Stillwater NewsPress

Local Sports

March 19, 2011

Perfection for Oklahoma State's Jordan Oliver

PHILADELPHIA - — Oklahoma State crowned a national champion and had a national runnerup and fifth-place wrestler Saturday at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

The Cowboys finished fourth in the team standings behind national title winner Penn State, Cornell and Iowa.

“It was important that this team got a trophy because it is a step in the right direction,” OSU wrestling coach John Smith said. “You always want to do better and this was no different. The only time in my 20 years of coaching that I felt we couldn’t do better was in 2005 when we had five national champs.”

Oklahoma State’s Jordan Oliver win the national title at 133 pounds, by taking advantage of Boise State’s Andrew Hochstrasser’s desire for a fast pace to hit a double-leg takedown 12 seconds into the first period. He released Hochstrasser for a 2-1 advantage.

With 35 seconds left in the first, Oliver scored another takedown and put Hochstrasser on his back for a two-point nearfall. He released the Boise State wrestler, but couldn’t score more points before the first period ended.

Oliver took a 6-2 advantage into the second period, and struck for another double-leg takedown to go up 8-2. The OSU sophomore released Hochstrasser and took an 8-3 lead into the final period.

“Takedowns were the key for Jordan,” Smith said. “He has a lot of offense. I think he focused on maintaining pressure and separating from the field as he goes forward, which is hard to do.”

Hochstrasser started in the down position and escaped to make the score 8-4. Hochstrasser shot and got a single-leg, but couldn’t get any points as Oliver played it safe in the final minute of the bout.

“My mindset was to put points on the board right away, thinking if I scored right away, the pace of the match and the tempo would have to pick up because he would have to attack me,” Oliver said. “I never stopped attacking, but it opened up things more for me to get my double and my leg attacks.”

Oklahoma State’s Clayton Foster dominated his 197-pound final and was up 5-1 when disaster struck.

Kent State’s Dustin Kilgore shot a single off a tie-up and took Foster to the mat and started tilting Foster’s back toward the mat. Foster tried to counter, but Kilgore pulled his head free, put his chest on Foster’s chest and picked up a pin with 4 seconds left in the second period.

Foster, a senior, scored two takedowns in the first period and had an escape in the second before Kilgore turned the bout around.

It was Foster’s first loss of the year.

“I hurt for Clayton because I really wanted to see him get an NCAA title,” Smith said. “He had a good first period, but got a little sloppy in the second. He had the match under control.”

 

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