OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University figures to once more be among the top 10 teams in NAIA men's wrestling in 2019-20.
The Stars feature three returning all-Americans and five wrestlers who took all-Sooner Athletic Conference honors and reached the NAIA Championships last season. Three additional OCU individuals placed in the SAC Championships in 2018-19.
OCU opens its season 7 p.m. Thursday against Texas Wesleyan at Abe Lemons Arena. Children dressed in Halloween costumes will be allowed in free and have the opportunity to trick or treat before the dual. Watch the match live here.
Korey Walker became the sixth Oklahoma City men's wrestler to finish as a national runner-up. Walker, a senior from Midwest City, Okla., fell short of the 285-pound national championship 5-2 to Brandon Reed from Lindsey Wilson (Ky.). He took the SAC heavyweight title to nail down his third national-tournament berth. Walker, a two-time all-American, went 24-7 last season to move his career mark to 89-29.
The Stars' Chase Vincent secured a fourth-place national finish at 174 pounds. Vincent, a junior from Yukon, Okla., became the conference champion, a two-time SAC finalist and national qualifier. He was named the outstanding wrestler of the SAC Championships.
OCU boasted of a sixth-place finish and four all-Americans. The Stars notched their fourth top-10 finish in the NAIA Championships.
"Last season went really well," OCU coach Sam Hazewinkel said. "It was the initial season for me. The guys all bought in right away, which makes a big difference. I think it showed in our ranking. We went from 24th to 19th to 13th to 11th to sixth at nationals. We continually placed higher than we were supposed to, which is what you want."
TOP RETURNERS
• Gage Johnson returns after a redshirt season. Johnson, a sophomore from Norman, Okla., became an all-American after placing seventh as a freshman. He put together a 21-13 record and was SAC runner-up at 285 pounds in 2017-18
• Montana Moon, a junior from Chickasha, Okla., became the 125-pound runner-up in the SAC Championships and went 16-6 last season
• Jon McGowan at 157 and Easton Rendleman at 197 prevailed in true second challenge matches in the conference meet to snag NAIA Championships bids
• Logan Chappell (133), Austin Loza (157) and Israel Andres Villa (197) each placed fifth in the SAC Championships and will seek their first trips to the national tournament this season
NEW FACES
• Steele Dias captured three state championships wrestling during his high school career at Henderson Green Valley (Nev.)
• Drake Foster came to OCU from the University of Wyoming. Foster, a senior from Post Falls, Idaho, is the brother of the Stars' Cierra Foster, who is an all-American for the OCU women's team
• Mason Ford, a sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., joined the Stars after a season competing for MacMurray (Ill.)
PRESEASON BUZZ
• OCU holds the top spot in the first Sooner Athletic Conference-Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference rating of the season
• In the Black-Blue Ranking Matches last week, the men's portion of the dual came down to the final two matches. Ryan Bracken knocked off Johnson 4-2 in the heavyweight match to put the Black team up 15-13
• In the final match of the night, Jaxen Gilmore nipped Foster 5-4 to secure the 18-13 win for OCU Black
MEET THE COACH
• Sam Hazewinkel guided Oklahoma City to a sixth-place finish in the NAIA Championships and a runner-up showing in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships in his first season as the Stars' head coach. OCU had four all-Americans, seven qualifiers for the NAIA Championships, two SAC individual champions and eight all-conference performers last season. In duals, OCU went 3-2
• Hazewinkel became a 2012 Olympian wrestling for the United States in London. He is a four-time U.S. Open champion, two-time Pan American champion and 10-time U.S. national team member. He most recently wrestled for Team USA at age 35 in the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary last October
• Hazewinkel took four NCAA all-American accolades and three Big 12 championships wrestling for the University of Oklahoma. He went 132-10 in his college career
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
• The Stars host the Oklahoma City Open at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 at Abe Lemons Arena. OCU traditionally takes on all the in-state teams in the open tournament, which will be on a Saturday for the first time
• OCU meets cross-town rival Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at Abe Lemons Arena. Central Oklahoma stands 13th in the NCAA Division II preseason ratings
• The Sooner Athletic Conference-Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships take place Feb. 22 in Bartlesville, Okla.