The Oklahoma State Cowboys are tearing up the recruiting trail, so we decided to take alook at the history of one of their prize prospect’s top matchups of his high school career: Dustin Plott.

Nearly all eyes are focused on the incoming #1 recruiting class which features a host of talented athletes up and down the lineup, most notably Plott and AJ Ferrari, who have both shared the #1 overall spot in the rankings at various points.

I thought it would be fun to go back and take a look at and discuss some of his top matches from high school.

12-8 DEC over Kaleb Romero

This was the match that caused me to perk my ears and start paying attention to this kid from Tuttle, OK. He was uncommitted as a high school sophomore, but he really woke people up on the national stage when he took out Ohio State freshman Kaleb Romero at the Junior World Team trials. Many will say Romero is on a bit higher level now than he was back then, which is true, but he’s emerged as one of the top 174s in the country and for Plott to beat him while just a sophomore in high school is impressive.

6-2 DEC over Carter Starocci 2018 Fargo Semifinals

In 2018, Plott finished second at Fargo behind Ohio State starter Carson Kharchla. In the semis he took out Penn State’s projected replacement for Mark Hall at 174 Carter Starocci. Starocci went undefeated in his redshirt year this season for the Nittany Lions.

16-12 DEC over Patrick Kennedy Super 32 Finals

This match was unbelievable! High-scoring, tons of takedowns, lots of offense. This was really a great match. Iowa commit Patrick Kennedy has since surpassed Plott on the 2020 big board and now sits at #3, but Plott got the best of him in this barn-burner.

LBD to Julian Ramirez Blair Academy Geary Final

This one wasn’t without controversy, but the back-and-forth battle between Cornell commit Julian Ramirez and Plott did show some vulnerabilities in Plott’s game. Plott is about as good as they come at getting in on shots, but Ramirez was able to keep him from finishing in spots and create some counter-attacks and score off his defense of some of Plott’s shots. Still, it came down to the wire where Plott nearly scored twice at the end.

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4-2 DEC over Abe Assad

Interestingly, Plott’s had a bit of a high school rivalry with a few different Iowa guys in Assad and Kennedy. Here he takes out Assad 4-2 in one of the many matchups of their prep careers. Assad had his redshirt pulled last season for Iowa and was the starter at 184 for most of the 2019-20 campaign. He was ranked up into the top 10 at various points this season before the cancellation of the NCAA tournament.

8-2 LBD to Abe Assad

Just a few weeks following his win over Assad they matched up again in the Fargo finals in one of the toughest weights of the tournament and Assad won 8-2. 

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En route to match up with Assad in the finals, Plott knocked off Parker Keckeisen and #4-ranked Chris Foca.

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Seth Duckworth is a Stillwater-based writer who covers Oklahoma State University wrestling for Pistols Firing Blog, the best OSU news and community site on the internet. Follow Seth on Twitter.