A haircut and a new fighting attitude brought the Cyclone wrestling team their first conference win of the season when it defeated 15th-ranked Oklahoma 27-19 in front of 1,125 fans.

“I was sick of losing, so I needed a new change,” said Cyclone Nick Passolano, who is ranked sixth at 165 pounds. Passolano was upset by Nebraska’s Jacob Klein, dropping a 6-2 decision on Friday. Nebraska went on to win the meet in Lincoln, Neb., 20-17.

“I felt like I let the team down so I wanted to come in today and wrestle hard,” he said.

Passolano shaved his head Saturday. “When I shave my head, it means business — it means I’m going to really go out there and wrestle,” Passolano said, smiling.

Passolano opened Sunday’s match with a bang. He executed an inside trip against Sooner Wes Roberts but landed on his own back. In a moment, the Cyclone wrestler, who said he didn’t panic, arched back hard and put Roberts on his back to score the fall with 11 seconds left in the first period.

At 174 pounds, Ken Cook didn’t win but he gave the Cyclones more reason to cheer when he came within a point to defeating Oklahoma’s third-ranked Robbie Waller. Cook reversed Waller to put the match at the edge but couldn’t score the winning takedown, losing the match 7-5.

Austen Palmer won the 184-pound match by forfeit to put six points on the Cyclone scoreboard. Then six more were added when 197-pounder Woodley Milford, when being tilted to his back, forced his opponent Derrick Brown to pin himself.

“Woodley did an outstanding job,” ISU head coach Bobby Douglas said. “That was huge for us.”

Oklahoma took a forfeit at heavyweight and won at 125 pounds, but fourth-ranked Zach Roberson notched another six points for the Cyclones in his 133-pound match against Daniel Caruthers. After scoring seven near-fall points, Roberson finished by slipping in a bar arm and wrenching Caruthers over for a fall in the second period.

The most anticipated match of the afternoon, though, was Oklahoma’s. Fourth-ranked Aaron Holker had faced off against the Sooners’ third-ranked Teyon Ware during the National Duals and lost 3-1. This time, Holker again was within a takedown in the third period but lost a scramble. Ware ended up with another takedown, riding time and stalling penalties against Holker to win 9-3.

However, the Cyclones’ Nate Gallick clinched the meet when he scored four takedowns on his way to a 10-3 decision over Sooner Danny Rubenstein.

The Sooners won the final match with Rafael Maturino beating Nathan Meyer, 7-4 at 157 pounds.

The win improved the Cyclones’ overall record to 6-10 and ended a four-match losing streak in Big 12 competition. The loss against Nebraska two days earlier was the closest they had come to winning in the Big 12 before Oklahoma.

Douglas said he noticed a change in his team between the weekend’s back-to-back duals.

“At some point in the wrestling match, the wrestling stops and the fighting starts,” Douglas said. “We had to show more fight and more will to win. And we did today.”