The wrestling team traveled west over the holiday weekend for its first two dual matches of the season and participated in a pair of blowouts – one that went in its favor and one that necessitated what coach Carter Jordan called a serious team meeting.
Despite complications and difficulties with flight arrangements that forced the Pack to wrestle only 12 hours upon landing in Norman, Okla., Friday evening, the Wolfpack dominated Oklahoma City 36-6, with the only loss in its first match coming via forfeit.
“After an incredibly tough week, with three different flight cancellations on the way out, we did not arrive in Norman until 11:30 Friday night,” Jordan said. “I was really proud that the kids didn’t use that as an excuse. We wrestled really hard against Oklahoma City.”
The Pack’s only loss of its 10 individual bouts in the win over Oklahoma City came because of a forfeit at 184 pounds. Strong early wrestling this season by juniors Darrius Little and Mike Moreno continued Saturday, with Moreno recording a first-period pin over Kidd Gomez at 125 pounds and Little winning on a fall at the 141-pound weight class. The decisive victories ran Little’s record to 10-1 and Moreno’s to 12-1. Two more juniors, 157-pounder Colton Palmer and 174-pounder Quinton Godley, also posted victories against Oklahoma City. Palmer defeated Mark Meyer, who entered the match with a 13-1 record, on a 6-2 decision while Godley took down Andrew Pontikes, 17-7, to improve to 8-2 on the season.
The Pack’s five other winners against OCU were all sophomores, as Dale Shull and Brett Farina took decisions at 133 and 149 pounds, respectively. Farina’s 11-10 victory was the highlight of the match, according to Jordan.
“Brett Farina at 149 was losing his match to their best guy, 9-4, in the third period,” Jordan said. “He came back and beat him. He just kept fighting, scratching and clawing, which is what we have been preaching.”
174-pounder Kasey Young recorded a 16-0 tech fall before 197-pounder Karonne Jones and heavyweight Christian McClean added two more victories by decision.
The Pack found itself on the other end of a beat down in the second match of the afternoon, as no wrestler was victorious in a 52-0 shutout at the hands of an imposing lineup for the eighth-ranked Sooners of Oklahoma.
“That was the best Oklahoma team I have ever seen,” Jordan said. “But I don’t care if we wrestle the Russian team, there is no excuse for the level of performances we had. That will not be accepted. I don’t care how many backups we have in the lineup, I don’t care who we are wrestling and I don’t care what our traveling situation was – we are not going to perform that way.”
But Jordan said after the loss that several of his grapplers headed home with an important lesson.
“On the upside, Mike Moreno, Darrius Little, Colton Palmer and Quinton Godley, those four guys, they realize now that they can wrestle at a national level,” Jordan said.
The best example of that came in Little’s narrow loss to Oklahoma’s top-ranked Zach Bailey, which wasn’t the moral victory the match’s final score might have indicated.
“I leaned over to my assistant at the end of the first period and said, ‘we’re four or five, maybe even six points better than this kid. If he keeps wrestling, he’s going to win this match going away,'” Jordan said. “But he shut down. Instead of focusing on extending his lead, he wrestled not to lose.”
According to Jordan, the match displayed two things: What Little’s capable of and what might prevent him from realizing his boundless potential.
“Do I think he can win a national title now?” Jordan said. “Absolutely. But there is a lot that goes into that. He just has to learn how to win big matches. Right now Darrius Little could win a national title. Or he could not qualify for the NCAA tournament. If he doesn’t learn how to close matches and start believing he belongs, the latter is what is going to happen.”
