Day 1 Recap: Cowboys Send 8 to the Big 12 Finals, All Pokes Qualify for Nationals

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TULSA — The Cowboys won the Big 12 last year with 153.5 team points. Through the opening day of the tournament this year, they have 154.5.

Saturday evening’s Big 12 finals will look more like Oklahoma State vs. the Big 12 all-stars, as the 10 matches will feature eight Cowboys. Troy Spratley, Jax Forrest, Sergio Vega, Casey Swiderski, Landon Robideau, Dee Lockett, Alex Facundo and Konner Doucet all made the finals at their respective weights.

All 10 Cowboys qualified for nationals. Cody Merrill will wrestle for third Saturday after a tight semifinal loss to 2 seed Joey Novak. And with basically one arm, Zack Ryder secured his spot at nationals before medically forfeiting out.

Here are some of the storylines from Day 1.

Warrior Ryder

Zack Ryder’s shoulder dislocated four times on Friday, and despite that, the Cowboy redshirt freshman went 2-1 (before medically forfeiting) and secured his spot at nationals.

Ryder injured the shoulder on Jan. 30 in the Cowboys’ dual against Northern Iowa. He returned for the regular season finale, picking up a big win against Iowa’s Gabe Arnold, but three matches in a day proved tough on the injury.

A redshirt freshman Penn State transfer, Ryder ended his first match quickly, pinning Cal Baptist’s David Alonso in the second period.

Ryder needed multiple stints of injury time in his match with Isaac Dean. That match initially still went the distance before they went back and noted that Ryder’s injury time had ran out, meaning his 6-2 loss turned into an injury default. Nice of them to still have him finish that match out.

He was the lone Cowboy wrestling in the consolation side on Friday evening. He essentially beat Arizona State’s Shay Addison 7-3 with one arm. He needed injury time at one point during that match, as well, to pop the shoulder back into place.

“He’s a tough dude, man,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “Shoulder dislocated four times today. Sometimes you wonder what kids are gonna be like when they really face adversity. I don’t know, that’s a tough thing, and you see it all the time. Every year, there’s guys with that kind of injury. It leaves a reason to not keep wrestling.

“He had to win that match to qualify for nationals, and he did that. Now he’s got some time to refocus and get ready for the national tournament. … Really proud of him. Just really proud of him today. I don’t really care what happens the rest of the season, but really proud of that fight that he showed.”

Dee Lockett Outlasts a Tornado to Make Big 12 Final

In the middle of Dee Lockett’s semifinal match against Iowa State’s Connor Euton, people’s phones started blaring loudly around the arena because of a tornado warning.

Then the loudspeaker came on in the arena telling people to get to safe zones in the building, all still while the second period of the match was going on.

On top of that, Lockett went into concussion protocol in the first period, adding another delay to the bout.

He was leading 4-0 going into the 57-minute tornado warning break. It almost seemed to help the Cowboy freshman, as he came out and secured two third-period takedowns and beat Euton via an 11-2 major decision.

“It was crazy,” Lockett said. “We had concussion protocol in the first period and then a long break, but my coaches just told me to stay focused, and I stayed focus and came out there and got two more takedowns for a major decision. I think I just stayed focused and relied on my training.”

No One Has Touched Jax Forrest

Well, not literally. That’d make for a rather odd wrestling match.

But Jax Forrest, who was wrestling high schoolers in December, teched his way to the finals of the 133-pound bracket.

His first two foes didn’t make it out of the first period, with Forrest beating Iowa State’s Garrett Grice 15-0 before toppling South Dakota State’s Cale Seaton 19-4. By the way, everyone Forrest beat Friday is still alive going into Saturday. It’s not like he romped some kids who just continued to get romped.

Northern Iowa’s Julian Farber made it to the second period, but got to wrestle only 31 seconds in that second period before he too was teched, with Forrest winning that semifinal 21-6.

The fun comes Saturday night, though.

Forrest will square off against Arizona State freshman Kyler Larkin. Larkin’s only loss this year was a medical forfeit. He had a first round bye before beating Wyoming’s Luke Willochell 8-1 in the quarters and majoring Missouri’s Gage Walker 11-3 in the semis.

Forrest and Larkin have wrestled once before — in the 2024 Missouri Border Brawl. Forrest won that bout 10-6.

“He wrestles similar to me, to where we’re gonna be getting in on legs, scrambling around,” Forrest said. “So, it’ll be a lot of fun. …

“It’s a similar feel. We’re older, we’re stronger, but he’s gonna feel the same kind of scramble, flexible style, I think.”

Doucet to the Finals

Konner Doucet has placed fifth at Big 12s twice, but on Saturday night, he’ll get the spotlight on him as he runs out in front of what should be a big home crowd for his first Big 12 final.

It’s a cool story for a guy who could’ve left the program last year when they brought in Wyatt Hendrickson, but Doucet elected to stay and train behind Hendrickson for a year before making his triumphant return to the lineup and now making the Big 12 final.

Doucet’s year in the shadows resulted in him winning his first two matches at Big 12s via technical fall. He then took out South Dakota State’s Luke Rasmussen 4-2 in the semifinal.

He’ll get a chance to avenge one of his two losses this season in Saturday’s final when he takes on Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida. Bastida is unbeaten this year and got to the final with two techs and a pin. Doucet lost to Bastida 6-2 in their dual match on Feb. 1.

“We don’t do this to just go run out in front of the crowd and shake hands in the finals,” Taylor said. “We’re doing it because we want to be the best, and that’s what he wants to do, just continuing to encourage of that. Shown a lot of progress this year. We’re getting here toward the end. Today, I mean, that dude’s getting bonus points for us. It’s important in these tournaments. It does. He’s a really good heavyweight. He’s a great kid, great leader. We’ve talked about that a lot.

“He’s gotta go make the most of it tomorrow. He’s got seven minutes to wrestle the No. 1 guy in the country. Let’s go wrestle and scrap.”

David Taylor’s Day 1 Recap

Saturday Night’s Big 12 Finals

125: 1 Troy Spratley (OSU) vs. 2 Stevo Poulin (ISU)
133: 1 Jax Forrest (OSU) vs. 2 Kyler Larkin (ASU)
141: 1 Sergio Vega (OSU) vs. 2 Anthony Echemendia (ISU)
149: 1 Casey Swiderski (OSU) vs. 6 Caleb Rathjen (UNI)
157: 1 Kaleb Larkin (ASU) vs. 2 Landon Robideau (OSU)
165: 1 Dee Lockett (OSU) vs. 3 Nicco Ruiz (ASU)
174: 1 Alex Facundo (OSU) vs. 3 Cam Steed (MIZZOU)
184: 1 Aeoden Sinclair (MIZZOU) vs. 3 Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming)
197: 1 Rocky Elam (ISU) vs. 2 Joey Novak (Wyoming)
HWT: 1 Yonger Bastida (ISU) vs. 2 Konner Doucet (OSU)