By Scott Moore
Like most teams, Oklahoma likes to ease into the dual portion of its wrestling schedule. No sense in knocking heads with some top 10 team this early in the season. And usually the Sooners come out on top and grab some momentum before facing that early season challenge against Oklahoma State in December.
So when the No. 18 Sooners host Division II Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Thursday, the Sooners should roll.
“Yeah, tell that to Michigan football,” Sooner coach Jack Spates joked.
Spates was referring to Appalachian State’s win at Michigan last football season. On paper it looked like a mismatch as Appalachian State was a Division 1-AA team.
UCO is no pushover squad. Coach David James has been the Broncos’ head coach for 26 years and has led UCO to 12 national titles.
“UCO can be very dangerous, so we don’t presume anything,” Spates said.
It’s been a tradition for these two schools to face each other near the beginning of the season. Thursday will be the 50th time the two teams have wrestled, with OU owning a 40-8-1 record. Last year, OU won 27-6.
Realistically, the Sooners should win handily. But it’s not just the victory OU is looking for. OU uses these pre-December contests to fine-tune its game and to solidify the lineup, although there is always competition throughout the season.
“What I want to see most is more technical improvement,” Spates said. “I want to see guys controlling tie-ups, I want to see more setups. I want to see good shape. I was real impressed with our shape at Brockport.”
The Sooners were at the Brockport/Oklahoma Classic over the weekend at Brockport, New York, and won the team title for the 10th straight year. It was an encouraging start to the season for OU, which finished ahead of two higher-ranked programs.
The Sooners, then No. 20, finished with 140 points and crowned two champions. No. 15 Edinboro was second with 123 points, and No. 18 Central Michigan was third with 108.
Kent State was fourth (108), Hofstra fifth (104), Army sixth (77), Rutgers seventh (56.5) and Brockport rounded out the field in eighth (8).
It was a stronger field than what the Sooners normally see at this event.
“It was a significantly up-scale competition,” Spates said. “And I thought it was a good performance by us. The key was that we got a lot of pins and that is something that we have really worked on.
“I liked the strength of the competition and we had determined that if we could not make it a little more competitive, than we would not go back.”
The Sooners’ two champions were Zack Bailey at 141 pounds and Eric Lapotsky at 197, who each went 4-0. Shane Vernon at 157 and Jeff James at 174 each finished second. On his way to a silver medal, James ended up scoring a victory over Mike Miller of Central Michigan, an All-American last year.
Thursday against UCO, the probable lineup will be Joey Fio at 125, David Armstrong at 133, Bailey at 141, Vernon at 157, Ryan Smith at 165, James at 174, Pat Flynn at 184, Lapotsky at 197 and Nathan Fernandez at heavyweight. That group features four newcomers in Armstrong, Smith, Flynn and Lapotsky.
Still, Spates feels there’s enough experience and enough talent among the newcomers for the Sooners to compete on the national scale if they keep improving.
“My gut feeling right now is that we’re a pretty good dual meet team that has the opportunity to be a real good dual meet team,” Spates said. “And we have to go a long way to be a good national team.”
Scott Moore
366-3535
smoore@normantranscript.com
