COWBOY UP?
Oklahoma State seniors set to provide leadership at NCAAs
When wrestling fans spoke about Oklahoma State’s national postseason possibilities, it was more about the wrestlers than the coaching.
After all, OSU coach John Smith had four returning national champs in Zack Esposito at 149 pounds, Johny Hendricks at 165, Jake Rosholt at 197 and heavyweight Steve Mo
cco. Most people didn’t think that Smith needed to worry about this quartet that actually had six national championships on their resumes (Rosholt and Mocco are two-time NCAA champs).But that has not been the case this season as all four have struggled at times and none of them will enter the national tournament seeded No. 1.
“I’m not sure (why the seniors struggled),” said Smith, whose team is shooting for a fourth straight NCAA championship this year in Oklahoma City. “When you are part of several national titles, sometimes you forget what it takes to be the best. This year we lost some matches because it’s tough nationally right now. It’s a long season, a grind.”
But Smith was much happier after the Cowboys dominated the Big 12 Championships, winning by 27.5 points over second-place Oklahoma.
“We put ourselves in a great position to go to the NCAA Championships to have our best tournament that we can possibly have. I’m pleased with the overall effort. I know that we are going to need more than what we did here, but there is time to do more.”
And Smith believes it will be up to the seniors if they want to win a record 34th national title.
Esposito was candid in his team’s performance this season: a lack of senior leadership, something former Oklahoma State national champion Chris Pendleton showed last year in winning his second straight title.
“With the loss of Pendleton, that hurt a little bit of our leadership,” Esposito said. “Other guys had to step it up, but guys didn’t want to take the role of being a leader right off the bat. Guys like Jake and Steve and I were juniors looking up to the likes of Pendleton.
“Now we have some leadership and the team is coming together as one. I think we can do much better than last year.”
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