Sooners Ready for Pair of Weekend Duals

NORMAN — The Oklahoma wrestling team hits the road this weekend for a matchup with Little Rock before returning to the Sooner state on Sunday for a home dual against North Dakota State.

The Little Rock dual will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, as the showdown with the Bison starts at 12 p.m. Sunday. Friday night's matchup will be streamed on Little Rock Sports Network, and Sunday's dual vs. North Dakota State will be available on ESPN+

LAST TIME OUT

Tate Picklo, Stephen Buchanan and Josh Heindsleman each claimed titles and Oklahoma wrestling had four other finalists in the Sooners' annual trip to the Michigan State Open on Saturday. It was a strong showing for the No. 21 Sooners, led by head coach Roger Kish to open the season. Oklahoma finished the day with a 49-25 record against a field that included four other top-25 teams.

Picklo avenged an early season loss in the 174-pound championship bout by defeating Central Michigan's Alex Cramer (7-2 Dec.). The two top-25 wrestlers in their weight class had met two days prior, which saw Cramer getting the better of Picklo (16-5 MD).

Buchanan continued his dominant start to the season by picking up two tech falls in the 197-pound bracket before shutting out No. 22 Evan Bates of Northwestern in the championship bout via 9-0 major decision. Heindselman captured the final title for the Sooners at the heavyweight level after two consecutive runner-up finishes at the MSU open in previous seasons. The redshirt senior stood atop the 285-pound podium after picking up two tech falls and defeating Bryan Caves of Central Michigan in the first place match.

PROJECTED STARTERS

125: Conrad Hendriksen (3-1)
133: No. 26 Jace Koelzer (5-1) or Kaden Smith (1-2)
141: No. 9 Mosha Schwartz (1-0) or Carter Schmidt (0-0)
149: No. 17 Willie McDougald (1-3)
157: No. 33 John Wiley (2-3) or Jared Hill (3-2)
165: No. 15 Cael Carlson (4-1) or Mannix Morgan (1-2)
174: No. 13 Tate Picklo (4-1) or Gerrit Nijenhuis (2-2)
184: No. 19 Giuseppe Hoose (4-1)
197: No. 2 Stephen Buchanan (4-0)
285: No. 14 Josh Heindselman (5-0) or Juan Mora (0-0)

KNOW YOUR FOES

Oklahoma will start the weekend off at Little Rock, who enters the battle fresh off a second place team finish at the Tiger Style Invitational. Redshirt freshman Stephen Little took the title in the 197 weight class, highlighted by a ranked upset win over former No. 8 Jaxon Smith from Maryland in the finals. It's the third ranked win for the Sturgis, Ky. native in his short collegiate career. Little is currently ranked No. 8 in the 197-pound weight class per FloWrestling. The Trojans enter Friday boasting a program-record of four ranked wrestlers in the weekly rankings: Stephen Little, Nasir Bailey, Josiah Hill and Matty Bianchi. Historically, OU leads the all-time series 3-0, outscoring the Trojans 108-9 in those three meetings.

North Dakota State returns to the mat after claiming two titles at the Bison Open last week. Gavin Drexler, who picked up his first national ranking earlier in the week at No. 33, backed it up in the Bison Open 141-pound bracket, as he picked up three victories to sweep through the bracket, including a 6-4 win over No. 24 Vance Vombaur of Minnesota in the championship match. Max Petersen claimed the other individual title for the Bison after three wins in the 149-pound bracket. Sunday marks the first contest for Oklahoma head coach Roger Kish against his former team. Kish served as head coach at NDSU for 12 years, where he had a 108-70 record in dual meets with the Bison including a 50-30 record in conference duals.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma hits the road again to face No. 4 Missouri in their first conference road contest at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1, in Columbia.