The ISU wrestling team struggled to find many wins Sunday in its conference dual against Oklahoma. In fact, the Cyclones won just 3-of-10 matches throughout the day.

But finding a win wasn’t an issue for heavyweight Quean Smith.

“I just went out and wrestled,” Smith said. “I saw [Kyven Gadson’s] win and I just thought ‘Okay, time to get another win.’ And that’s what I did.”

Smith jumped out to a quick start, taking a 9-2 lead after the first period, something that isn’t seen often from the redshirt freshman.

“I knew that he was going to take some shots, so when he did, I just tried to drop my weight and counter them,” Smith said.

Smith breezed through the final two periods to seal the win against Oklahoma’s Ross Larson 13-2, bringing his season record to 5-10.

And while his record isn’t outstanding, many people feel like Smith may have reached a turning point in his season.

“My confidence has been down the last couple of weeks,” Smith said. “I was pretty excited when I beat the kid. I mean, I don’t care about the rankings, but I needed my confidence to come before I could get the nervousness away.”

Smith’s performance even caught the eye of ISU coach Kevin Jackson, who was quite impressed.

“Larson had a pretty good record coming into the match, and coming back close to his home, I’m sure he wanted to win pretty bad,” Jackson said. “But tonight I think Quean really put it together and wrestled like I think he can. He competed like he is supposed to, and he showed a lot of athletic ability.

“He gave more effort in this match than he has all year, in my opinion. It’s a huge win for his confidence, and shows what he can do in the future.”