We have been waiting a long, patient time for someone to come along that could challenge Cael Sanderson & the Nittany Lions of Penn State, and brother HERE WE ARE. David Taylor loses hardly anyone as he brings back a team that if there has ever been one to challenge Penn State, THIS IS IT.
For the last 25 years I have seen fans fixate over the idea of finding the next Cael Sanderson way harder and way more obsessed than any Chess fan dare ever search for Bobby Fischer. I always thought that going undefeated at the NCAA DI level all four (I guess five now) years of competition was 1 in a 1,000,000,000. Plain impossible. That what Sanderson did in 2002, would never be accomplished again.
Low and behold, the Cowboys of Oklahoma State have TWO on their team, at the SAME TIME, both still legitimately eligible for that accomplishment! I mean there's still a long way to go, competition is as fierce as it has ever been and of course the elephant in the room will always be health. It still blows my mind to think that it's possible though.
Gone....
I really wish I knew what the story was on Richard Figueroa. You don't win an NCAA DI title in 2024 and then regress that much. Not without something causing it. I'd love to learn that he was going to spend a season in the NAIA or NCAA DII. Some might see it as beneath him or unfair to those already in those Divisions. I just hate negative endings, I guess. I never accept them well.
Konnor Doucet, a three-time NCAA DI qualifier had a great final year for the cowboys. A BIG 12 runner-up, he was 4th in the DI nation.
Move aside Kotter, we have a lot to welcome back....
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| 125 Troy Spratley |
2nd-2nd-1st in the BIG 12 & 2nd-5th in the DI nation, Troy Spratley has thus far put together one heck of a career as he'll be a contender for the NCAA Division I title in 2027.
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| 125 Rocklin Zinkin |
Troy Spratley is going to be a very hard guy to replace after his eligibility runs out in March. Nonetheless, Okie State already has very strong replacement lined up in Rocklin Zinkin.
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| 133 Jax Forrest or Ronnie Ramirez |
19-0 on the year, A BIG 12 champion & an NCAA DI champion, it almost seems made up and surreal that Jax Forrest is this good, this soon. It's not like he just won either. These weren't sneak by, squeak by 1 or 2 point matches. He was tech-falling an NCAA DI finalist a month into competing at the highest level of collegiate wrestling. Wrestling fans have been hoping, begging, praying, and pleading for another four-time undefeated NCAA DI champion, and they might have found one.
What really astonishes me about Oklahoma State is how thus far they've been able to keep their outstanding talent in the reserves. I think sooner or later it'll begin to catch up with them, and they'll lose their grand backups to teams that could really use them. I mean let's be real, Ronnie Ramirez is All-American material in his own right. A guy that is a strong candidate to be top 8 in the nation isn't going to spend his entire career #2 on his own team. Among the Californian's wins, Zach Redding & Julian Farber.
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| 141 Tagen Jamison Or Cael Hughes |
Looking very forward to this wrestle-off. Tagen Jamison did not have the '25-'26 that he wanted as a reserve at 149. Now that he's back at 141, he's looking to have at least as good if not better of a showing than he did in 2025, when he finished the year one match shy of being an All-American. Hughes didn't wrestle last season, but at 133 in 2025, he had wins over Sean Spidle, Kai Orine & Zan Fugitt.
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| 133 & 141 The Raney Brothers |
Pirata aka Britt Malinsky has informed me more than once that this Oklahoma State 2026-2027 recruiting class is something really special & it's easy to see why he's saying that. As if Oklahoma State isn't already loaded enough as it is at 133 & 141, they add in Jaydyn & Jordyn Raney.
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| 149 Sergio Vega |
At 141 last year, going 24-0, Sergio Vega fit the description of being the next Cael Sanderson to a T winning BIG 12 & NCAA DI titles. Coming in as a true freshman, keeping Jesse Mendez from his third title, and having his way with four-time DI All-American Brock Hardy on several occasions. Like Forrest, he's in a position to seriously contemplate the idea that he might go undefeated the rest of his career. With that said, 141 to 149 is often one of the biggest jumps in collegiate wrestling. Vega relied on a very strong defense last year. Using his power & strength to overcome the offensive attacks & strategies of his opponents. Is that going to work up 8 lbs of muscle? When Shayne Van Ness is deep in on a double, is Vega going to be able to hip in & prevent him from finishing? When Caleb Henson has a leg up in the air, is Vega going to be able to keep him from turning it into three? Technique, technique, technique, strength may get treated like a background character, when it actually plays a very significant supporting role.
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| 157 Landon Robideau |
Can you imagine going 21-2 as a true freshman, making the BIG 12 finals & winning an NCAA DI title, & yet you get overlooked & undermentioned because two of your teammates were also true freshmen that went undefeated last year? The Wrestling community makes me shake my head sometimes. By the time this guy's career is done, he'll be carrying enough Gold to make a leprechaun envious, but he'll be underhyped & underappreciated because Heaven forbid he lost in a tiebreaker to the 2025 NCAA DI champion.
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| 165 Dee Lockett OR Casey Swiderski OR Kody Routledge |
Three potential All-Americans all on the same team, all at the same weight? S.O.G. When I said that I was shocked by how much talent Oklahoma State has managed to hold on to, I meant it. There are teams heading into 2026-2027 that would kill for a 165 lbs'er this talented & Oklahoma State will be sitting two of them. Again, Damn.
It feels funny to say this, honestly out of character for me, but I felt bad for Dee Lockett at the end of 2026 last year. Here's a guy that made the BIG 12 finals as a freshman & because of a hiccup (which has happened to 100's... literally 100's of freshmen of the years) he has to take his fair share of criticism from a group of fans who now hold the standards to the heights that Forrest & Vega have set them. Furthermore, it gets HARDER this season, as I keep in mind Lockett has a win over two-time NCAA DI finalist Mikey Caliendo.
Casey Swiderski is the kind of guy that JT1Wrestle loves to write about. He came to Oklahoma State with a lot of the townsfolk doubting him and his abilities. Some saying that he wasn't good enough to wear the orange and black. I love seeing the cynical and pessimistic silenced. Swiderski won a BIG 12 title & picked up an 8th place finish in the DI nation. This was at 149 though, and I'll be damned if I'm not sipping a bit of hypocritical tea myself. I'm not doubting him or his capabilities, but I am asking what a Casey Swiderski looks like competing at 165 lbs. I think that's a fair question to ask.
Kody Routledge? We haven't' seen a lot out of him yet, but wins over Peyten Keller & Brady Woodcock give preview.
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| 174 Lorenzo Norman Or Alex Facundo Or Zack Ryder |
And we have the exact same situation at 174 that we have at 165. Three extremely talented, All-American potential candidates & only one of them is going to be varsity this year.
Lorenzo Norman comes to Stillwater from Stanford, one of the best at 174 lbs yet to be an All-American.
Alex Facundo was a BIG 12 runner-up this past season.
Zack Ryder competing at 184 lbs, earned 8th place in the DI nation last year.
David Taylor really needs to promote & market these wrestle-offs. Take nothing away from other programs, but honestly these will be just as good as many of the duals. I'd do some distribution, and I'd get a crowd for these. Wrestling this good should not happen behind closed doors.
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| 184 Bennett Berge |
4th in the DI nation 2024, Bennett Berge comes to Oklahoma State from South Dakota State looking to reclaim the All-American honor he earned in Y1 of varsity wrestling. 4th-3rd-5th in the BIG 12, he'll look to win a conference title this season as well.
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| 197 Cody Merrill |
Another sensational freshman from last season. Cody Merill went 21-5 on the year, taking 3rd at the BIG 12's & 2nd in the DI nation. Producing this type of talent, you'd think more schools in California would be interested in having it. Aaron La Farge says that UCLA would have one Hell of a team if they'd take the 0.001% of the budget it would take to field one. With a guy like Merrill, who could argue that?
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| HWT Dreshaun Ross |
Has yet to wrestle an NCAA DI match & already Cradlezone thinks he's going to be the 2027 NCAA DI national champion. Not that farfetched considering the Cowboys recent track record with true freshmen!!
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