Edmond North boys wrestling team determined to put finishing touches on dominant season with title

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA - Andrew Schineider almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

Even though the Edmond North wrestling coach had watched his team rack up win after win at the 6A West Regional, when he heard the final numbers, he was still kind of in shock. The Huskies had set a new Oklahoma state record with 386 total points.

And out of the 14 championship matches that were held Saturday at Westmoore, North won 13 of them.

“I think it'll take it a while to sink in, how great of a performance this really was,” Schineider said. “We knew we had the potential to do that on paper, but we have got to go out on the mat and do it.”

Not only did North set a record, the gap between them and second-place Sand Springs was 182 points. It was the definition of a dominant performance.

Yet, that is an encapsulation of what the 2023-24 campaign has been like for the Huskies. They finished the regular season with a 15-1 record.

Their only defeat was a 32-31 thriller against Wyoming Seminary College Prep (Pa.) at the 2023 National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dual Classic. The only other team to even come within 15 points was Poway High (Calif.) in the semifinals of the NWHOFD.

However, as far as teams that reside inside Oklahoma, it has been one beatdown after another. Some of their highlights include beating No. 1 Tuttle (4A) 59-6, No. 8 Yukon 54-15, No. 2 Bixby 51-9 and No. 4 Broken Arrow 54-9.

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Yet, North’s most satisfying win may have come when they knocked off No. 3 Stillwater, 51-13, in the semifinals of dual state. It was the Pioneers who beat the Huskies in last year’s state championship tournament and at dual state, which was the last time they lost to a team from Oklahoma.

It was those defeats that have helped drive Edmond North throughout this year’s campaign.

“Last year, we took second at dual state and we won that this year. Last year, we took second at the state tournament when we lost by a point,” Schineider said. “So that point has been a big focus of these guys and not so much me.

"I don't push it as a coach and remind them of that. They do that to each other and it's been that way through spring and summer wrestling last year all the way through to this season.”

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Along with a desire to win, the Huskies also have the most complete and talented lineup in the state. Several of them have committed or signed to wrestle at Division I schools.

That includes Hunter Hollingsworth and Jude Randall, who have signed with the University of Oklahoma.

According to North’s 215-pounder Oscar Williams, each of them sets a high standard for themselves and their teammate.

“It's awesome because there's 14 other guys that want the same goal as you,” said Williams, who is heading to Maryland. “I don't have any biological brothers, but I've allowed myself to have these brothers that are on my team and we're always just pushing each other and striving to get better.

"You look over, if you're messing around and practicing, you look over and your teammates are going hard. It makes you feel a little guilty and you want to just go as hard as them and not let them outwork you. So I think that competitiveness just keeps me going.”

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With 14 state qualifiers, Edmond North is the prohibitive favorite to win the 6A boys' state championship. Yet, Schineider knows that titles are not won on paper.

Starting Thursday at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City, the Huskies have to go do it on the mat if they do not want their entire year to go for naught.

“We left there last year losing by a point. So, I think they'll be very motivated too, and they know the season's not over,” Schineider said. “Regional title and these records that they've broken here, I don't want to say don't mean anything, but obviously the pinnacle and the goal is (this) weekend.

"And they all know that.”

State tournament action for classes 6A-2A begins Thursday with the first round. The championship matches are set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the State Fair Arena.

-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK