Cowboy Youth Movement: Six Oklahoma State Freshmen Ready to Wrestle in First NCAA Championships

STILLWATER — This will be the first NCAA Championships for 60% of the Cowboys’ lineup.

David Taylor is bringing six freshmen with him to Cleveland including an early enrollee high schooler, three other true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen.

“We just really don’t make a lot of it,” Taylor said. “I’m sure they’ve looked at (their brackets), but it’s just reminding them our foundation is strong and we’re ready for it.

“To go back, what did I feel (at my first NCAAs), really similar to what these guys feel. I had a great year, and I had a great national tournament. It just goes fast. It’s just funny, you do all this build up and whatever the biggest tournament is. When you’re a little kid, it’s whatever tournament. Then in high school it’s your state tournament. And then it’s Fargo. And then it’s the World Championships. It’s the national tournament. These kids have all been around that stuff. They’ve been a part of these big events. There’s so much that goes into it and you think about it, and then it just goes and then the next day, it’s just instantly like, ‘Alright, what about next year?’

“I think probably just letting them realize, like, hey, it goes fast. Enjoy it. Make the most of it. Have a smile. Be yourself. Be what you are every year. We’re gonna be the same for you, and let’s go out and challenge ourselves. That’s what the national tournament is about.”

Although this will be the group’s first national tournament, these freshmen are no stranger to the big stage.

Among that group of six, there are 19 state titles and spots on nine different world teams. That’s not even to mention the group’s success at some of the major high school events like Fargo, Super 32 and Powerade.

Jax Forrest, the top overall seed at 133 pounds, will likely be the first of those Cowboy freshmen to take the mat in Cleveland.

He’ll take part in one of the most talked about NCAA brackets in recent memory, where the top five seeds are freshmen. Meanwhile seeds six and seven are the two finalists at the weight from last season.

Depending on who you ask, it was somewhat controversial for Forrest to get the 1 seed given he didn’t start wrestling a college schedule until this semester. But Penn State’s Marcus Blaze dropping a bout to Ohio State’s Ben Davino in the Big Ten final meant Forrest was the only one of that group of three freshmen who hasn’t lost. Meanwhile, Forrest has wins against seeds 4 (Aaron Seidel), 5 (Kyler Larkin) and 6 (Drake Ayala).

Forrest said Tuesday that he was a little surprised he got the top seed but that he is excited to be a part of what looks to be an epic bracket.

“It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come here early because I knew the bracket was gonna be really good,” Forrest said. “Every match is gonna be tough, whether it’s the regular season, conferences or nationals, it was gonna be really hard, and I wanted to put my name in there and come out on top.”

OSU’s freshmen leader might be the softest spoken one of the bunch — 157-pounder Landon Robideau.

If you’ve listened to anyone talk this season, there were signs that Robideau is wired a little different. Way back during the team’s preseason media day in October, Casey Swiderski (an intense guy himself) said that when you wrestle Robideau, “you’re gonna get a little bit of yourself.” That apparently stayed true all season, as moments after winning his first Big 12 title, Swiderski called Robideau a “madman.”

Robideau was a high-level recruit. Flo listed him fifth on its big board for the 2025 class, but Taylor said it was Robideau’s visit where he further stood out.

“When he was on his recruiting visit, you could just tell,” Taylor said. “He was just very calm, very excited, really wanted to be challenged, like wanted to be coached, wanted to be coached hard — wanted those things. I remember leaving that like, man this guy, pretty special.

“He is the leader of that young group, and guys really look to him and his work ethic and mindset. Gotta really great core group of young guys. It’s pretty exciting.”

Robideau earned the 5 seed in his bracket, just like hometown kid Dee Lockett did in his.

Lockett is 16-2 this season with those two losses coming within the past month — the first to Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo before Lockett dropped his Big 12 final against Nicco Ruiz. Lockett hasn’t done a whole lot of losing in his life. He was 151-3 in high school, winning four state titles. He was also a U17 World Champion.

Should Lockett get to the quarterfinals, he’d likely have a rematch against Ruiz with the winner almost certainly getting top-seeded Mitchell Mesenbrink in the semis.

“I think it was really good for him,” Taylor said. “You’re gonna go through tough times. You talk about freshmen and stuff, you’re gonna go through that. Guys go through it at different times. Some guys go through it in the summer, and some guys go through it in the first semester, and some guys go through it in the conference tournament. But hey, what ya felt there and what ya felt this week, it’s awesome to be able to feel that now, to feel really hungry going into the national tournament.

“And that’s what he’s been. He’s been focused, and he’s hungry. He’s excited. I think he’s going in with a really good mindset, and I’m excited for him to go out and compete.”

No matter their age, the Cowboys are expected to compete with the best of them this weekend in what will be the first NCAA Tournament of many that this young core takes part of in an orange singlet.

“It’s cool, we eat, we eat dinner together, we make breakfast sometimes, we’ll hang out, go bowling — do just a lot of fun things with each other,” Forrest said. “Come in, do the not fun things — cutting weight in the back room running. We do the fun things and the not fun things.

“It’s really fun. I’m really liking that Coach David had the idea of me coming down so I could grow with this class, and then we could just be brothers going forward.”