COLUMBIA, Mo. - For decades, Stillwater, Okla. was the capital of college wrestling.
Oklahoma State, known as Oklahoma A&M for its first 19 team titles, possesses 34 championships in the sport's 90-year NCAA history, the most by any school in a single collegiate team sport.
Or, as Missouri head coach Brian Smith put it: "Their arena is named after the wrestling coach, and then the basketball coach."
Smith said if the Tigers, No. 3 nationally and undefeated at 15-0, ever catch the No. 5 Cowboys (8-1), it won't ever be in his lifetime, but he's proud of how much ground his program has made up considering the difference between the two programs when he took over in 1998.
John Smith (no relation) took over the Oklahoma State job seven years before Brian Smith started at Missouri. John was already a two-time NCAA champion at OSU and a two-time Olympic gold medal winner and has guided the Cowboys to five team titles, including four in a row from 2003-06. As Big 12 conference opponents, Brian Smith trained his sights on Oklahoma State as the program to beat, not just in the conference but nationally.
"It took me until 2012 to get there, and then we left the conference, but we beat them in that last year," Smith said. "We had beat them in dual meets in I think 2004, and we kept closing that gap. Now every year the dual meets are getting more and more competitive, back-and-forth, and hopefully we can get them this year because there aren't too many teams out there that have beaten Oklahoma State as many times as us except Iowa and a few other schools. That's something we take pride in, that when we step on the mat with them, it's going to be a battle."
It will be a tall task. Winning at Gallagher-Iba is not something the Tigers are accustomed to. But they'll have a shot when the first match starts at 7 p.m. in Stillwater.
Lewis leading the way
Daniel Lewis has been Missouri's best wrestler this year. Ranked No. 4 by InterMat at 174 and wrestling up a weight class, he's been unflappable on the mat, posting a 23-0 record, 15-0 in duals, and has won 14 of those matches by fall, leading to a team-high 78 dual points on the season.
Those results are impressive, and surprising, unless you spend a lot of time on the fourth floor of the Hearnes Center, where Lewis's success has sneaked up on exactly nobody.
"His goal is to win a national title," Smith said. "And he's not sitting back and saying, 'Oh, I'm good enough at this point.' He keeps growing as a wrestler. So that's why it's not surprising to me. He's developing in the room."
Lewis is confident and self-assured, not cocky, when he aid he couldn't have seen this season turning out any other way than it has so far, that the results so far have validated his efforts and assured him he's doing the right things.
"I've always been pretty confident as a wrestler," Lewis said. "And every year I mature and get a little bit more confident and it makes my wrestling that much sharper, that much better. Maturity, the conditioning that we do, and the super-tough practice room all ties in to what I believe I that I can do. So I just go out there and get it done."
Which, more often than not, means pinning his opponent, as fast as 34 seconds into a match this season. When the Tigers need bonus points, he's the guy to go do it, notching major decisions against ranked opponents in Missouri's closest dual wins, against Illinois and Virginia.
Lewis is doing it against wrestlers that have had a lot more time to get used to the added strength that comes with the jump from 165 to 174. Bonus points help the momentum and sets an example for his teammates, too. Plus the fans love them.
"I just like to tear people up," he said with a smile. "I mean, a pin is the ultimate goal, right? It awards the most points. I don't know why I'm so good at it, I really don't know, it's just always something I've done well in, and getting in there, getting falls, getting off the mat, makes me feel good. So that's probably why I keep doing it."
His opponent today, InterMat No. 14 Jacobe Smith, is someone Lewis faced during the summer in his first-ever match at 174 in a freestyle tournament (college wrestling is folkstyle). Lewis was ahead 9-0, a point away from a tech fall, and 45 seconds from ending the match but let Smith back into it and eventually lost. Lewis is looking forward to getting another chance at that under folkstyle rules, where he's more comfortable, and now that he's more comfortable at 174.
But Lewis isn't the only wrestler with a rematch today.
Leeth's rise
Grant Leeth's season coming off of two knee injuries has been a complete success. He seems to add a win against a ranked opponent on a weekly basis, and has climbed to No. 3 in InterMat's 149 rankings. He's 16-2, 13-0 in duals, and one of those losses was to Boo Lewallen in the Lindenwood Open.
"I owe that guy one," Leeth said. "Ready to get that one back.
Lewallen is No. 15 in InterMat's rankings.
Leeth said he hasn't really reflected on everything he's done so far this season because it's far from over, and that he's slowly worked his way back into getting used to winning and being near the top of his game.
Instead, as his rankings have risen, Leeth has felt the pressure of winning leave his shoulders.
"Every big match I get those emotions and that excitement again, because it had been so long," Leeth said. "It's weird. I was talking to my roommates about it, like, the higher I've climbed in the rankings and the better I've done, the less pressure I've felt. Because at first I felt like I had to prove to everybody that I could still do well, and now that part's done. Now I've just got to go take care of business."