Published: December 31, 2008 06:17 pm         

Rosholt enjoying family business

After 17 matches, Oklahoma State’s No. 1 Jared Rosholt is undefeated with nine pins, a technical fall and two major decisions, and recently landed his first Big 12 Wrestler of the Week award of his career.

The conference gave the heavyweight junior the honor on Dec. 22 after he pinned Cal Poly’s Kelan Bragg in 1:38 in a dual meet and proceeded to flatten the rest of the competition at the Reno Tournament of Champions.

In Reno, Rosholt defeated two ranked opponents to claim the heavyweight title for the tourney. He beat No. 7 Mitch Monteiro of Cal State-Bakersfield by a 13-5 major decision before edging Duke’s 15th-ranked Konrad Dudziak, 5-4, in the championship bout.

Considering also his 8-4 victory against Wisconsin’s No. 3 Kyle Massey at the NWCA All-Star Classic earlier this season, Rosholt is 4-0 against ranked opponents, including a 3-0 mark against top-seven wrestlers. The Big 12 award seems quite well-earned.

“It’s a big honor to be recognized as Big 12 Wrestler of the Week, and you should want to get it every week,” OSU coach John Smith said. “I’d like to see him get it four or five weeks in a row and get it at the end.”

Rosholt is involved in the “family business” at OSU. He’s the second of four Cowboy wrestlers, starting with his brother Jake Rosholt, who was a 2003 and ’05 NCAA individual champion who has since competed in mixed martial arts in World Extreme Cagefighting.

The O-State tradition continues with redshirt freshman Adam Rosholt, new to the team at 184 pounds, and the Rosholt caboose will be coming in next year with Blake Rosholt, who will graduate from Ponca City High in a few months and recently signed to compete for the Cowboys in 2009.

“They’re great competitors,” Smith said. “When you get them focused, they’re everything you want. Sometimes that’s the challenge, getting them to focus, but it’s been a little bit of a journey and a little different for Jared, moving up to heavyweight and having to build into that.

“It’s been a real commitment on his part. When it’s time to wrestle, most of the time — if not all the time — (Rosholts) are ready to lay it out there on the mat. It’s going to be nice to have Blake on the team next year.”

Another sibling had success in a different sport — Jesyca Rosholt was a standout player for the O-State soccer team and helped lead the Cowgirls to the NCAA Tournament in 2006. Jared has enjoyed the family experience.

“Coming here as a freshman when Jake was a senior, it was neat to see him and watch him succeed and be in the room to see what he had to do and what he did to become the champion that he was,” Jared said.

“Now, I see how much fun it is to have a younger brother on the team, with my brother Adam here, and I really look forward to Blake being here, too. To have three of us on the same team will be pretty neat.”

The No. 13 Cowboys face seventh-ranked Minnesota at 2 p.m. today in Minneapolis.

     

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