On October 25th, the Tigers held their annual Black vs. Gold scrimmage. The night featured 17 matches, some went all three periods, some were short, and a few went into overtime. After the matches, Head Coach Brian Smith had one word to describe the team’s performance, “pleased”, while also mentioning the fan turnout when he jokingly said, “love the turnout, a lot of people showed up. They probably know that whoever made the schedule, we’re not back home till January”.
Just like any sport, the actual game is always different from practice, so Coach Smith likes using Black and Gold as just an opportunity for a live look, “You know, you can wrestle in the practice room all day, and you don’t have that same feel, but when you come out, and especially, we had a good crowd tonight, a lot of people here, the music, the announcers, the referees, the clock. You know, we use stop watches in the practice room. Here it’s, it’s a whole different feel, and that’s what, that was the purpose of it, to give them that match feel, wearing your singlets,” he told reporters after the event.
The night for Smith was exactly that as he would later say, “This? I don’t even worry about this is just to get people to see it, get them to wrestle on the floor in Hearns. Have referees. I already know who my lineup is. This can change some things for the tiger style invite, because we can wrestle more guys,” when asked about how this affects the lineup.
After watching the 125 pounders in Gage Walker, Mack Mauger, Luqman Masud, and Jake Crapps, he said, “I liked the way they scrapped tonight.” Smith highlighted Walker specifically out of the 125 group when he said, “Gage Walker is going to be a good one. I mean, he’s scoring a lot of points, gets that single. I was telling my trainer he’s like a dog on a bone getting to that single.” Gage Walker went 2-0 on the day, with a 6-1 win in his first match, and then a 13-4 victory in his second match, getting three takedowns for himself as well.
Another wrestler that impressed today was redshirt freshman Carter McCallister, “Really like Carter McAllister, how he stepped up with Gioffre, Gioffre is fine. It’s hard wrestling your teammate, but I really like Carter the way he stepped up and scrapped that match,” Smith said. The redshirt got two matches in, winning his first one in exciting fashion after getting a late escape and then a last second takedown to win 12-11, and then lost his second match to Gioffre in overtime after getting there on another last second takedown.
While it was a competitive night between some teammates, three guys were able to show their dominance through tech falls, all three coming in the final matches with Cam Steed (21-6), Keegan O’Toole (18-2), and Seth Nitzel (17-2) all showing out for the fans.
On the other side of what looked good for the Tigers, a couple of guys did go down with injuries and when asked about whether the team will be fully healthy for the dual against Northern Colorado, Smith simply said that the team would not be fully healthy for their dual against Northern Colorado on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.