OSU Wrestling: Forrest Pins on Debut, Cowboys Shut Out Sooners for First Time since 1992

FORREST
PHOTOS

STILLWATER — Jax Forrest wrestled his final high school dual about a month ago, pinning his opponent in 19 seconds. After enrolling at Oklahoma State a semester early, he wrestled his first collegiate dual on Sunday, and that opponent lasted only 47 seconds.

Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma 37-0 on Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena, where Forrest, a “freshman” 133-pounder, pinned Oklahoma’s Carter Schmidt weeks removed for Forrest winning Powerade, a premier high school tournament.

THE DEBUT OF JAX FORREST WAS ELECTRIC 🤯🤯🤯

In his first collegiate match, Forrest (133) of @CowboyWrestling gets a first period PIN over Oklahoma’s Carter Schmidt. 🧷#NCAAWrestling x 🎥 ESPN+pic.twitter.com/LH1V6FZJ5l

— NCAA Men’s Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling) January 12, 2026

But Forrest isn’t — or wasn’t, rather, your run-in-the-mill high school wrestler.

Forrest made the United States’ Senior World Team this year, winning the U.S. Open and a best-of-three series against 2023 world champ and two-time NCAA champ Vito Arujau to do so. He was also the United States’ 61 kg representative at the U23 World Championships, where Forrest took gold.

As he did as a high schooler, Forrest walked to the mat to Lipps Inc.’s ‘Funkytown.’ A fitting choice for the funky style Forrest employs. Not long after the opening whistle, Forrest had already scored a takedown. After a scramble led to a Schmidt escape, Forrest was back on the attack, dumping the Sooner to his back before the official slapped the mat.

The sellout crowd of 12,549 was excited when Forrest made his walk to the mat. When he got the pin, the place lost its collective mind.

As is customary, confetti fell from the GIA rafters after the pin. The young Forrest took a moment in the center of the mat, taking in his new playground.

“It was different,” said Forrest of whether the nerves of Sunday compared to wrestling at the World Championships. “This one, it’s not as nervous. It’s more just excited, so you get a little amped up. For that one (Worlds), it’s nervous because it’s against different countries, you’re in a different place.

“The atmosphere is different, but here I was nervous, I was excited, but I was secure in whatever happened, I’m gonna get back to work tomorrow and just keep getting better. That was my first match of who knows how many, but I have a lot more opportunities to just keep wrestling and just get better.”

Taylor didn’t take a firm stance on what was next for Forrest — whether he’ll wrestle four more dates and redshirt or if he’ll be the Cowboys’ guy at 133 going forward.

Taylor left his post toward the end of Troy Spratley’s match to go back and speak with Forrest before his debut.

“I think the message was, ‘Hey, you’re gonna go score today, but you don’t have to score all at one time,'” Taylor said. “I think that’s something that he’s gotta continue working on is an element of patience. Just gotta have a little bit of patience, and I think that’s something that he’s gonna work on. …

“When you have a lot of scoring potential and stuff, there’s an element of patience just to make sure it’s set up, but that was really what it was. Just, ‘Hey, enjoy this moment. Be patient. Scoring’s gonna come, and just smile and have some fun.’ And he was pretty relaxed. I think that was a pretty special moment for him.”

Forrest will justly grab the headlines from the Cowboys’ latest Bedlam win, but there were a few more highlights.

For starters, this marks the first shutout a David Taylor-coached team has posted, a stat that’s hard to imagine given how dominant the Cowboys have been in many of their duals through Taylor’s first year and a half.

Three Cowboys also picked up some impressive ranked wins.

The dual’s second bout came at 174 pounds, where No. 12 Alex Facundo handled No. 7 Carter Schubert 7-2.

Facundo scored takedowns in the first and third periods with Schubert, the reigning Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champ for the weight class, only scoring on escapes.

Then at 184, No. 10 Zack Ryder bested No. 11 Brian Soldano 9-6 in a match that Ryder controlled throughout before giving up four nearfall points as the match ended.

Next came No. 8 Cody Merrill vs. No. 9 DJ Parker at 197 pounds. Merrill battled through an eye poke to beat Parker 1-0 with the only point being a Merrill escape in the second period. Parker elected neutral in the third but couldn’t score on OSU’s redshirt freshman.

From there, the shutout watch was on.

OU didn’t score a takedown all night. OSU has now won 21 in a row against the Sooners. It was OSU’s first shutout in the series since 1992.

“I’m not from Oklahoma State,” Taylor said. “I don’t share that deep passion for (Bedlam), but I’ll tell ya, the day that I got here, I shared it. What’s meaningful to this university is meaningful to me. Bedlam is a meaningful thing to the state of Oklahoma. It’s meaningful to our university.”

Results

Post-Dual News Conference