Fargo Shows How Bright the Future of Cowboy Wrestling Is

For the most part, I was able to unplug while on vacation this past week, but one thing I couldn’t stop checking for updates on was how future Cowboy wrestlers were doing at Junior Nationals.

More commonly referred to as Fargo, thousands of high school wrestlers from around the country met in the Fargodome in North Dakota to compete. The week exemplified just how bright the future of Oklahoma State wrestling could be, as three Class of 2026 commits won their brackets and another clinched his spot on the senior world team. It is hard to imagine this week going much better than it did for the Pokes.

The headliner was clearly Jax Forrest, going into his senior year of high school, beating former world champion Vito Arujau in their delayed best-of-three series for the 61 kg spot on the United States World Team. Forrest beat Arujau 2-0, meaning the future Cowboy will go to Croatia in September to wrestle grown men for a shot at a world title.

As for the junior nationals portion of the weekend, a pair of future Pokes met in the finals of a 138-pound bracket that featured 165 wrestlers.

OSU commit Jordyn Raney beat OSU commit Kellen Wolbert in a 19-14 slugfest in the final. David Taylor preaches the constant scoring of points, something a 19-14 score line falls right in line with.

This was Raney’s first tournament back after a knee injury at the U17 World Championships held him out of action. Out of Kentucky, Raney is the No. 5 recruit on Flo’s big board for the 2026 class. He and his twin brother, Jayden (No. 6), committed to OSU in mid-May. Jayden didn’t compete at Fargo because he is in Hungary for a Greco UWW Ranking Series event.

Impressively, Jordyn’s Fargo week in North Dakota didn’t end with that freestyle title. After winning that 138-pound freestyle bracket he hopped into the 144-pound Greco bracket. As of writing, he is into the semifinals.

Wolbert is ranked 36th on Flo’s big board for the class. Out of Wisconsin, he committed to OSU in December over a top four that also included Lehigh, Missouri and Michigan.

The Cowboys had the top college heavyweight on its roster this year in Wyatt Hendrickson, and Taylor also has the top high school heavyweight pledged in his recruiting class.

Dreshaun Ross rolled to a Fargo title. He didn’t give up a point until the final, outscoring his first five opponents a combined 53-0.

In that final Ross matched up with Coby Merrill, with Ross winning 3-2. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because his brother, Cody Merrill, is on Oklahoma State’s roster and is expected to compete for the 197-pound spot in the Cowboys’ lineup this year. Coby recently committed to wrestle at Iowa State, meaning he and Ross could have a fun conference rivalry for years to come.

Ross is the No. 4 wrestler on Flo’s big board for the class. Out of Iowa, Ross is also a stud football prospect with Rivals listing him as a four-star linebacker. He had football offers to compete at Iowa, Kansas State, Michigan, Nebraska and others.

OSU also had a winner in the 120-pound bracket in Rocklin Zinkin. The No. 100 prospect on Flo’s big board (probably going to be flying up that), Zinkin wrestled seven times on his way to a titled and outscored his opponents a combined 82-16. He won his championship bout via an 11-0 tech.

Zinkin committed to Taylor and the Cowboys in September after also taking visits to Michigan, NC State and Virginia Tech.

Since taking over, Taylor has stacked capsules of excitement surrounding the program — whether that be an excellent debut season capped off with a pair of individual national champs, a stellar transfer portal class entering the fold early this offseason or this group of 2026 pledges that keeps showing out on national stages. It’s starting to look like the good ole days of Cowboy wrestling are back.