Way Too Early Lineup Look: 2019-20 Oklahoma State Cowboys

Way Too Early Lineup Look: 2019-20 Oklahoma State Cowboys

The season may have just ended, but that won't stop us from projecting what Oklahoma State's lineup may look like at the 2020 NCAA championships.

Apr 7, 2019 by Wrestling Nomad
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The most storied program in college wrestling history won another team trophy this year. Oklahoma State finished in third in Pittsburgh and put two in the NCAA finals, but how are they looking for next season?

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The most storied program in college wrestling history won another team trophy this year. Oklahoma State finished in third in Pittsburgh and put two in the NCAA finals, but how are they looking for next season?

They have six All-Americans with eligibility remaining, though only three of them placed in Pittsburgh. Joe Smith placed in 2016 and 2017, Kaid Brock was on the podium in 2017 and 2018, and Boo Lewallen placed last year. That adds to Dakota Geer finishing seventh in Pittsburgh, Nick Piccininni added a fifth place finish to his fourth place in 2017, and Daton Fix was second as a redshirt freshman.

Not many teams have six AAs in their room, but there's no guarantee they'll get six all at one time in Minneapolis. But before we get into that, let's take a look at the Cowboys' potential 10 starters.

2019-20 Oklahoma State Projected Lineup

125: Nick Piccininni

133: Daton Fix

141: Kaid Brock

149: Kaden Gfeller

157: Wyatt Sheets

165: Joe Smith

174: Travis Wittlake

184: Anthony Montalvo

197: Dakota Geer

285: Cornelius Putnam

Piccininni, Brock, and Smith all will finish out their careers next year, with OKST fans expecting them to all be three-time AAs. Fix may or may not be in the lineup as we'll get to below, and they have some decisions to make at 149 and 184.

125 Pounds

After not placing in 2018, which can be partially attributed to a rough draw, Nick Piccininni looked fantastic for the entirety of this season. He had 23 bonus point wins in his 32 D1 matches and was able to hit his cross wrist tilt, from both sides, against almost anyone. Picc even pinned the eventual champ Spencer Lee, his only win over the Hawkeye in four tries in college.

Lee seems to be one of the roadblocks in Picc's way of a national title in his senior year. He also lost to Vito Arujau at NCAAs, and has yet to wrestle Jack Mueller or Sebastian Rivera, both of whom finished ahead of him this year. It's reasonable to consider the Long Island native a national title contender in his final season in Stillwater, but he'll have his work cut out for him.

133 Pounds

Daton Fix lived up to expectations in his redshirt freshman year, earning the top seed in Pittsburgh and losing just two matches during the season. One of those losses was to Micky Phillippi, who did not place, and the other was in the finals to Nick Suriano. Ethan Lizak and John Erneste are the graduating placers, so it's not out of the question Daton doesn't place as high next year, but I think he'll be in the Top-3 once again.

The big question for Fix will be if he takes an Olympic Redshirt. He's out of Junior eligibility, so the only shot he has at making a world team this year will be seniors and U23. Given his freestyle goals and that he has wrestled for Team USA five straight years at a world championships, it stands to reason that he would take a hard look at an Olympic Redshirt.

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141 Pounds

In 2018, the Cowboys had their worst performance at NCAAs in approximately a decade. But the only wrestler to improve his team point total year-over-year was Kaid Brock. The talk all offseason was that Brock should move up, both to help Oklahoma State's lineup and to prevent what seemed to be a tough cut.

What actually ended up happening is that he had as many losses this year as in his first two seasons combined, and was the 15 seed at NCAAs after being the 3 seed and 4 seed the past two years. All of that ended with him not placing for the first time and now it being unclear if he can place again in 2020.

149 Pounds

Just like this year, Kaden Gfeller and Boo Lewallen should be in a roster battle for the 149lb spot. John Smith had an interview this year that made Lewallen sound like the most injured person in college wrestling, but when he's healthy is obviously good enough to place. Gfeller ended up being hurt at the end of the year as well, a big part of why he went 0-2 in Pittsburgh.

Gfeller wasn't a terribly big 149, so if Daton takes his Olympic redshirt, could we see Brock back down to 133? That would allow for Lewallen at 149 and Kaden at 141. This of course also assumes that Boo is healthy, but either way they should be in a good position at 149 in Minneapolis.

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157 Pounds

After Joe Smith placed in 2016 and 2017, OKST has not scored a team point at NCAAs at 157 in two years. Jonce Blaylock went 0-2 in 2018 and they did not qualify the weight this year. The Big 12 as a whole was not strong at 157 this year, with only one qualifier, but it's about to get an injection of David Carr next season.

Blaylock is graduating, and Andrew Shomers did not wrestle 157 at all in the second semester, so it looks like it will be Sheets' spot to lose.

165 Pounds

Here's hoping Joe Smith spends the entirety of his senior year at one weight. The combination of the late drop with going into a tough weight where he didn't get a chance to adjust his body to the weigh-in seemed to have an impact in him not placing this year, which was also aided by being unable to get a great seed.

I guess I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Joe wanted to be a 174 next year, but that would also leave them with some good guys out of the lineup. If he gets down to weight early in the preseason he'll probably be fine holding the weight all year, but that could of course change.

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174 Pounds

With Jacobe Smith graduating, Travis Wittlake is next in line to take over. The blue chipper from Oregon only wrestled in four tournaments, and all were in the first semester, so we don't have a super good idea of where he's at. A former Cadet world medalist, Wittlake probably needed the year after high school to get used to high level folkstyle competition.

Many of these way too early lineup looks have a common theme, which is just how hard it is to tell how the redshirt freshman will look in their first years as starters. We think we have a pretty good idea, and most are often fine, but Wittlake is just like anyone else, and we'll all be eagerly watching him in the early part of next season at duals and opens.

184 Pounds

I'm very curious to see what the Cowboys do at 184 next year. Dakota Geer was their 197 when they were unsure about Preston Weigel, and fared pretty well, beating four NCAA qualifiers while wrestling undersized. Then there were many people, myself included, who thought the Oklahoma State staff should have left Jacobe up at 184 and not had Geer be the postseason starter.

What actually ended up happening is that Geer was the only one of Joe, Jacobe, and himself to place, and will be the second highest returning placer at the weight. Which probably shouldn't have been as surprising as it was given his high school resume. The obvious question is, what is the best roster combination for the team? Because they have two-time California state champ Anthony Montalvo coming off redshirt next year.

So the staff will weigh their options about having Montalvo on the bench for another year while Geer stays at 184, or they could bump Geer up and throw Montalvo out. Up top I put Geer at 197 but that one's still pretty hard to tell.

197 Pounds

As I just mentioned, Dakota Geer is an option based on how he did this year. Andrew Marsden has another year left and Austin Harris is also a 197 on roster. This will probably be one of their more difficult decisions next year.

285 Pounds

With Derek White graduating, the only heavyweight on the roster is Cornelius Putnam. They could also take the very tall Austin Harris and try for a Cowboy Bulk Job 2.0 if Harris can put the muscle on. Either way, they're going to have a difficult time replacing the 17 points White scored for them at NCAAs. There's always the possibility of a transfer coming in, but much like in the other lineup looks, we're trying to go off just who is on the roster now and what recruits are coming in.