Piccininni pins returning champ Lee as Cowboys finish season undefeated

STILLWATER, Okla. – Back in the days of Gallagher Hall, decibel levels reached rocket-ship proportions when Darryl Monasmith pinned Iowa State’s Frank Santana in a Big Eight final. Likewise, for Mitch Shelton’s pin of Steve “Dr. Death” Williams a few years later in 1982.

On Sunday, Nick Piccininni and Chandler Rogers provided additional ear-splitting moments inside the old building that opened for business in 1939. The old building barely held 6,000 folks. For Sunday’s meeting between Oklahoma State and Iowa there were 13,811.

The partisans exploded early in the dual when Nick Piccininni locked up a cradle as 2018 NCAA champion Spencer Lee attempted to avoid a takedown. The Cowboy junior 125-pounder, who brought a 26-0 record into Sunday, flipped Lee to his back for the pin at 4:55.

The roof nearly came off the building.

Two decisions later and the hosts held a 12-0 advantage.

But Iowa clawed back with three straight victories from 149 through 165 pounds including Alex Marinelli’s pin of fill-in Jonce Blaylock. But with the dual tied at 12-12 it was Rogers’ turn to raise the noise level. Comfortably in control, Rogers, a 165-pounder all season, locked up his patented “Assassin” and pinned Mitch Bowman at 5:30 at 174 pounds. It sparked the Cowboys (15-0) the rest of the way as the hosts won the final four bouts to beat Iowa, 27-12.

“We wrestled better than we’ve wrestled all year,” said OSU head coach John Smith, who was in attendance for the epic Monasmith-Santana moment. “And you hope to see that toward the end of a season. Most of the matches that were critical it kind of looked like we took it over in the second period moving forward and that was the difference in the outcome in some of those close matches.

“Those four seniors stepped up big for us. With the dual in the balance they really put together that run to win the dual. You like to see your seniors go out like that, winning a big match in a big dual in front of a big crowd.”

“I can’t describe it, it’s indescribable,” Piccininni said. “It was big for our team to start off with those six points. I felt different this week; I’m a different person this year and I felt good going into this year, this match.”

Lee pinned Piccininni at the 2018 NCAAs and also beat the New Yorker in last season’s dual in Iowa City. The Hawks entered Sunday winners of four of the last five against Oklahoma State.

Rogers (17-2) has had a career of entertaining moments.

“What I want to do when I come out is to compete for my team and to entertain,” said the two-time All-American. “That was like my last show in front of the home crowd; it’s time for the postseason and to get things really cracking.

“And it felt great to see some of those guys I’ve spent the last five years with go out like that, to help us win a big dual against our rival.”

The OSU-Iowa dual usually falls sometime in January, early in the second semester as teams are figuring out lineups and getting in shape. The late February dual is a great way to get folks fired up for March’s postseason.

“This is a great place for this dual,” said Iowa head coach Tom Brands. “This is an open weekend every year for us. It harkens back to the old days a bit where you have a marquee dual like this at the end of the regular season.”

Wrestling in front of 10,000-plus is normal for the Iowa program, winners of 23 NCAA team titles. Sunday was another big atmosphere, but Brands’ squad won just three bouts and suffered its first loss of the 2018-19 campaign.

“There’s a reason why there is a big crowd,” Brands said. “You have two high-powered teams. Oklahoma State wrestling in Carver-Hawkeye Arena it’s the same thing. We love this kind of environment but I’m not sure we showed up.

“The bottom line is that you come out and wrestle seven minutes in your positions. It doesn’t take somebody too intelligent to recognize what was glaring out there. This was an important dual to Oklahoma State; this was an important dual to Iowa, but it looked like it was more important to Oklahoma State today. That means that we’ve got work to do. We were on the road, we were this, we were that. The biggest mentality drain for me in sports is talking about home field advantage. I don’t buy it; a great crowd is a great crowd and should be a motivating factor.”

Following Piccininni’s surprise, rookie Daton Fix won a highly-anticipated match with Austin DeSanto. Both ranked inside the top five in perhaps the nation’s deepest weight class, Fix improved to 27-1 with a 2-0 decision that included a third-period ride-out. And, no, other than a post-match stare down, there were no theatrics.

“(Piccininni’s pin) really fired me up,” Fix said. “The crowd was so loud.”

OSU’s Kaid Brock (16-6) gave OSU its third straight win to start the afternoon, beating rookie Max Murin, 8-6, at 141 pounds. Iowa got back in the dual in the middle weights where Pat Lugo (15-6) edged Kaden Gfeller, 7-4, at 149 pounds; Kaleb Young (16-3) was better against Wyatt Sheets, 9-5, at 157 pounds; and Marinelli’s pin.

“We knew the team score was going to be close and I knew I had to get bonus points,” said the unbeaten Marinelli. “Pin was what I wanted, what the team needed.

“I knew some things were shaking up (with OSU) so if Chandler Rogers would have walked out I would have wrestled the same no matter what. I’ve trained for whoever is in front of me.”

Iowa’s momentum was quickly squashed, however, as Rogers pinned Bowman and gave OSU an 18-12 lead.

Senior Jacobe Smith (23-3) then made things really difficult for the guests when he out-quicked Cash Wilcke to the tune of 6-3 at 184 pounds. Smith scored a big takedown in the third to break open a 3-2 match. Fellow senior Preston Weigel, wrestling just his seventh match of the season, followed up Smith’s victory with a 5-3 decision of Jacob Warner at 197 pounds. Weigel (7-0) used 3:10 of riding time and a big third-period reversal to beat the talented Iowa rookie.

The finale saw senior Derek White (24-1) out-muscle Sam Stoll, 3-1, at 285 pounds and give the Cowboys a 29-22-2 overall record against their rivals to the north.

No. 2 Oklahoma State 27, No. 3 Iowa 12
125-Nick Piccininni (O) pin Spencer Lee, 4:55
133-Daton Fix (O) dec Austin DeSanto, 2-0
141-Kaid Brock (O) dec Max Murin, 8-6
149-Pat Lugo (I) dec Kaden Gfeller, 7-4
157-Kaleb Young (I) dec Wyatt Sheets, 9-5
165-Alex Marinelli (I) pin Jonce Blaylock, 2:44
174-Chandler Rogers (O) pin Mitch Bowman, 5:30
184-Jacobe Smith (O) dec Cash Wilcke, 6-3
197-Preston Weigel (O) dec Jacob Warner, 5-3
285-Derek White (O) dec Sam Stoll, 3-1