota, as top-ranked Jayson Ness
continued his domination of the country’s best competition with an 18-5
major decision over No. 16 Tyler Shinn. The win pushed Ness’ record to
28-0, and he has scored bonus points in 22 of his dual meet matches
this season (79 percent), including 17 pins.
But as happened on Friday night against the Hawkeyes, Minnesota seniors
Mack Reiter (ranked fifth at 133 pounds) and Manuel Rivera (third at
141 pounds) could not extend the Gophers’ early lead. Reiter mustered
little offensively in his face-off with the Cowboys’ No. 1 Coleman
Scott (losing 8-2), and a third-period takedown did in Rivera in his
6-4 loss to No. 2 Nathan Morgan.
Down 9-4 after OSU’s Ryan Freeman beat Luke Mellmer 8-3 at 149 pounds,
the Gophers mounted a comeback beginning with C.P. Schlatter’s
157-pound match. The senior All-American led the entire way in his 12-2
major decision win against Neil Erisman, paving the way for
Safratowich’s upset at 165 pounds.
Safratowich, well-known for knocking off several highly-ranked
wrestlers last season en route to his first-ever NCAA qualification,
battled No. 5 Jake Diffenbach to a 1-1 tie after three periods of
regulation. Fifty seconds into the sudden victory period, Safratowich
scored a takedown and added a two-point nearfall to emerge the 5-1
victor and give Minnesota an 11-9 lead in the dual.
Minnesota’s Dretsch, ranked 11th in the nation, was coming off two
straight losses entering his match with No. 7 Brandon Mason at 174
pounds, but the Frazee, Minn. native came through in a big way Sunday
afternoon. Dretsch built up a 4-2 lead after two periods and hung on
for the 5-3 win at 174 pounds. Dretsch improved his overall record to
22-8 this season and has now faced ranked wrestlers in ten of his last
13 matches, including five ranked in the top five and six in the top 10.
Up 14-9 with two-time All-American Roger Kish set to wrestle unranked
Jack Jensen, the Gophers appeared on their way to yet another victory
over the Cowboys. But despite an early 3-0 first period lead, Jensen
successfully eluded Kish’s scoring attempts the final two frames to
send the match to overtime tied at 3-3. Forty-four seconds into the
sudden victory period it was Jensen that scored a takedown to win the
match 5-3. The loss drops Kish’s record to 8-5 this season, and the
senior has now lost four matches in a row.
Still leading 14-12, the Gophers needed a victory from either Justin
Bronson at 197 pounds or Ben Berhow at heavyweight to escape Stillwater
with the dual meet win. But Bronson lost 4-1 to Clayton Foster and
Berhow was trumped 4-2 by No. 7 Jared Rosholt.
The victory was the Cowboys’ first home win over Minnesota since a
1997, and the home school has won just two dual meets between these two
programs since 1998 (the other instance being Minnesota’s 21-15 win
over OSU last season in Williams Arena). The Gophers have still won
eight of their last 12 dual meets with the Cowboys.
Unable to pick up a victory in their weekend home-and-away battles with
the No. 1 Hawkeyes and No. 3 Cowboys, the Gophers must travel to No. 10
Northwestern Friday evening for a dual meet with the Wildcats. That
meet will be televised live by the Big Ten Network beginning at 6:30
p.m.
Sunday, the Gophers will take on Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. at 1:00 p.m.
#3 Oklahoma State 18, #4 Minnesota 14
125: #1 Jayson Ness (MINN) maj. dec. #16 Tyler Shinn (OSU); 18-5
133: #1 Coleman Scott (OSU) dec. #5 Mack Reiter (MINN); 8-2
141: #2 Nathan Morgan (OSU) dec. #3 Manuel Rivera (MINN); 6-4
149: Ryan Freeman (OSU) dec. Luke Mellmer (MINN); 8-3
157: #6 C.P. Schlatter (MINN) maj. dec. Neil Erisman (OSU); 12-2
165: Tyler Safratowich (MINN) dec. #5 Jake Dieffenbach (OSU); 5-1 (OT)
174: #11 Gabe Dretsch (MINN) dec. #7 Brandon Mason (OSU); 5-3
184: Jack Jensen (OSU) dec. #5 Roger Kish (MINN); 5-3 (OT)
197: Clayton Foster (OSU) dec. Justin Bronson (MINN); 4-1
285: #7 Jared Rosholt (OSU) dec. Ben Berhow (MINN); 4-2