OSU Wrestling: Four Takeaways from the Cowboy Invitational

Support PFB with a PFB+ membership — $8 a month or $50 for a year.

STILLWATER — It should come as no surprise that the Cowboy Invitational was dominated by the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State won nine of 10 weights at the tournament in Gallagher-Iba Arena on Sunday. With multiple Cowboys being able to enter each bracket, OSU also had 16 of the 20 finalist at the event.

We’ll dive more into some of this over the coming days, but here are four takeaways I had.

A Good Day for the Freshman Class

Of OSU’s nine winners on Sunday, four were true freshman.

Rocklin Zinkin (125), Jayden Raney (141), Mikey White (184) and Dreshaun Ross (HWT) all had their hands raised at the end of the night.

Of that group, I think I left most impressed with White, perhaps because I didn’t know what to expect from him in this first year. His potential is evident, but he has only been wrestling since he was a freshman in high school, so comparatively to most freshmen, he’s inexperienced.

The Cowboys’ 184-pound spot has three potential suitors for it in White, South Dakota State transfer Bennett Berge and returner Zack Ryder.

Ryder is still recovering from offseason surgery, so he didn’t wrestle Sunday, but White beat Berge — who finished fourth at NCAAs at the weight in 2024 — 10-4 in the final. White controlled the match from just about start to finish, securing three takedowns while not giving one up.

He opened his college career with a 40-second pin in the quarterfinal round and then found himself in a precarious situation in his semi, going into the second period up 6-2 before getting caught in a cradle giving up a 4-point nearfall in the second. But he fought off his back and got a takedown and four nearfall swipes of his own to close the match out.

The spooky part about it is he should only get better and perhaps rapidly given his inexperience.

We’ll talk more about Raney in a bit, but Ross was dominant. He’s a unique heavyweight in that he attacks legs rather than finding himself in a bunch of lockups. In his three matches Sunday — the first three matches of his college career — Ross scored 59 points and had 19 takedowns.

Zinkin also handled his bracket with relative ease, with two techs and two majors.

A Really Weird Match

One of the matches everyone was looking forward to in this event was the up-in-weight Casey Swiderski against last year’s starter Dee Lockett.

It got all sorts of off the rails.

The two traded escape points in regulation, which led to overtime.

Lockett got hit with a stall warning in sudden-victory, and he might’ve been lucky he didn’t get a second that would’ve ended the match. But alas, the bout went to tiebreakers.

Lockett was under first in tiebreakers. He got out, but there was some dispute as to just how quickly he did. At one point it was 5 seconds. At another, it was 11 seconds. It eventually change (for I think the last time) to 8 seconds. So, Swiderski went mad scramble to get out, and in the process might’ve kicked Lockett in a region men prefer to not be kicked.

That led to injury time, which allowed Swiderski to select neutral, and he went all out in search of a match-winning takedown that he got as the two tumbled out of bounds. Did Swiderski’s feet stay in long enough? I’m honestly not sure, but he was awarded the takedown and won 4-3.

The crowd was booing (in a match with two home wrestlers). There were a bunch of stoppages. It was just weird.

I leave Sunday unsure if I know any more about OSU’s 165-pound spot as I knew going in.

Swiderski also found himself in quite the scrap against Kody Routledge, another Cowboy, in the semis.

Swiderski ended up winning that match 4-1 in sudden-victory. The two gave each other a high five before the sudden-victory period commenced. Not long after that, Routledge was in on a leg, but Swiderski battled and battled until he was finally able the get to the edge of the mat and get free.

Then Swiderski started getting offensive. Laying prone, Swiderski roped up both of Routledge’s ankles, and the redshirt freshman fell like a tree out of bounds, as Swiderski was able to keep his toes inside the circle and secure the match-winning takedown.

It was a similar takedown to the end of the Lockett match.

141

The 141-pound spot in the Cowboys’ lineup was perhaps the most open of any, which led to wrestlers from far and wide (or lighter and bigger) to meet at the weight to scrap for it.

Freshman Jayden Raney ended up winning the tournament, besting Tagen Jamison — who started in this spot for two seasons for the Cowboys — 6-5 in the final.

Raney won it with a riding time point, as both guys scored takedowns in the match. They shared a fun sequence in the first period that Raney eventually came out on top of, but Jamison got the takedown back in the second.

Jamison also had a good scrap with teammate Ronnie Ramirez. Given Jamison wrestled at 149 last year and Ramirez wrestled at 57 kg (about 125 pounds) this summer, there was a notable size difference, but even with that, the bout went to tiebreakers.

There wasn’t a whole lot going on when the two were on their feet but in the first tiebreaker period, Jamison was able to hold Ramirez down the whole time. That led to Ramirez letting Jamison up, as instead of trying to hold the bigger Jamison down for 30 seconds, Ramirez went in search of a takedown.

Ramirez got in on a leg, but Jamison was able to stuff him and hold on for the win

Raney was probably the favorite to start at the weight going into the tournament, and him winning obviously doesn’t change that, but I left impressed with Jamison and Ramirez, as well. The Cowboys are quite deep in those lower weights.

Facundo Beats Norman

Alex Facundo got a big win against Stanford transfer Lorenzo Norman in the 174-pound final.

Those two appear to be in open competition for that spot that Facundo held down last season.

Both guys got takedowns in the first period, but Facundo had an outstanding close to the match, getting a match-winning takedown in the final moments.

Does this mean Facundo will be the unquestioned starter? Probably too early to tell that this early in the year, but he won the first battle.

OSU Placements

125: Rocklin Zinkin — 1st
133: Jax Forrest — 1st/Sam Smith — 5th
141: Jayden Raney — 1st/Tagen Jamison — 2nd/Ronnie Ramirez — 3rd/Cael Hughes — 5th
149: Sergio Vega — 1st /Jordyn Raney — 2nd /Beau Hickman — 4th
157: Landon Robideau — 1st/Kolter Burton — 2nd/Cutter Sheets — 4th
165: Casey Swiderski — 1st/Dee Lockett — 2nd/Kody Routledge — 3rd/Ishmael Guerrero — 5th
174: Alex Facundo — 1st/Lorenzo Norman — 2nd/Ethan Teague — 5th
184:Mikey White — 1st/Bennett Berge — 2nd
197: Cody Merrill — 2nd/Austin Johnson — 3rd
HWT: Dreshaun Ross — 1st/Kruz Goff — 4th