‘He’s Hungry and Excited to Compete’: David Taylor Discusses Decision for Teague Travis to Wrestle in Postseason

STILLWATER — The biggest surprise of the Big 12 Championships brackets being released wasn’t anyone’s seed. It was that Teague Travis is reemerging from the injury list for the Cowboys.

Travis hasn’t wrestled an official match since Nov. 17. He’s spent much of the past two seasons at 157 pounds, but he’s hopping down to 149 in Tulsa, a spot Carter Young has been wrestling at for most of the season.

“It’s a tough decision,” said OSU coach David Taylor of the decision to insert Travis. “It was. As a coach, we gotta feel like we put our 10 best guys out there. Teague’s excited and hungry to compete. We’re looking forward to supporting him.”

A redshirt junior, Travis started the first two duals of OSU’s season at 157 pounds, beating Utah Valley’s Ryker Fullmer before a sudden-victory loss to Oregon State’s Ethan Stiles that ended up being Travis’ last match of the regular season. Stiles has since also made the jump down to 149 and ranks fifth nationally at the weight, according to InterMat.

Starting at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, Michigan State transfer Caleb Fish bumped down from 165 pounds to fill in for the injured Travis. Fish has gone 16-7 this season, including a top-five win against Northern Iowa’s Ryder Downey. Fish earned the 2 seed at Big 12s.

Young is a two-time NCAA qualifier for the Pokes at 141 pounds, reaching the national tournament in 2022 and 2023. He redshirted last season before making the jump up to 149 pounds. He went 10-10 in what was his redshirt junior season. He had a tough end to the year, closing 1-4 with all four losses coming against guys ranked in the top 16 nationally.

Before jumping up to 157 last season, Travis wrestled at 149, including a dual start at the weight last season. Travis went 6-1 at 149 last season. The only loss was a 7-6 defeat to then-OSU teammate Jordan Williams at the Lindenwood Open. Now at Little Rock, Williams came in at No. 12 in the most recent Coaches’ Ranking. Travis ended up placing third at that Lindenwood Open.

Travis also wrestled at 149 pounds during his redshirt freshman season in 2022-23. Primarily wrestling in open tournaments, Travis went 17-2. He pinned six opponents and majored three others. He won the Viking Open, the Lindenwood Open and the Roger Denker Open that season.

Travis will start the Big 12 tournament against Cal Baptist’s Paul Kelly, who is 16-6 this season. Travis could have a Bedlam bout in the next round against 3 seed Willie McDougald.

Travis will have to wrestle well to make the national tournament because with a 1-1 record at a different weight, an at-large bid is unlikely to come his way. It looks like he’d have to match his fourth-place finish at the event from last season to qualify for nationals. The Big 12 was initially slated to get six automatic bids at 149 pounds, but that was including Young and Arizona State’s Jesse Vasquez, neither of whom entered the Big 12 Championships. That leaves the conference with four automatic bids at the weight.

“He had, obviously his injury, and guys can take two routes,” Taylor said.” “You can kinda just say, ‘I’m done until next year,’ but he started feeling good and just followed his plan with (strength and conditioning coach) Nick (Montoni) and our trainer (Nick Goldstein). He just was always working. As he could get on the bike, he was on the bike. As he was training, he was training.

“He took the initiative. He took the initiative to get his weight down and to get in great shape. He’s hungry and excited to compete.”