Alex Facundo Rebounds from Tough Weekend at National Duals with Title at Cougar Clash

STILLWATER — Alex Facundo hadn’t been a regular in a college wrestling lineup in two years before transferring to Oklahoma State this offseason.

And how was he greeted back to normal competition? With the most ridiculous National Duals stretch that maybe anyone had that weekend.

In four duals across two days, Facundo wrestled No. 3 Simon Ruiz (Cornell), No. 5 Matthew Singleton (NC State), No. 2 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) and No. 4 Christopher Minto (Nebraska). That’s right, four Top 5 guys in two days.

Facundo went 1-3 that weekend, beating Minto, losing tight matches to Ruiz and Kennedy, and being pinned by Singleton.

“I think that was really good because even at the national tournament, I don’t think you’re gonna get 2, 3, 4, 5 at the whole tournament,” Facundo said. “But it was really good for me because I know exactly what I have to work on now. No one’s gonna see that kind of schedule ever this season.

“Just to get like a national tournament at the start of the season, it’s really beneficial for me. And yeah, I didn’t get any of the results I wanted, but it was a good measuring stick to see exactly what I needed to work on and what I needed to focus on.”

So, after that weekend Facundo was 2-3 to start his OSU career. That’s certainly not ideal, but given the context of the competition and the fact that Facundo hadn’t wrestled consistently in competition for a while, it’s not that bad.

“It sucked, but I gotta move forward because I got other stuff coming up ahead,” Facundo said. “I know that it’s not March, it was November.”

Coming out of National Duals, Facundo teched Air Force’s Gunner Cramblett 21-6 and earned an 18-8 major decision against Arizona State’s Cael Valencia to pull back to 3-3.

Then this past weekend, he was one of a few OSU starters who went up to Illinois for the Cougar Clash, where Facundo won the 174-pound bracket with two Techs and a medical forfeit, meaning he is up to 6-3 heading into this weekend’s dual against West Virginia.

Facundo was a four-time Michigan state champ as a high school. Flo considered Facundo the No. 2 prospect in the 2021 recruiting class (interestingly enough, trailing only Richard Figueroa).

Facundo signed with Penn State and redshirted his first year on campus before cracking into Penn State’s lineup at 165 pounds as a redshirt freshman in 2022-23. He went 19-6 that year, including picking up a win against Cam Amine (then at Michigan). Facundo qualified for the NCAA Championships but went 0-2 at the event.

He took an Olympic redshirt the next season. In the spring of 2024, Facundo picked up a freestyle win against Penn State teammate Levi Haines after Haines had just won a national title at 157 pounds. Haines took home silver at the most recent Senior World Championships and is currently the top dog at 174.

Ahead of last season, Facundo saw a potential opening in the Penn State lineup at 157 pounds and started to cut down. He dropped a bout at the Black Knight Invitational to teammate Tyler Kasak, 4-2. Kasak ended up earning the 1 seed at NCAAs last season while Facundo got hurt.

“The cut to 57, that was an experience for sure,” Facundo said. “I started in the summer. I was like 187, and I decided, you know what, I saw an opening. I was like, I’m gonna go down. Took a lot of discipline. I was always worried about my weight. My body gave out on me, but I feel a lot better at 74. It’s my natural weight — stronger, healthier, happier — so it’s good.”

Last year was Facundo’s first at Penn State without David Taylor and Jimmy Kennedy, who had left for OSU. Facundo called those two “his guys,” and guys he always worked with.

“Alex came out of high school, he was a really big recruit,” Taylor said. “His freshman year was almost four years ago. He Olympic redshirted, then he got hurt. He’s missed some time. Just those reps. Like, you can practice your reps, but competition reps are your best practice.

“I think he’s jumped in there and his very first tournament (National Duals), and he had what? He had all four matches guys that were top on the country. All the matches were really close, but there’s a little hesitation. I think at his last couple matches, he’s starting to click on all cylinders, and this weekend he really started to get the confidence and the reps back and looked really smooth. Alex is gonna keep getting better.”