Preview: Oklahoma State Faces Penn State In The Biggest Wrestling Match Of The Year

In just a few hours, the biggest wrestling dual of the year will go down in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Today’s NWCA Dual Championship match between two undefeated squads, No. 1 Oklahoma State (14-0) and No. 2 Penn State (13-0), is officially a sell-out.

Even more impressive? 13,899 tickets were sold for the match. That’s more tickets than were sold for yesterday’s Bedlam basketball game. It also doesn’t include the students who can get in for free!

Among those expected to be in attendance...

It’s not too surprising to see Gundy is going to be in attendance after that amazing video he put out to promote the match.

#1 Oklahoma State VS #2 Penn State

Time: 3:00 p.m. CT

Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater, OK

Watch: FloWrestling (sign-in required)

Listen: okstate.com

The crowd aside, let’s compare the teams to try and see who has the edge coming in.

Oklahoma State is 14-0 with nine wins over ranked teams, including #3 Iowa, #8 Cornell, #10 Missouri, #13 Minnesota, #17 South Dakota State, #19 Oklahoma (2), #23 Edinboro, and #24 Pittsburgh. They have eight wins by 30 or more points

Penn State is 13-0 with nine wins over ranked teams, including #22 Stanford, #11 Lehigh, #13 Minnesota, #6 Nebraska, #12 Rutgers, #3 Iowa, #18 Wisconsin, #4 Ohio State, and #9 Illinois. They have six wins by 30 or more points.

The two teams have a couple similar opponents we can compare.

#3 Iowa: OSU won 24-11 | PSU won 26-11.
#13 Minnesota: OSU won 34-3 | PSU won 33-6

Let’s look at today’s match-ups by weight class.

125: No. 11 Nick Piccininni (OSU) Vs. No. 2 Nick Suriano (PSU)
133: No. 2 Kaid Brock (OSU) Vs. NR George Carpenter (PSU)
141: No. 1 Dean Heil (OSU) Vs. No. 13 Jimmy Gulibon (PSU)
149: No. 2 Anthony Collica (OSU) Vs. No. 1 Zain Retherford (PSU)
157: No. 6 Joe Smith (OSU) Vs. No. 1 Jason Nolf (PSU)
165: No. 7 Chandler Rogers (OSU) Vs. No. 4 Vincenzo Joseph (PSU)
174: No. 7 Kyle Crutchmer (OSU) Vs. No. 9 Mark Hall (PSU)
184: No. 5 Nolan Boyd (OSU) Vs. No. 2 Bo Nickal (PSU)
197: No. 8 Preston Weigel (OSU) Vs. No. 9 Matt McCutcheon (PSU)
HWT: No. 6 Austin Schafer (OSU) Vs. No. 5 Nick Nevills (PSU)

Nine of today’s match-ups feature ranked opponents, with six featuring a No. 1 or No. 2 ranked wrestler. That includes eight 149 where No. 2 Anthony Collica will face No. 1 Zain Retherford. OSU has nine Top 10 ranked players, Penn State with eight.

I think the point is, there are a lot of reasons why this is the biggest wrestling match of the year. If you didn’t get a ticket, never fear. You can watch it online (you will need to sign up to do so).

And if all you read above doesn’t get you pumped, this should.