RENO, Nev. – After a year off from the Reno Tournament of Champions, Oklahoma State returned to stake its claim inside the Reno Events Center.

The second-ranked Cowboys crowned five champions with Jon Morrison (125), Jordan Oliver (133), Jamal Parks (149), Chris Perry (184) and Blake Rosholt (197). Rosholt wrestling unattached, hammered teammate Cayle Byers, 6-0, in the finals.

Wyoming, the 2010 Reno TOC champions, finished second with Oregon State, Binghamton and Michigan State rounding out the top five in the 20-team field. Oklahoma State won the 2009 title by 69 points. The margin in 2011 was 44 ½ after totaling 166 to Wyoming’s 115 ½.

“It was a tough day from the standpoint of matches that were rolling by really quick,” said Oklahoma State coach John Smith. “There’s a little attitude difference here and I do think we showed some conditioning issues at times. We can improve there. But overall I’m pretty pleased with where we are right now. We can take a lot of positives from today. We won some tough matches.”

Other individual champions included Cal Poly’s Boris Novachkov (141) and Ryan DesRoches (174), Boise State’s George Ivanov (157), Wyoming’s Shane Onufer (165) and Oregon State’s Clayton Jack (285). 

“I’m not sure if we wrestled our best we beat Oklahoma State today,” said Wyoming coach Mark Branch, a four-time All-American and former assistant coach at Oklahoma State. “They are wrestling well. But there are some matches we’d like to have back. 

“It is a positive for our program to look at some of the teams we are finishing in front of and know that we are doing the right things. But we still have a lot of work to do.”

Oliver, named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler, moved his win streak to 34 with a devastating performance that included five first-period pins. The Cowboy junior wrestled a total of 6:45, ending every bout with an abusive cross-face cradle.

“First things first, I’m going out and getting takedowns,” said Oliver. “I’m looking for turns and stuff and it just there for me right now. (The cradle) is something I’ve used since junior high; it’s carried with me through high school and into college. I’ve been working different techniques to get to it, different finishes. If it’s there I’m going to take it.”

Sporting new white shoes, Oliver never made it out of the first period on Sunday.

“I brought them out especially for Reno,” smiled Oliver, now 8-0 with eight pins this season.

Two weight classes – 125 and 197 – featured Oklahoma State teammates. A third, 285, also had OSU teammates – Oregon State – where Clayton Jack and Chad Hanke were supposed to meet for the title. Hanke, a runner-up at the 2011 U.S. World Team Trials at 211.5 pounds who is taking an Olympic redshirt year this season, knocked off top-seeded Alan Gelogaev of Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals and Arizona State’s Levi Cooper in the semifinals. The final never happened, however, as Jack was given the title without a match.

In the title bout at 125, Morrison beat Ladd Rupp, 4-1. It avenged a November loss in the finals of the Central Missouri Open.

Parks, an All-American as a junior, beat Air Force’s Cole VonOhlen in sudden victory overtime, 5-3, at 149 pounds. Both were ranked inside the top five entering the day.

Onufer used a third-period reversal to beat Oklahoma State’s Dallas Bailey, 7-4, in the 165-pound final. Last season, Bailey used a 5-pointer late to beat Onufer in a dual meeting in Stillwater.

In that same dual a year ago, LeBlanc beat Perry, 4-3. The two met again in Sunday’s 184-pound final with Perry winning a double overtime marathon with an escape in the final five seconds of the second set of tiebreakers.

The two Cowboys – OSU and Wyoming – will meet again Jan. 1 in Laramie.

On his way to the Las Vegas Invitational title earlier this month, Michael Mangrum of Oregon State beat Novachkov in the semifinals. Novachkov, an NCAA finalist in 2011,also had a victory over Mangrum earlier this season. The third meeting needed overtime and finished in dramatic style when the Bulgarian caught Mangrum during a scramble in the second tiebreaker to score a fall.

DesRoches gave the Mustangs their second title of the day, beating Nick Purdue of Ohio at 174 pounds.

Two-time Division II All-American George Ivanov beat Oklahoma State’s Albert White and Oregon State’s RJ Pena on his way to the 157-pound finals where he faced Binghamton All-American Justin Lister. Trailing 3-0 in the final period, Ivanov, now a junior at Boise State, came out of a scramble with five points and a 5-3 victory.

“I feel like I’m finally getting to my level,” said Ivanov. “There are a lot of people who feel that Division II guys aren’t very good. They come at you 100 percent in the beginning so it’s hard to prove yourself. I’m starting to feel more comfortable against these guys.

“(Lister) got that first takedown so I had to chase the rest of the match. The second scramble, I just had to open up, and when I do that I feel like I am better than most guys in those situations.”

Like Novachkov, Ivanov is a native Bulgarian.

Reno TOC
Championship Finals

125-Jon Morrison (Oklahoma State) dec Ladd Rupp (Oklahoma State), 4-1

133-Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State) pin Zach Zehner (Wyoming), 2:32

141-Boris Novachkov (Cal Poly) pin Michael Mangrum (Oregon State), 

149-Jamal Parks (Oklahoma State) dec Cole VonOhlen (Air Force), 5-3 SV

157-George Ivanov (Boise State) dec Justin Lister (Binghamton), 5-3

165-Shane Onufer (Wyoming) dec Dallas Bailey (Oklahoma State), 7-4

174-Ryan DesRoches (Cal Poly) dec Nick Purdue (Ohio), 

184-Chris Perry (Oklahoma State) dec Joe LeBlanc (Wyoming), 3-2 2tb

197-Blake Rosholt (Oklahoma State) dec Cale Byers (Oklahoma State), 6-0

285-Clayton Jack (Oregon State) dec Chad Hanke (Oklahoma State), by med fft