Sooners Slated for Sunday Bedlam

²⁴ Oklahoma

¹² Oklahoma State

Sunday, Feb. 20 / 2:00 p.m. CT / Gallagher-Iba Arena / Stillwater, Okla.

Projected Starters (Rankings by Intermat)
No. 24 Oklahoma
Wt.	Result	Team
125	No. 32 Joey Prata	13-5
133	No. 28 Tony Madrigal or Gabe Vidlak	9-6 / 2-5
141	Jacob Butler or Zack Zeamer	5-9 / 4-6
149	No. 18 Willie McDougald	12-3
157	No. 14 Justin Thomas	15-5
165	No. 32 Joe Grello	4-6
174	No. 17 Anthony Mantanona	14-5
184	No. 29 Darrien Roberts or Keegan Moore	12-7 / 3-2
197	No. 17 Jake Woodley	18-6
285	No. 28 Josh Heindselman	11-9

Projected Starters (Rankings by Intermat)
No. 12 Oklahoma State
Wt.	Result	Team
125	No. 7 Trevor Mastrogiovanni or Cooper Birdwell	14-1 / 8-2
133	No. 2 Daton Fix	16-0
141	No. 21 Carter Young	9-5
149	No. 13 Kaden Gfeller	13-2
157	No. 18 Wyatt Sheets	10-6
165	No. 8 Travis Wittlake	9-5
174	No. 12 Dustin Plott	12-3
184	No. 8 Dakota Geer	13-3
197	Gavin Stika	13-7
285	No. 31 Luke Surber or Austin Harris	9-7 / 10-3

NORMAN - Oklahoma wrestling will head to Stillwater Sunday afternoon for the finale of their dual season for the second installment of Bedlam in the 2021-22 season.

HONORING SOONER LEGEND WAYNE BAUGHMAN

On Thursday afternoon OU wrestling learned of the passing of one of the all-time Sooner wrestling greats, Wayne Baughman.

A member of the 1962 national championship winning team, Baughman won the individual title himself that season. That title was sandwiched in between two runner-up finishes, meaning he finished no lower than second in all three years of NCAA competition.

On the international circuit, Baughman achieved unparalleled success. He won 16 national titles and became the first athlete to claim a championship in all four of the major styles of wrestling (folkstyle, freestyle, Greco-Roman and Sombo). He also captured gold at the 1967 Pan American Games.

He was a member of three Olympic teams and eight World teams and ne of only two wrestlers to have placed in the Olympics and/or World Championships in the three international styles (freestyle, Greco-Roman, & Sombo).

After his own wrestling days were over Baughman would go in to coaching. He led Team USA as the head coach of five world championship teams and as the head coach of the 1976 Olympic freestyle team.

A former Air Force officer, originally assigned to Tinker Air Force Base in OKC, Baughman became the Air Force Academy head coach in 1974 and served the program for 27 years over two different stints. There he amassed a 183-134-4 record, coaching four All-Americans and an NCAA finalist.

LAST TIME OUT

The Sooners most recent battle on the mat came in their final home dual of the season against No. 23 South Dakota State.

Both teams claimed five match victories, meaning the winner would be decided by tiebreaker criteria. The deciding factor was most individual match points scored, which favored the Sooners 39-33, giving them the win.

It was senior night for the squad and the seniors came through in a big way. OU got wins in three straight matches from seniors Justin Thomas, Joe Grello and Anthony Mantanona in the heart of the dual that built a lead that proved to be insurmountable.

Joey Prata and Willie McDougald picked up the other two wins on the night for the Sooners to push their active win streaks to five and nine matches respectively.

Tiebreaker criteria was last used to decide an OU dual in a loss to Utah Valley in 2018.

BEDLAM HISTORY

The two historic programs have met nearly every year since 1920 and were named the greatest (OSU) and fourth-greatest (OU) wrestling programs in history by the NCAA. The term "Bedlam" originated from the rowdy wrestling matches between the two schools and then grew to accompany all sports.

Sunday's dual is the 183rd meeting between the programs.The two programs have produced a combined 758 All-Americans, 210 individual national champions, 61 Olympians and 41 team national championships - all marks are more than any other rivalry in the country.

SCOUTING THE COWBOYS

OSU comes into the second installment of Bedlam in the 2021-22 season off of a 32-6 win over Bucknell on Friday night.

The Cowboys' four losses on the season so far is the most since the 2013-14 season when they finished with an 11-5 record, including a loss to the Sooners in Stillwater.

John Smith's squad is ranked in nine of the ten weight classes, including four inside the top-10. The team is 5-2 this season in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

PERFECTION FROM PIEDMONT

Josh Heindselman picked up a dramatic 3-1 sudden victory win over OSU's Luke Surber in the first edition of Bedlam earlier this season. The win for the redshirt sophomore makes the Piedmont, Okla. native 3-0 in his career in Bedlam bouts and 4-0 overall against Oklahoma State wrestlers.

Last season Heindselman took three straight wins against the Cowboys' Austin Harris, including one in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament. He has only faced Surber once.

FAMILIAR FOES

Having already dualled against the Cowboys once this season, these two squads are very familiar with each other. The projected lineups predict the same pairings at every weight class except for 149 and 197.

The new matchups are likely to see redshirt freshman Willie McDougald face Kaden Gfeller at 149 and All-American Jake Woodley square off with the Cowboys own new entrant Gavin Stika.

Four of the projected matchups have two wrestlers that have faced each other at least three times in their career, highlighted by the back and forth between Justin Thomas and Wyatt Sheets. The pair have split six career bouts.

CLOSE FROM START TO FINISH

Both Joey Prata at 125 and Josh Heindselman at 285 have gone the entire season without a single match ending in anything other than a decision (excluding forfeits).

In 17 bouts this year, Prata has an average margin of 2.5 points, the largest margin coming in his most recent match in an 8-2 win.

Against Little Rock, Josh Heindselman won his match by a 6-2 decision. It was the largest margin by which any of his bouts this season have been decided, win or lose. In all 19 of his other matches, he and his opponent were separated by two points or less, for an average margin of only 1.9 points.

GOING STREAKING

The Sooners have three players with active win streaks of three or more matches. The longest of those is owned by redshirt-freshman Willie McDougald. The Niagara Falls native has won nine matches in a row, including three against ranked opposition.

Joey Prata has a five bout win streaks. His run includes a win over Iowa State's No. 19 Kysen Terukina.

Anthony Mantanona holds a three match streak. Highlighted by a dramatic sudden victory takedown of South Dakota State's No. 9 Cade Devos.

For updates, follow @OU_Wrestling on Twitter and Instagram, or like Oklahoma Wrestling on Facebook.

HONORING SOONER LEGEND WAYNE BAUGHMAN

LAST TIME OUT

BEDLAM HISTORY

SCOUTING THE COWBOYS

PERFECTION FROM PIEDMONT

FAMILIAR FOES

CLOSE FROM START TO FINISH

GOING STREAKING

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jacob Butler

Joe Grello

Josh Heindselman

Tony Madrigal

Anthony Mantanona

Willie McDougald

Keegan Moore

Joey Prata

Darrien Roberts

Justin Thomas

Gabe Vidlak

Jake Woodley

Zack Zeamer

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University of Oklahoma Athletics