St. Louis, Mo. - Oklahoma State is now two days away from winning its third consecutive NCAA team title. The Cowboys distances themselves from the rest of the pack on Thursday evening at the Savvis Center by placing eight of their nine qualifiers in the quarterfinals.    The Cowboys now have 39.5 team points, 11 points ahead of second-place Minnesota.    Iowa State (27.0), Michigan (26.5) and Oklahoma (26.5) have the next second-highest number of quarterfinalists with five each.    True freshman Coleman Scott (125 lbs.) led the charge for the Cowboys, coming out on top of a 4-3 decision against All-American Bobbe Lowe of Minnesota to advance. Scott relied on a riding time point to win the match.    Scott's win then snowballed another strong round for the Cowboys, who did not lose a single match in Thursday evening's session. That includes Kevin Ward (157), who won his only consolation bout as well, leaving Oklahoma State with nine wrestlers still alive in the tournament.    The win that set up one of the more intriguing matchups of this tournament was by Steve Mocco (285), who will next face Iowa's Matt Fields in the quarterfinals. Mocco transferred from Iowa this off-season to rival Oklahoma State in a move that has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Hawkeye fans.    Oklahoma State also took one more step towards winning the title when Illinois, expected to be a contender for the title this year, took a major hit as 133-pound All-American Mark Jayne was defeated 14-11 by Drew Headlee of Pittsburgh. The match was decided in the second period as Headlee scored an escape, takedown and three nearfall points to take a 9-3 lead.    Also losing was fourth-seeded Scott Barker of Oregon at 197 lbs. Barker was downed by unseeded Morgan Horner of Lock Haven, 6-4. Horner scored a takedown and nearfall points in the second period to come away with the victory.    Another major upset came at 174 lbs. as freshman Jake Herbert of Northwestern was downed by Stanford's Imad Kharbush 16-7. Kharbush led 9-2 after the first period on numerous takedowns and coasted the rest of the way for the win.    Unseeded Matt Pell of Missouri ignited the Savvis Center crowd with a 7-6 second round win over All-American Paul Bradley of Iowa. Late in the match, Bradley scored a takedown to take a 6-5 lead, but Pell had riding time, which essentially tied the score.    Pell then scored an escape with only three seconds remaining in the match to earn the victory.    Other unseeded wrestlers in the quarterfinals are Chad Mendes of Cal Poly (133) and Philip Davis of Penn State (197).    Possibly the most surprising conference is the Southern Conference, which only sends 13 wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament. Of those 13 wrestlers, however, four have reached the semifinals.    Tennessee-Chattanooga, the Southern Conference champion, will have Michael Keefe (141) and Jon Sioredas (165) competing in tomorrow morning's quarterfinals. The other Southern Conference representatives in the quarterfinals are Travis Piccard of The Citadel (157) and Daren Burns of North Carolina-Greensboro (197).      Notes: The Savvis Center filled nicely for a Thursday with the first session drawing 15,409 fans and the second session drawing 15.931 fans… North Carolina was given an official warning for questioning the referee…