OU Wrestling Honors Its Own

April 29, 2001

NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Oklahoma wrestling team held its annual awards banquet this weekend. Among those honored were senior national champion Michael Lightner who was named outstanding wrestler.

Lightner claimed his first national title at 141 pounds after finishing as runner-up the past two seasons at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. Lightner defeated Iowa's top-ranked Doug Schwab in the championship bout, 5-4. Lightner finished his senior campaign 37-0, the most wins ever by an Oklahoma wrestler in an undefeated season. The Sooners' second all-time winningest wrestler, he compiled a 144-16 mark for his career and became OU's first four-time All-American since John Kading accomplished the feat from 1994-97. Lightner became the first OU grappler to claim four conference titles and the first four-time champion in Big 12 history.

Lightner and 125-pounder Bo Maynes were named recipients of the Jimmy White Award. The Jimmy White Award is the oldest and most prestigious honor given to an OU wrestler and is based on athletic ability as well as team contribution, individual achievement and team spirit. Maynes notched a career-high 21 victories and was ranked as high as third nationally before dropping out of the polls due to injury. Among Maynes wins were an upset of A.J. Grant of Michigan and decisions over Matt Brown and Skylar Holman of Oklahoma State. Maynes defeated the third-ranked Grant despite having severely injured ribs and missed the rest of the season after that bout.

Junior Jared Frayer earned the most falls award. The 149-pound Frayer tallied 19 pins on the season, moving into sixth in career falls at OU with 34. The 19 pins were a career high and the second most pins by an OU grappler in a single season. He trailed only Dan Chaid (24) in single-season pins. Frayer led the Big 12 in pins and earned All-America honors for the first time with a fourth-place finish. He also won a career-high 38 matches.

Heavyweight Leonce Crump was named outstanding freshman. Crump compiled a 34-11 record, earned All-America honors and won the Big 12 Championship during his initial campaign. He was second on the team in pins with 13, the highest total by a heavyweight since Herb Calvert posted 18 in 1976. Crump's fourth-place finish is the highest by an OU freshman since Roger Frizzell placed fourth in 1980. He also became the first Sooner freshman to earn All-America honors since Lightner in 1998.

Three OU grapplers were named most improved - junior Matt Ridings and sophomores Witt Durden and Josh Lambrecht. Ridings was inserted into the OU lineup after the injury to Maynes and won 12-consecutive matches. He climbed as high as fourth in the national polls and wrestled his way to a fifth seed at the NCAA Championships. He was the Big 12 runnerup.

Durden, who finished fourth at the Big 12 Championships, earned All-America honors after placing third at the NCAA Championships. The unseeded 133 pounder was 7-1 in the national tournament with his only loss coming to national champion Eric Juergens of Iowa. Durden wrestled one of the toughest schedules in the nation and still won a career-high 33 matches.

After battling injuries and the adjustment to a new system at the beginning of the season, Lambrecht - a transfer who was in his first season at Oklahoma - placed third at the Big 12 Championships and earned All-America honors. One of OU's hottest wrestlers down the stretch, Lambrecht had a record of 8-11 after the Cliff Keen/NWCA National Duals but won 12 of his last 17 matches. He also recorded 14 of his 16 wins by bonus.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors