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Oklahoma State alum Alex Dieringer lost two straight matches to reigning World Champion Kyle Dake in a best-of-three series to determine the 79-kilogram spot on the United States World team on Saturday in Round Rock, Texas.
Dieringer fell 3-2 in the opening bout and 4-2 in the second to Dake, who delayed the matchup since June due to an injury that required surgery.
In the first match, Dieringer stopped a takedown attempt with Dake on the shot clock and held his ground on the mat enough to get a point before Dake got a step out point of his own. Dake forced another step out for a 2-1 lead at the break. Dieringer tried to counter, but didn’t score on the shot clock to trail 3-1. Dieringer, a three-time NCAA champ at OSU, received a late point on a caution to trim the deficit to 3-2, but couldn’t finish any attacks.
Dake, a four-time NCAA champ at Cornell, came out hot for the second match with a single-leg takedown attempt that led to a step out just 10 seconds in. Dake made it 2-0 at the break with another step out off a deep arm drag attempt before things became interesting.
Dake took Dieringer to the mat with a bodylock at the edge, but the former Cowboy rolled through only for Dake to do the same. The official awarded Dake one point, and Dieringer’s unsuccessfully challenge made it 4-0 after video review showed Dieringer stepped out before the roll throughs. Dieringer cut the deficit in half with two push outs in the final 17 seconds, but came up short.
Prior to the matchup against Dake, Dieringer won the U.S. Open, World Team Trials, Dan Kolov Tournament and Yasar Dogu this year. He also took bronze at the Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix in January.
Dake will join current OSU redshirt sophomore Daton Fix on the United States’ World team from Sept. 14-22 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Fix, who was the NCAA runner-up at 133 pounds this past spring, punched his ticket to Worlds by beating Thomas Gilman for the 57-kilogram spot in June at Final X: Lincoln.