Texas Sooner Life
by Travis West

The mission of this story is to provide the wrestling fans back home in Texas a little taste of what we're doing and also answers to some wrestling and academic questions that may be of some interest. Let me preface my story by saying a writer I am not. All of the freshmen live in the Jones Athletic Dorm, it literally is across the street from the football stadium, as well as The Barry Switzer Center where we lift weights. The wrestling room is about two hundred yards from our dorm and we have a cafeteria adjacent to our dorm. My room is on the third  of four floors and my roommate is Trey, also on the third floor is Jake, he rooms with Jerome Featherstone, I think Jerome is from Maryland and is a 157/165 lber. Sean and Will room together on the second floor. On the first floor Ben rooms with a Heavyweight from Washington, Brad Farmer and Ray rooms with my drill partner Cody Hibun from Georgia. The first floor seems to be where most of the activity is when we're aren't in class or wrestling; although the other night there was a heck of a football game going on in my hallway. The one hard thing to deal with is we share the dorm with athletes from other sports; baseball, gymnasts etc. and they don't have to run and lift at 6a as we do.

I asked everyone the same questions, so I will start with myself. I came in weighing 190 and still as of now weigh 182. The plan for me is to wrestle 174, but if needed I think 184, maybe even 197 by the time I'm a senior. So far the wrestling aspect is going better than what I thought it would. The biggest difference that I've noticed between high school and college is how tough these guys are on top and when they grab a hold of you, they got you...

The following are quotes from my teammates in reference to the questions" What weight do you see yourself this year and what do you project by your senior year".

Sean Glassel - 141 possibly higher weight class as an upperclassmen.
Jake Jackson- 165 expect to stay their whole career.
Ray Wilcox- 125 maybe 133 as a senior.
Trey Blakely- 133 whole career.
Will Rowe- 149 possibly 157 as a upperclassmen.
Ben Weyand- 197 whole career.

On the subject of OU as a school and what were their academic expectations, they had this to say. Jake says "it's not as hard as people make it out to be and the 10 hours mandatory study halls helps". Trey says "the work load is about what he expected". I also asked about their expectations of College Wrestling. Sean says "it's hard because there is a lot more competition". Ray's comment was "it's more intense and exciting". Last but not least Will says "I thought I would learn crazy new moves, change my style and learn totally new system of wrestling, but they teach us little things like stance, finishes and hand placement.

There has been some adversity already, we had a bout of some skin funk run through most of us and it kept us from practicing, there has been nagging injuries as well. I myself have pulled my hip flexor ad will miss some time and possibly early action. I think I can speak for all us by saying we made the right choice in coming to OU and are having a great time. I hope the interested find my attempt at writing informative and I would like to thank my teammates for their input.

Until next time,

Travis West
Oklahoma Sooner