Oklahoma State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
December 12, 2010 | Cowboy Wrestling
Dec. 12, 2010
John Smith, OSU Head Coach
On Blake Rosholt's match
"You look at Blake's match, and he did a pretty good job. As far as the first takedown of the match, it was an important takedown. He pretty much out-wrestled him in the first period, but then it ended up 2-2. Obviously, the reversal in the third period is something you don't see very often out of heavyweights. He's got a big upside to him and he wrestled a wrestler that has been wrestling well this year and who is hot, coming off wrestling well in Las Vegas. It should give him a real boost. It should encourage him to do everything right now and make sure that he maintains his weight. So there is a great bit of discipline in keeping your weight up, believe it or not. It is not easy when you are training. So a good win for him."
On the mistakes that were made
"The only disappointment I had was that in five weights we didn't score any takedowns. From 141 to 174, outside of the one takedown from Jamal Parks, it is just not enough. It tells me that we have a lot of work ahead of us and we need to make sure that we continue to have the challenges that we need in the room."
On Chris Perry's work ethic
"I did a lot of work with him prior to the match. Chris has got a little bit of a habit and he is just kind of all over the place. He is getting ready two hours before the meet, warming up, and so he is burning calories and burning weight constantly. So I just sat him down, slowed him up a little bit, and I worked with him a little bit on his preparation. I think it helped tonight. It was a tough, tough match."
On Rosholt's win swinging momentum
"I think that after Blake, the only one that was motivated by it was Oliver. He goes out and gets two first-period cradles and puts the guy to his back. The guy had some serious flexibility to get out of them, but then he hooked him back up and gets the pin in the second period. In the end, I look at it as a good win, and a good win for several freshmen. I am not going to be too hard on their performances, but a few of them, it didn't cut it tonight."
On the importance of starting the dual off with a win
"I felt like it was real important. Last week, I felt like my preparation for the match was not as good as it needed to be, mentally before the match. I felt, this time being the first out, I was excited again. I was also excited last week. It's huge and you've got to lead the team off, especially in a big rivalry dual like that, starting out with a win is huge. It gets momentum moving and everything ends up flowing in the right direction."
On wrestling smarter against Erich Schmidtke than he did in his previous loss to him
"I worked on a lot of things. Not necessarily smarter, but I changed a lot of habits, bad habits I was creating for myself after I lost to him and I lost last week in Minnesota. I made some huge changes and even making them in one week has helped me. I feel like, defensively, for me to improve, I feel like I have to make those strides every day or every week."
On how excited was before the Bedlam match started
"To be honest with you, it was the same way it was in Minnesota too, because I got excited. I was like, 'Wow, I'm going to start it off.' First time I had ever started a dual off. I'd never had that experience. I think this time, I talked to some of our coaches just about controlling your emotions before a match. Just relax and don't hype it up; you can exhaust yourself. I felt like I handled it pretty well. I was calm. I felt like my conditioning was there. My legs were underneath me. It's fun. It's still fun. You have to stay focused, but I felt good."
On his win
"It's a big win for me, for sure. It's definitely my best one yet. It's only my third match to really come out and prove myself in a weight that I am a little bit small for."
On if he felt he could get the deciding reversal
"I got to my feet a few times and he put me back down. It got to the point where it felt like I could make my move and I did."
On what it felt like to hear the crowd after he won
"It was great. It was fun."
