OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University stuck four pins in wins over Bacone 30-17 and Neosho County (Kan.) 29-15 on Wednesday at Abe Lemons Arena.
The Stars, ranked 16th in NAIA wrestling, improved to 1-0 on the season since the contest against Neosho County counted as an exhibition dual.
“We wrestled okay for the first half of the season,” OCU coach Archie Randall said. “We made tons of mistakes, but everything is correctable. As long as we wrestled hard, they're correctable. The matches we lost were winnable. We have to get everybody in the lineup.”
OCU started three freshmen, including James Brigance, a freshman from Talihina, Okla., at 184 pounds. Brigance came through with two wins.
Against Bacone, Brigance scored two takedowns and a reverse. He allowed only three escapes to Rasheed Manson.
Brigance notched a takedown, escape and riding time in his 4-2 win over Jon Arnold of Neosho County.
Mark Meyer won both of his matches by fall. Meyer, a junior from Midwest City, Okla., is ranked 11th among NAIA 157-pounders. Five Stars were in the first round of NAIA rankings.
Meyer ended his bout against Michael Velez of Bacone in 1:42. He had a takedown, then took care of Velez for the final margin against Bacone.
Against Neosho County, Meyer finished off his fall over Trent Hoover in 4:01. Meyer picked up a reverse at the start of the second period before working for the pin at 157.
“Mark Meyer was the wrestler of the day,” Randall said. “He had two falls and wrestled well. James Brigance wrestled really well. Some of our freshmen were starstruck. We did a lot of things we work on in the room.”
Kidd Gomez and Hunter Muskrat accounted for OCU's other falls against Bacone. Gomez, a sophomore from Noble, Okla., notched five takedowns before nailing the pin at 2:22 into the 125-pound match.
Muskrat, a freshman from Stilwell, Okla., recorded three takedowns and a near fall before knocking off Chris Youngblood in 4:45 at 141.
In the opening match of the dual, Tyson Campbell needed riding time to win his 165-pound match against Guadalupe Silas of Bacone 5-4. Andrew Pontikes followed with a 7-4 victory over Richard Hughes, using a takedown and riding time to sew up his win.
Jake Mabry built a 4-0 lead, then edged Rasheed Manson of Bacone 7-5 with a third-period escape and riding time.
Against Neosho County, Mabry stuck a pin against Justin Merritt in 1:26. Mabry earned a takedown before ending the 197-pound bout.
Ruben Perez, ranked 10th in the NAIA at 149, closed out his technical fall over Dustin Scott by getting three third-period takedowns. Perez, a junior from Armwood, Fla., kept Scott down and preventing him from getting an escape in the final minute of the match to maintain the 18-3 margin in his 149-pound match.
OCU competes next in the Knox Invitational at 9 a.m. Saturday in Galesburg, Ill.
OKLAHOMA CITY 30
BACONE 17
285: Dyllan Snavely, BC, by forfeit
OKLAHOMA CITY 29
NEOSHO COUNTY 15
285: Joey George, NC, by forfeit
