Wrestling Hosts No. 12 South Dakota State Friday for Senior Night

Projected Starters (Rankings by Intermat)
No. 23 Oklahoma
Wt.	Result	Team
125	No. 33 Conrad Hendriksen or Christian Forbes	12-8 / 0-2
133	Jace Koelzer or Gabe Vidlak	12-10 / 5-4
141	Carter Schmidt or Kaden Smith	8-4 / 5-7
149	No. 30 Willie McDougald or John Wiley	9-6 / 8-11
157	No. 30 Jared Hill	12-6
165	No. 26 Cael Carlson or Gerrit Nijenhuis or Mannix Morgan	13-9 / 6-7 / 5-6
174	Tate Picklo	11-10
184	Giuseppe Hoose Carson Berryhill	11-9 / 2-3
197	No. 2 Stephen Buchanan or Ryan Nichols	18-0 / 1-4
285	No. 12 Josh Heindselman or Juan Mora	17-4 / 4-4

NORMAN - The No. 23 Oklahoma wrestling team is set to host senior night against No. 12 South Dakota State on Friday evening at 7 p.m. in their last run out in McCasland Field House for the 2023-24 season.

The Sooners (5-5, 2-4 Big 12) will honor seniors Mosha Schwartz, Carson Berryhill, Cam Picklo, Gabe Vidlak, Alex Vislosky and Jace Koelzer before the dual against the Jackrabbits (11-2, 5-0 Big 12) with the ceremony scheduled to start 15 minutes before the first bout.

Doors will open one hour prior to start of the duals. Free OU wrestling t-shirts will be provided to fans until supplies last.

Friday's dual will be broadcasted on ESPN+. Live stats will be provided through TrackWrestling.

Last Time Out

The No. 18 Oklahoma wrestling team fell to No. 22 Northern Iowa, 30-12 inside McCasland Field House on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Six Panthers secured bonus-point victories, helping Northern Iowa improve their record to 4-5 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 action while Oklahoma fell to 5-5 overall and 2-4 in league duals. In the 125-pound bout, Conrad Hendriksen got the Sooners on the board first, defeating UNI's No. 30 Trever Anderson behind a pair of takedowns and an escape, 7-6. The decision accounted for the freshman's second ranked win of the season.

At 149 pounds, No. 32 Willie McDougald picked up his ninth win of the season with a 3-2 win over Cael Rahnavardi.

Powered by two second period takedowns, No. 28 Cael Carlson regained some momentum for OU in the 165-pound bout, defeating UNI's RJ Weston in a 7-6 decision.

To close out the dual, OU's No. 11 Josh Heindselman scored a key takedown in sudden-victory to defeat No. 16 Tyrell gordon, 4-1. The heavyweight secured his fourth ranked dual win of the season

Scouting the Jackrabbits and Series History

South Dakota State stayed unbeaten against Big 12 opponents and ran its overall winning streak to eight with a 33-3 dual victory over Utah Valley last week.

Just as it did two days prior in a victory by the same score at Wyoming, SDSU closed the dual with seven consecutive victories.

The Jackrabbits led by head coach Damion Hahn, who is 56-32 at the helm of the Jackrabbits' program.

Friday's dual marks the 10th meeting between the two programs, who first met in 1970.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series 6-3, and has won the last three duals.

197 Pounds: A Battle of the Big 12's Best

OU's Stephen Buchanan (No. 2) and SDSU's Tanner Sloan (No. 6) are the Big 12's highest ranked wrestlers in the 197 pound weight class, according to Intermat.

The two seniors are undefeated in duals on the season and last met in the 2022 Big 12 Championships 197-pound title bout, where Buchanan escaped with a 3-2 decision win while wrestling for Wyoming.

Buchanan became only the fifth Cowboy in program history to win a Big 12 title.

Minnesota Connection

For Oklahoma head coach Roger Kish and South Dakota State head coach Damion Hahn, Friday's dual is a personal one.

Both coaches were All-America wrestlers at the University of Minnesota. Hahn was a four-time All-American from 2001-04 and won back-to-back NCAA titles at 197 pounds as a junior and senior. Kish was an All-American at 184 pounds for the Golden Gophers in both 2006 and 2007.

Friday will be the seventh time the pair have squared off as head coaches, with Kish holding a 4-2 advantage over his former teammate

Sooners in the Rankings

The NCAA announced the first coaches' ranking for the 2024 NCAA Championships on Monday, Jan. 22. Six Sooners were included in the initial rankings, with three slotted inside the top 15 of their respective weight class.

Willie McDougald (No. 15 at 149), Jared Hill (No. 28 at 157), Cael Carlson (No. 29 at 165), Tate Picklo (No. 25 at 174), Stephen Buchanan (No. 2 at 197) and Josh Heindselman (No. 13 at 285) represent Oklahoma in the initial list.

At 197 pounds, FloWrestling ranks Stephen Buchanan as the No. 15 pound-for-pound wrestler in the nation and No. 3 in his weight class. X The Sooners remained moved down one spot to No. 23 as a team in the latest NWCA Coaches Poll release.

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