NORMAN — Redshirt freshman Erich Schmidtke has become an instant fan of Beauty and The Beast. Not only did he see his Oklahoma wrestling team earn a 19-12 win over Virginia Tech during the fifth annual event, but he also saw the largest home crowd of the season.
The combination of Oklahoma wrestling and women’s gymnastics drew 2,492 fans to Lloyd Noble Center.
“It’s kind of nice doing it with gymnastics,” Schmidtke said. “You get a little more crowd out that normally doesn’t see wrestling. So maybe they will come to our duals in the fieldhouse.”
The gymnasts were just as pleased with their performance in their first home meet of the season. The nation’s fifth-ranked team defeated No. 20 North Carolina State 196.475 to 194.075.
“I think it’s everyone’s favorite meet,” senior Sara Stone said. “We get the most fans at this meet. When people aren’t watching gymnastics, they can watch wrestling. I think we did an excellent job for our first home meet. We did a good job of coming out here and showing our fans what we are about this season. Just feeling that home support is awesome.”
The OU women wanted to kick off the night with a bang and put a little spark in the fans. Coach K.J. Kindler was glad her squad was able to start the meet on the vault. It was the first time they had been able to do so this season.
Led by Stone’s individual score of 9.9, the Sooners (7-1) posted a team score 49.200 in the event. It wasn’t their best score of the year, but it was a good start.
“It’s always awesome to start out on vault,” Stone said. “Because that’s a big adrenaline event. You can get some high scores and that just sets the bar high for the rest of the meet.”
The Wolfpack (2-2) kept the competition close heading into the final rotation. They trailed 147.325 to 145.475. OU needed a strong performance in the floor exercises to hold off NC State.
Taylor Spears, Brie Olson, Megan Ferguson and Stone each topped 9.8 in the event as the Sooners hit 49.150. It was their second best performance of the season.
“I think our team ends really well on floor,” Olson said. “It’s a lot of fun. We have fun choreography. It’s always fun to just perform for the audience.”
Spears won her second straight all-around title with a 39.200 overall. Stone won the vault title outright with a 9.9 while Ferguson won the bar title with a 9.85.
“We hit 24 of 24 routines tonight,” Kindler said. “I can’t ask for a whole lot more than that at this point in the season.”
The OU wrestling team counted on Jarrod Patterson to puts points on the scoreboard first. The 125-pound junior did what was expected as he defeated Eric Spujt 8-2. The win pushed Patteron’s record to 20-3.
The Hokies answered back in the 133-pound match with the division’s No. 1 ranked wrestler. Devin Carter handled No. 11 Jordan Keller 8-4 to tie the match up.
With three matches left, Oklahoma held a slim 13-9 advantage. But Schmidtke and Keldrick Hall put the contest out of reach with close decisions. Each had to hold off their Hokie opponents in the third period to preserve the 19-12 victory.
“Keldrick could have wrestled like he did the last minute, the whole match,” OU coach Mark Cody said. “He’s that talented and has those type of skills. Mentally, he starts to get out of it a little bit. But when he’s in it mentally, he can beat anybody in the country.”
Even though the No. 10 Sooners earned their 11th win of the season, Cody was not happy with the overall performance.
However, Cody hopes events like Beauty and The Beast will lead to bigger crowds at home.
“I’ve been disappointed in the fans that aren’t coming,” said Cody, who is in his first year as head coach. “The fans that are coming, I couldn’t be happier. I wish we could get more. We go on the road to wrestle Navy, it’s packed because Oklahoma is there. We go to wrestle Binghamton this year, there is not a seat left in the house because Oklahoma is there. I would like to get those same type of crowds here.”
