Flo Releases First Preseason Wrestling Rankings of the School Year

Wrestling season will be here before you know it, and based on Flo’s initial preseason rankings, it could be a special year for the Cowboys.

Flo’s first preseason rankings of the school year this week saw four Cowboys put at the top of their weight classes, with another two in the Top 5 of their weights. OSU has a Top 10 wrestler in all but two weights.

Without further ado, here’s where the Cowboys appeared in the rankings with some takes to follow.

Team Tournament Ranking: 2nd
125: No. 6 Troy Spratley
133: No. 1 Jax Forrest
141: N/A
149: No. 1 Sergio Vega
157: No. 1 Landon Robideau
165: No. 4 Dee Lockett
174: No. 14 Alex Facundo
184: No. 8 Zack Ryder
197: No. 2 Cody Merrill
HWT: No. 1 Konner Doucet

Team: Starting with the team ranking, it’s calculated based off the rankings of each weight class. OSU was second with 124.5 points behind Penn State (150). That’s still a decent gap to the top, but the Cowboys are closer to No. 1 than they are to No. 3. The difference between OSU and Penn State is 25.5 points, while the difference between OSU and third-place Nebraska is 51.5 points.

OSU is schedule to face No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Iowa, No. 6 Stanford and No. 10 Missouri in duals this season. The Cowboys also have the opportunity to hit No. 5 Virginia Tech, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 8 Minnesota at National Duals.

125: Spratley slides down to No. 6 after finishing second and fifth the past two seasons. Reigning national champion Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) leads the group. No. 3 Nico Provo (Stanford), No. 4 Vincent Robinson (Nebraska) and No. 5 Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech) are all ahead of Spratley, but the Cowboys’ Spark Plug could face those guys during the regular season.

133: It should come as no surprise that Jax Forrest is the top-ranked guy at 133 after he went undefeated and won the weight last season as early enrollee freshman.

141: Sergio Vega won a 141-pound title last season, but Flo bumped him up to 149 for his sophomore season, which seems to certainly be happening. That leaves OSU without a wrestler in the rankings at 141, a spot where the Raney twins and Tagen Jamison are expected to battle out at.

149: Vega’s 149-pound class is stacked. The Top 4 includes three national champs in Vega, No. 2 Aden Valencia (Stanford) and No. 4 Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech). No. 3 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) is the only guy in the Top 4 without a national title, and he’s gone a combined 10-2 at NCAAs with two third-place finishes and a second-place finish last season.

157: Robideau retained the top spot at 157 pounds after winning a national title as a true freshman last season. The most notable tidbit from the 157-pound rankings is that Flo has Tyler Kasak as Penn State’s representative. Kasak was the top seed at NCAAs in 2025 but took a redshirt last season, as PJ Duke stepped into the lineup. Flo has Duke at 165.

165: Speaking of 165, Lockett enters his sophomore season ranked fourth after going 18-4 last season and 2-2 at NCAAs. Duke sits atop the weight class while reigning Big 12 champ Nicco Ruiz (Arizona State) sits second and Purdue’s Joey Blaze comes in at No. 3.

174: There’s still some work to be done for Facundo to lock down OSU’s 174-pound spot after David Taylor transferred in Lorenzo Norman from Stanford.

184: The same could be said at 184 pounds. Zack Ryder gutted out an eighth-place finish at nationals last season while dealing with his shoulder constantly popping out of socket. His health is a bit of a question entering this season, and OSU added Bennett Berge from South Dakota State this offseason.

197: Merrill retains his second-place spot after finishing as the national runner-up at 197 as a redshirt freshman last season. Penn State’s Josh Barr, who beat Merrill in the national final, is the only guy ahead of Merrill.

HWT: The heavyweight class cleared out a bit from last year, and thus, Doucet is the highest-placing returner and got the No. 1 spot. There’s still somewhat of a question as to whether it’ll be Doucet or freshman Dreshaun Ross, a newly minted U20 world silver medalist, at heavyweight for the Pokes this season.