The second-seeded team from Oklahoma dominated its way to three dual meet victory in Friday's preliminary freestyle bracket, going 34-7 in contested matches (also winning four matches by forfeit). First, it was a 63-2 victory over North Carolina in the Pool B quarterfinal. Then, it was a 50-13 semifinal victory over Pennsylvania, before the host squad beat Michigan 49-18 in the pool championship.
The dominance continued in the opening two matches of Saturday's championship pool, a 55-16 victory over Arizona and a 47-18 win over Iowa. In those two dual meets, the Oklahoma squad went 21-5 in contested matches (two wins by forfeit against Arizona, while they forfeited two matches to Iowa). The de facto pool final against Minnesota was the first time the hosts faced a challenge.
With the match starting at 195 pounds, Oklahoma faced an 11-2 deficit after three matches. The team from Minnesota got technical fall victories from Keegan Moore (195) and Gable Steveson (220), before a 9-2 decision victory from Rylee Streifel (285).
It was then five consecutive victories for Oklahoma to create a 21-14 lead, which was never lost. Key in that stretch was the 16-12 victory from Josh Copeland at 113 pounds, in which he overcame a 7-2 mid-match deficit to earn the win and tie the dual meet at 13-13. Consecutive technical falls from Daton Fix (120) and Kaden Gfeller (126) would close out the run.
Minnesota stopped the run with a 12-12 criteria victory from Mitch McKee at 132 pounds in a rematch of last year's Junior freestyle semifinal against Kaid Brock. However, Oklahoma answered with victories from another pair of Oklahoma State bound wrestlers, Boo Lewallen (138) and Tristan Moran (145) to open up a 30-18 lead.
While Brady Berge (152) cut the Minnesota to nine with a 12-2 technical fall over top 50 incoming senior Wyatt Sheets, a Joe Smith technical fall at 160 pounds clinched the dual meet for Oklahoma with two matches remaining. Those matches were won by Minnesota to shrink the final score to 36-31.
On the way to their championship match collision with Oklahoma, Illlinois was dominating their opposition as well. From four dual meets on the opening day, the Land of Lincoln squad went 44-5 in contested matches (i.e. those that weren't forfeits). Victories came by 64-4 over Louisiana in the preliminary round, 58-9 over Kansas-2 in the quarterfinal, 58-6 over Colorado in the semifinal, and 59-10 over Arizona in the final.
They had two decisive victories to start Saturday's championship pool as well, 49-18 over Michigan and 44-20 over Utah to set up de facto semifinal match against New Jersey. In said match, Illinois beat a more than formidable New Jersey squad 41-22; this was a dual meet in which half of the 30 contestants appeared in the most recent InterMat grade-level rankings.
Of the 29 wrestlers that wrestled in the Illinois vs. Oklahoma dual meet, only two have never finished in the top three of their state tournament, with 14 of them appearing in the most recent InterMat grade-level rankings (note that Oklahoma forfeited at 182 pounds, though they had a state champion who started in previous matches). The talent level within this championship match was absurd.
Things started off well enough for Illinois, as they sought to knock off the defending champions. Oklahoma State bound Andrew Marsden scored an 11-0 technical fall over Kyler Childers at 220 pounds. However, the hosts responded with a pin from Korey Walker in 43 seconds at 285. Then, at 100 pounds, it was a battle of returning Cadet freestyle All-Americans, one in which Rhett Golowenski extended Oklahoma's lead with a 3-0 victory.
Illinois would cut the deficit to 9-8 with a 12-1 technical fall from Louis Hayes at 106 pounds, as he beat fellow state runner-up and Junior National double All-American Mason Nafieh. However, the hosts would come through with wins in five consecutive matches to put the dual meet out of reach.
Josh Copeland came up big again at 113 pounds, this time with a 7-3 decision over Dack Punke. Yet again, Daton Fix and Kaden Gfeller came up with consecutive technical fall victories. Gfeller, in particular, had a notable win; his 10-0 victory came against fellow elite Class of 2017 wrestler Austin Gomez, who bumped up from the 120-pound weight class that he had wrestled in previous dual meets.
Closing out the string of five in a row were Kaid Brock and Boo Lewallen, Brock coming through with a 9-3 victory against Dylan Duncan, a Cadet National freestyle champion last summer. By the time Austin O'Connor came through with a 6-3 decision victory for Illinois at 145 pounds over Tristan Moran, the deficit was still 28-14.
Consecutive victories from Wyatt Sheets (152) and Joe Smith (160) would assure Oklahoma earned the repeat championship. Smith's victory in particular was very notable, as he beat Junior National freestyle champion Isaiah White by an 11-7 decision in the process.
Kamal Bey (170) and Christian Brunner (195) would sandwich technical fall victories around an earned forfeit for Nathan Traxler (182), as Illinois closed the final defeat score to 37-28.
In the Greco-Roman tournament that concluded on Thursday, Illinois earned the title with a run of dominance that was very similar to their run to the freestyle final. The preliminary bracket on Wednesday saw three blowout wins, as the Land of Lincoln squad went 37-3 in contested matches (five addition wins by forfeit came in the opening dual meet): 67-2 over Texas 2, 52-12 over Pennsylvania, and 55-10 over Arizona.
The first two championship pool dual meets were blowouts as well, 54-10 over Iowa and 54-13 over Washington. The final match of pool activity saw Illinois rally back from a 26-22 deficit against Oklahoma with victories in the last four bouts of a 36-29 dual meet victory; those wins came from Jacob Warner (170), Kamal Bey (182), Eric Schultz (195), and Andrew Marsden (220). The championship final was a 40-22 victory over Minnesota, which had lost to Oklahoma in the preliminary bracket final on Wednesday.
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