It was...well, absolute Bedlam

I have been to many college sporting events during my newspaper career, but one thing that had eluded me was attending a college wrestling match. That changed a few weeks ago when I went to Bedlam in Norman on Dec. 11.

The main reason I wanted to go was to see Comanche’s own Konner Doucet wrestle for Oklahoma State, but I ended up getting a whole lot more than I had bargained for.

The heavyweight division wrestled first at the dual, which meant Doucet was going to kickoff the match in front of a nearly full McCasland Field House in the heart of the University of Oklahoma campus.

And even though McCasland is an older venue and is much smaller than the Lloyd Noble Center and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, it is a great place for wrestling. The place was nearly packed out and fans are right on top of the action. There really is no bad seat in the house.
Doucet wrestled a great match before losing in double overtime to Oklahoma’s Josh Heindselman, 2-1.

I learned quickly that just like college football is a whole different level than high school football, the same was true for wrestling.

The quickness of the wrestlers, especially at the lower weights, was impressive. And all the wrestlers there were once high school superstars, which meant high-quality wrestling would be in store.

Having kicked off the dual meet and with the closeness of the matches, the crowd noise was deafening as Oklahoma and Oklahoma State fans lived and died with each takedown, near-fall and escape.

The Sooners led by as many as eight points twice, including with three matches remaining, which had the Oklahoma faithful primed and ready for an upset of the 12th ranked Cowboys.

Bonus points with falls, technical falls and major decisions are fewer and farther between at the college level. Again, these guys were the best of the best in high school and they don’t take too kindly to being pinned.

Oklahoma was up 15-7 when Oklahoma State caught its first big break of the match. Dustin Plott, the No. 4 ranked wrestler at 174 pounds took on No. 13 ranked Darrien Roberts. Plott showed why he was so highly ranked as he was too quick for Roberts. Plott would shoot in, get a takedown and let Roberts escape and do it all over again. It eventually lead to a five-point technical fall for Plott, which allowed OSU to cut the Sooners lead to 15-12 and the Cowboys were right back in the match with two individual matches to go.

Then at 184 pounds, OSU’s Travis Wittlake and OU’s Greyden Penner had an epic battle with Wittlake securing a 6-4 win in the sudden victory period to tie the game with one match remaining.

There had not been a pin in the first nine matches of the dual, but that quickly changed as OSU’s Luke Surber, who I remember wrestling at the Oklahoma state high school tournament for Tuttle, quickly got Oklahoma’s Keegan Moore on his back and recorded the fall 34 seconds into the match. To add even more to the story, Moore was an Oklahoma State transfer.

The pin by Suber gave the Cowboys the 21-15 win and set off a wild celebration by the Oklahoma State fans in attendance.

Both teams had won five matches, but Oklahoma’s points all came in decisions with no bonus points. Plott’s technical fall and Surber’s fall in the two of the last three matches proved to be the difference.

After witnessing my first in-person college wrestling dual, I look forward to being able to do it again in the future, though I’m sure this one will be hard to top.