Unwrapping the Biggest Gifts From Oklahoma State Athletics in 2025

Santa won’t slide down the chimney with a bowl victory this week, but he did squeeze a few national championships across three sports in his bag this year.

Plus, there’s reason to believe some winter sports have more hardware coming next Christmas after strong starts.

Here’s a list of gifts Cowboy fans got this year before we look ahead to (spoiler alert) what looks like an incredible 2026 in Stillwater.

Wyatt Hendrickson, National Champion

Gift vibe: This was perhaps the largest present this year, one so big it didn’t fit under the tree. You probably worried that it wouldn’t live up to your imagination, but it has.

Hendrickson beat Olympic gold medalist Gable Stevenson 5-4 in the NCAA Championship heavyweight final to secure a national championship that reverberated around the country.

Hendrickson’s win went viral, but quickly turned into the gift that keeps giving as he later won the Hodge Trophy, given to the nation’s top wrestler.

He continues to represent the Cowboys well on and off the mat despite exhausting his collegiate eligibility last season.

Dean Hamiti, David Taylor Make It Official, OSU Is Back

Gift vibe: This is a bit of a multi-part gift. The kind where some relative stops you halfway through unwrapping and says “oh not that one, open this first.”

Speaking of first, Hamiti was the first Cowboy to win an individual national championship since 2021, beating Hendrickson to the punch by minutes. His match was also drama-filled as he beat two-time champion Keegan O’Toole to avenge his only loss of the season.

Taylor’s first season saw the Cowboys finish third for the first time since 2021. OSU also broke attendance records and threatened to break a few scoring records.

Taylor continues to recruit top high school prospects and transfers at a blistering pace, and the Cowboys are 7-1 with the only blemish a 2-point loss to Iowa.

Kicking Off the Eric Morris Era

Gift vibe: This gift was either obviously hastily wrapped, perhaps in front of you. Perhaps it was just tossed to you in a Walmart sack, not because it isn’t good, but because it showed up just in time for the holidays.

In what might be one of the craziest coaching carousels ever, Oklahoma State emerged early with a guy donors and national media both love.

An already huge win for Chad Weiberg and the Cowboys looked even better after Morris’ introduction. Not everyone can casually name-drop three starting NFL quarterbacks, including Patrick Mahomes.

Morris’ background provides a real reason to believe in OSU’s offense again but should put a healthy amount of pressure on the quarterback next season.

It’s still too early to know what the team will look like, but there’s every reason to believe OSU’s road back to contender status is shorter than you might think.

Two Team National Championships

Gift vibe: It wasn’t on your list, but you either didn’t realize how much you wanted it until you opened it OR you just felt like it was too much to ask for this year.

While some of the more public-facing teams struggled at times in recent seasons, two groups of Cowboys blazed a path to the mountain top this year.

A young group of Cowboy golfers won the program’s 12th national title back in May.

The first national title since 2018 made OSU one of only two programs to win three championships since 2006.

Cowboy Cross Country followed golf’s lead just last month winning the program’s sixth national title and the second in three years.

This is the fifth under coach Dave Smith.

“I know my first one (2009) I remember we won it and I felt nothing but relief. … I didn’t feel fulfilled,” Smith said. “I didn’t feel excited, I just remember thinking thank goodness because at that point I had a window with some guys who were graduating, and I thought if I don’t win this one, we’ll never win. … With the 2023 one, no coach had ever gone 12 years in between titles, so that one was a great feeling. … But this one, I think because of the personalities on this team and what we went through last year, this one feels like an incredibly special one to me and maybe it’s because it’s recent, but this one feels really good.”

The men won by 25 points over second-place New Mexico.

Brian Musau finished fourth individually, directly followed by teammates Fouad Messaoudi and Denis Kipngetich, as four Cowboys finished inside the top 12.

“He’s close already with two national titles under his belt. … I think by the time he leaves OSU, he’ll have more All-American finishes, more conference titles and more national titles than any athlete we’ve ever had,” Smith said of Musau.

Cowgirl Basketball Bounces Back, Proves OSU Can Contend in Big 12

Gift vibe: The smaller present got lost under the tree at first, but then you saw it and remembered truly great presents don’t always come in big fancy packages.

Following an injury-plagued 14-win campaign in 2023-24, Oklahoma State entered last season as a Big 12 afterthought in the middle of a roughly seven-year absence from the AP Top 25.

The Cowgirls (25-7) ripped up every expectation placed on them, winning three ranked contests en route to a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and rose as high as 17th in the nation.

Oklahoma State entered Big 12 play this season with a record of 11-2 while sitting just outside the top 25. A disappointing showing at St. John’s and a poor second half against the No. 8 Sooners are the only blemishes on a program that could very well play itself into contention at the top of the Big 12.

Lutz Has Cowboys Off to a Historic Start in Year 2

Gift vibe: Everything from the wrapping paper to the present itself screams throwback. This is something you haven’t thought of much since you were a kid, but holding it in your hands now takes you back to the good ole days.

Oklahoma State started the season 9-0 for the first time since the 2006-07 run and was one of only eight unbeatens in the country before falling in a competitive Bedlam matchup on Dec. 13.

The Cowboys now sit 11-1, and coach Steve Lutz looks like he has a group capable of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.

Of course, for that to be possible, the Cowboys will need to get better defensively and get healthier, as a number of injuries have come and gone during the non-conference portion.

Multiple starters missed time (or the game) against Kansas City last week. The debut of Benjamin Ahmed helped patch some of those holes, but Oklahoma State doesn’t want to open Big 12 play against a ranked Texas Tech team this shorthanded since it is relying on a strong showing in conference play to push the Cowboys from one side of the NCAA Tournament bubble to the other.