‘I Wanna Wrestle the Best Guys’: How Landon Robideau Emerge from a Gauntlet as a National Champion

STILLWATER — Among the 10 wrestlers who stood atop the national podium on Saturday evening, no one had conquered a tougher road than Landon Robideau.

Robideau, the 5 seed of the 157-pound bracket, beat seeds 1, 2 and 4 on his way to his first national title. Add those seeds up and you get the number 7. Here’s a look at the seed sum of every other champion from the quarters, semis and finals:

Luke Lilledahl (125) — 23
Jax Forrest (133) — 14
Sergio Vega (141) — 11
Aden Valencia (149) — 14
Landon Robideau (157) — 7
Mitchell Mesenbrink (165)– 24
Levi Haines (174) — 17
Max McEnelly (184) — 10
Josh Barr (197) — 21
Isaac Trumble (HWT) — 11

“That’s a pretty tough path,” David Taylor said. “We had talked a little bit about the national tournament — who wins it is who believes the most. Clearly, he really believed. And it’s really awesome to leave a tournament and know you were the best guy in the bracket. You wrestled all the best guys. He just kind of embraced it.”

Belief was something that was mentioned a lot Thursday when Taylor and his national champs met with reporters back in Stillwater.

Robideau’s teammates and coaches have been talking up the freshman’s mindset all season. He said that mindset has to do with belief.

“In high school, I’d always do pretty good, but I’d take second and third,” Robideau said. “I think it was the end of my junior year and the start of senior year, I just believed in myself. I started believing in myself, and I had the best results I’ve had. And I think just carrying that throughout the rest of this last summer and believing in it through the whole season — even when there’s ups and downs, just believing in yourself, trusting that you’re the best, I think that just kind of helped develop it.”

As impressive as Robideau’s NCAA run was, the little numbers next to guys’ names tell only half the story.

Robideau avenged his two college losses in Cleveland. He beat 4 seed Kaleb Larkin after Larkin got the better of the Cowboy in the Big 12 finals just the week before. Robideau then beat 2 seed Antrell Taylor in the final after Taylor bested him in tiebreakers back in December.

And though top-seeded PJ Duke hadn’t met Robideau on a college mat before their hotly contested semifinal, Duke did keep Robideau off the United State’s U20 World Team last year when Duke beat Robideau two matches to none at the trials.

To even get to that run from the quarters on, Robideau had to start his first national tournament with a returning All-American.

North Dakota State’s Gavin Drexler finished eighth in the 2025 NCAA Championships at 149 pounds. Robideau beat him 5-1.

Then Robideau got Minnesota’s Charlie Millard in the second round. Millard entered the postseason at 17-6. The bout came with another storyline. Robideau is  from Minnesota and was committed to Minnesota before David Taylor took over in Stillwater. Robideau beat the Golden Gopher 7-3.

Then started the run.

As previously mentioned, Robideau dropped his Big 12 final to Larkin 4-3. Larkin is flexible and long, and Robideau struggled finishing his takedown attempts in that match, not getting one until there was about 30 seconds left.

Robideau set the tone early in Cleveland, powering to a takedown less than a minute in. It was still a tightly contested contest, though. Larkin took a lead with about a minute left before Robideau scored on a reversal that set up sudden-victory. About 30 seconds into that period, Robideau took Larkin down again to avenge that Big 12 loss.

The Duke match wasn’t without some controversy. The two freshmen went into overtime tied at 1 before Duke scored what was initially called a match-winning takedown in sudden-victory. But the call was early. The OSU corner threw a challenge brick, and it was overturned. The match went into tiebreakers, where Robideau scored a reversal and rode Duke out the rest of the period. That led Duke to choose neutral because he needed a takedown, but Robideau fended him off and won 3-1.

Was the overturn or even just the timing of the stoppage unfortunate for Duke? Sure, but when the match resumed, Robideau was ready.

That led Robideau to the final, where he beat Taylor 4-2 thanks in large part to a pair of nearfall points in the second period. The two exchanged pleasantries afterward before Robideau, having gone through the gauntlet of all gauntlets, got his hand raised.

Robideau: “Obviously I wanted this match bad. At the end, I’m usually not a person that gets in people’s faces, but he was kinda disrespectful, I thought, to my coaches and was kind of up in their face. So, I wanted to show him this was for the national championship. You gotta… pic.twitter.com/dv71A5rAja

— Marshall Scott (@MarshallScottOK) March 22, 2026

“I was just excited,” said Robideau on his mindset when he saw his potential path. “I know a lot of people thought my spot in the bracket was tough or gonna be hard, but I said it all year, I wanna wrestle the best guys. I think to prove that you’re the best at the weight, you have to wrestle them.

“I lost to Larkin. I had to wrestle him in the quarters. I was excited for that match. A lot of people, I think, were writing me off for Duke, saying he’s the best guy at the weight. I get to wrestle Duke, so I was excited for it. Then Antrell, same thing, I lost to him. I knew I was going to win, but having that excitement going into the tournament, wanting to wrestle hard and just showcase my skill was the most important thing.”