Elite wrestlers square off in weekend meet

When the MSU wrestling team travels to Oklahoma on Saturday to take on the No. 18 Sooners and No. 20 Pittsburgh Panthers, nearly every weight class will boast nationally ranked wrestlers.

While on paper the triangular meet looks like a gathering of all-star wrestlers, junior wrestler Tim Hammer said this weekend is no different from any other.

“It’s just something we’re really used to,” he said. “There’s always ranked wrestlers everywhere. It’s pretty much the same game plan — we just try to stay in people’s face (and) use more endurance tactics.”

While unranked with a record of 3-3-0, the Spartans are coming off a match in which they clicked on all cylinders, shutting out Ohio, 39-0, Sunday.

“Everyone in the program feels pretty good about last weekend, but also we understand what’s on the horizon,” head coach Tom Minkel said. “So I don’t think anybody’s overconfident or feeling that everything will be easy from here on in.”

The 6-1 Panthers have three ranked wrestlers, including senior Keith Gavin, who is ranked No. 1 overall in the 174-pound weight class with a 17-0 record.

The Sooners own an 8-1 record and have six nationally ranked wrestlers on their roster, including three in the top 10.

Though there will be 11 wrestlers who were ranked in the Jan. 2 InterMat/NWCA/NWMA Division-I individual rankings present, only one head-to-head matchup is scheduled.

In the 197-pound weight class, senior Joe Williams, ranked 18th, goes up against Oklahoma’s fifth-ranked senior, Joel Flaggert. Williams, 18-7 on the season, already has wrestled against ranked opponents nine times this year, going 3-6.

While wrestling against Ohio (4-3-0) and two of the top wrestling programs in the country is a different breed of competition, Minkel said he believes the Spartans have to keep the same mind-set they had against the Bobcats.

“I think we’ll compete well with Oklahoma and Pittsburgh,” he said. “But the key for us is to go into that match with the approach that we did in the Ohio University dual (meet),” Minkel said.

“And not give them any undue respect because of the name or the stature of their program.”

Published on Tuesday, January 8, 2008