2025 Oklahoma State Final Grades: After Several Strong Starts, Only David Taylor’s Wrestlers Could Finish Winter with Momentum

STILLWATER — The winter sports started strong, and in some cases, early successes paved the road to bubble-bursting disappointment as players were unable to keep up with heightened expectations.

But that wasn’t a problem for wrestling, which somehow managed to exceed even last year’s success by putting three Cowboys atop the podium this time.

Wrestling coach David Taylor continues to set himself apart from his peers despite only having two years under his belt, which begs the question: What will year three look like?

​This is the second installment in a four-part series looking back at how each OSU team finished in the 2025-26 athletics calendar year. Be sure to check out Part 1: Fall Sports.

Wrestling

Record: 15-1, 7-0 Big 12

Postseason: Second

Conference: First

All-Americans: 8

125 Troy Spratley

133 Jax Forrest

141 Sergio Vega

149 Casey Swiderski

157 Landon Robideau

184 Zack Ryder

197 Cody Merrill

HWT Konner Doucet

Final Thoughts: Three freshmen claimed individual national titles, a first in NCAA history and the Pokes finished second as a team for the first time since 2016. The Cowboys also finished with more team points than any other year since 2005, including the national championship team in 2006.

The trio of champions (Jax Forrest, Sergio Vega and Landon Robideau) all spoke of chasing the next one shortly after returning home with their titles. There remains a sizable gap between the Pokes and David Taylor’s alma mater, Penn State, but the Cowboys appear to be creating a second gap between themselves and the rest of the sport.

If Oklahoma State can continue trending in that direction in year three under Taylor then the difference between OSU and Penn State might look smaller than the difference between those two and everyone else, not that the trio of champs have any interest in waiting to catch the Nittany Lions.

Grade: A+

Cowgirl basketball

Record: 24-10, 12-6 Big 12

Postseason: NCAA Tournament round of 32

Conference: Fourth (regular season), quarterfinalist

All-Americans: Micah Gray (honorable mention)

Final Thoughts: UCLA won the national championship, beating South Carolina by 18 points after beating the Cowgirls by 19 in round two. I’m not arguing Oklahoma State was on the same level as the Gamecocks, but UCLA beat up on most of the teams it faced all season so that shouldn’t be held against the Cowgirls.

In fact, OSU’s ability to cut it 13 points in the third quarter then 14 in the fourth highlights the potential this team had to go on a much deeper run if given a higher seed. While it seems like the Cowgirls always get overlooked a bit on the national stage, this team failed to truly capitalize on its potential highlighted by a devastating inability to close out against Baylor at home on New Year’s Eve and the buzzer-beater loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

Whew, that sounded negative there for a bit. Oklahoma State did win its first NCAA Tournament since 2021 and continued breaking records under the leadership of Jacie Hoyt. Cornerstone Stailee Heard remained in Stillwater when her teammates chose to leave following the season, but that group proved that Hoyt’s teams can make real noise on the national stage.

An example the head coach seems to have gotten a lot of mileage out of during transfer portal season, although it’s worth noting this grade does not reflect anything that happened following the season.

Grade: B

Cowboy basketball

Record: 20-15, 6-12 Big 12

Postseason: NIT, second round

Conference: 14th, Second round

All-Conference: Parsa Fallah (honorable mention)

Final Thoughts: The Cowboys won three more games than they did last year and tied or exceeded any season’s win total since winning 21 in the 2020-21 season. All of it was good enough to put the Cowboys on the NCAA Tournament bubble following a win over then-No. 16 BYU on Feb. 4.

Then Oklahoma State dropped five consecutive games and finished with a 3-3 mark, which included a competitive loss against then-No. 7 Houston. Add in a premature, devastating injury to senior Parsa Fallah late in the year, and there’s no question this group wrapped things up on a down note.

That said, from a big picture standpoint, Cowboy basketball was more fun than it has been in recent memory, and it feels like Lutz should be able to at least get the Pokes on the bubble if he can get a little more out of next year’s squad.

Grade: C+

Cowgirl indoor track

Postseason: 32nd

Conference: Third

All-Americans: 5

Billah Jepkirui (two events)

Elyse Wilmes

Elise Eikeland

Brooke Beck

Kaylie Politza

Final Thoughts: Senior Billah Jepkirui earned All-American honors after finishing fourth in the mile and 8th in the 3,000 meters. This came after running what was then the fourth-fastest mile in NCAA history to claim the Big 12 title in that event two weeks earlier.

Fellow senior Kaylie Politza also earned All-American honors when she and a trio of freshmen (Elyse Wilmes, Elise Eikeland and Brooke Beck) on the distance medley relay finished eighth.

This was a significant improvement for the Cowgirls who failed to score any points at the indoor championships last year after finishing ninth in the Big 12. However, the program finished eighth overall in 2024 and 21st in 2023 so it’s not an unprecedented placement.

Grade: B-

​Cowboy indoor track

Postseason: T47th

Conference: Fourth

All-Americans: Kevin Kemboi

Final Thoughts: Freshman Kevin Kemboi earned second-team All-American honors after finishing 13th in triple jump at the indoor championships. He beat his previous mark on all three attempts to finish with a final jump of 15.99 meters.

The Cowboys entered the indoor season with three-consecutive top seven placements at the NCAA Indoor Championships and an equal streak of runner-up placements at the Big 12 meet. So from a big picture standpoint, this was a rather uncharacteristic finish for the Cowboys during the indoor portion of the season.

Grade: D-

Checkout how the fall sports graded out here.