2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 22, 2024

Dustin Plott

T-Mobile Center

Semifinals Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Dustin Plott from Oklahoma State from the 184-pound Championship. If you can get us started with comments about your match.

DUSTIN PLOTT: I wrestled pretty well, wrestled like myself. Grateful to get to go do that, competed hard, tough opponent, but was able to get the job done so I'm super grateful.

Q. Your trajectory over your career, just seeing you getting better and better and better. What would you rest your hat on of how you have continued to improve and put more pressure on guys and score more points?

DUSTIN PLOTT: I would say my skills and abilities in wrestling are all a gift from God, honestly. I never thought I would get to wrestle for Oklahoma State and here I am about to contend for a national title. So I'm super overwhelmed with gratefulness and I'm not going to say the road has been easy but it's been wonderful and I'm excited to get to compete tomorrow.

Q. You've wrestled Parker twice now. What can you take from those first two matches and apply to this one tomorrow?

DUSTIN PLOTT: Parker is a great opponent, gotten the better of me the first two times. Excited to get to wrestle him again. I didn't want the Big 12 to be my last match with him this year. Grateful for the opportunity to get to compete again. Just going to be myself, let everything hang out there and go compete.

Q. You talk about being yourself and that's resulted in a lot of bonus point wins this week. What has been clicking particularly offensively for you this week?

DUSTIN PLOTT: For me this week, I have really focused on my performance. The outcome is out of my control, and I said it earlier this week the match I have is the match I have in the national tournament. You can't look past any round because you have no idea who you're going to wrestle. So me being true to who I am, how I trained, letting the results take care of themselves and that's resulted in bonus points in matches and I'm super grateful for it.

Q. You have had a couple Of All-American horns but how does it feel to get to that next step?

DUSTIN PLOTT: Feels awesome to be in a championship match on Sunday. Put myself in some bad places last year, but thankfully I have a great support system, I truly have a great village, a wonderful family, group of friends, girlfriend, teammates, coaches. It takes everyone. Me being here tonight is a direct reflection of that.

Q. The fact that this is your third time wrestling Parker, is there things you have learned from the last two losses that can give you an advantage tomorrow night?

DUSTIN PLOTT: Of course anytime you feel someone and wrestle with them a couple times, you have a better idea of what they do, how they wrestle, and I'm excited to get to compete against him again.

Q. Something Daton Fix talked about is wearing the Championship orange. You guys have worn it basically every single match. What does it mean to you? You said you never thought you would get to represent Oklahoma State. What does it mean to you to get to represent Oklahoma State and represent them throughout the entire season with that orange singlet?

DUSTIN PLOTT: I'm not going to lie, getting to wear this singlet is surreal, getting to wrestle for Oklahoma State has been a huge blessing, and I can't thank God enough for everything the program and the university has done for me at Oklahoma State. I truly bleed orange and love my college, so getting to wear orange means a lot to me.

Q. Beginning of the year you're trying to learn a new weight class and mesh into it. Take me from the beginning of the year all the way to now making your first national title appearance.

DUSTIN PLOTT: Of course, going up a weight class, I had a bit of fear and anxiety, never wrestled this heavy in college, and I wasn't sure how I would feel and how the strength would feel. And as I competed more and more, I started to feel more and more like I could do this and those fears and worries those were lies and I really leaned on my faith to help me go to war with the negative thoughts and all the bad stuff that tries to come in.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.