Oklahoma State Wrestling Coach David Taylor Champion of U.S. World Team Trials, Makes World Team

David Taylor. That’s all that needs to be said.

Taylor, Oklahoma State’s wrestling coach, is the 92-kilogram champion of the 2024 United States World Team Trials after sweeping the best-of-three championship series against Zahid Valencia on Sunday. The championship earned Taylor a spot on the U.S. World Team (again) to compete at the Senior World Championships in Tirana, Albania on Oct. 28-31.

In the first match of the series, Taylor slipped past Valencia 3-3 by criteria. Next, Taylor got Valencia in a cradle, flipped him to his back and pinned Valencia to punch his ticket the World Championships.

What a finish. What a weekend.#GoPokes pic.twitter.com/jBVxhSB8sA

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) September 15, 2024

Taylor won four matches Saturday to get through the challenge tournament and to Sunday’s championship series.

This is the sixth time in his international career that Taylor has made a U.S. World Team, having also done so in 2018, ’20, ’21, ’22, ’23 and now ’24. He already has three gold medals and a silver from the World Championships. He also won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Before his international career, Taylor won a pair of individual NCAA titles at Penn State in 2012 and 2014 and was also awarded the Dan Hodge Trophy twice. He beat OSU’s Tyler Caldwell 6-0 in the 165-pound championship match in 2014 to finish his college career. Taylor was a four-time NCAA finalist and four-time Big Ten champion. The Nittany Lions also won a national championship every season Taylor competed. Taylor was 134-3 during his college career.

Taylor was the biggest news throughout the wrestling world this week after OSU announced Taylor had registered to compete at the U.S. World Team Trials, ending his short-lived retirement. Taylor became the Cowboys’ head coach on May 6, accepting his first college coaching job to replace John Smith after his retirement. Smith also won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, only a few months after finishing his first season coaching the Cowboys.

The World Championships will be a few weeks before the Cowboys’ season begins, with OSU expected to begin in mid-November.