OSU Wrestling: National Duals Invitational Bracket Set, Cowboys Open with Cornell

The second year of the David Taylor era starts a month from Tuesday, and not long after that the Cowboys will be in Tulsa along with 15 of the other top wrestling programs in the country.

The bracket draw for the National Duals Invitational took place Tuesday night. The top four teams were seeded, with the Cowboys earning the 4 seed. The rest of the teams were drawn in randomly.

OSU will open the tournament against Cornell. The Big Red finished seventh at NCAAs last season.

OSU and Cornell have met in six duals previously, with the Cowboys winning all of those.  The teams last met in 2016, where the Cowboys won 23-19 in Gallagher-Iba Arena off the back of bonus-point wins from Kaid Brock, Anthony Collica and Joe Smith.

Here is the bracket in full:

The National Duals Invitational Bracket is set – let’s hear your picks!

All the action goes down live on FloWrestling November 15-16 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/HBRpSMiQQc

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) October 7, 2025

OSU is on the same side of the bracket as rival Iowa, the tournament’s top seed. The Hawkeyes and Cowboys wouldn’t meet until the semifinal if they both got to that point, but with a field as deep as this one, that’s not a given.

Nebraska and Ohio State are the other seeded teams, as the 2 seed and 3 seed, respectively.

A win in the first round would see the Cowboys wrestle against the winner of NC State and Northern Iowa. OSU beat both of those teams last season, beating the Wolfpack 34-3 and the Panthers 22-14. If NC State and OSU both win, it could set up a rematch of the 125-pound NCAA final from last season between Troy Spratley and Vincent Robinson.

A lot has changed from last year, though, on all of these teams. The Cowboys, for example, graduated seven of the 10 wrestlers from their regular lineup from last season.

Taylor has rebuilt via the transfer portal, but this squad will be notably younger than Taylor’s first in Stillwater.

Returning is Spratley, the national runner-up at 125 pounds. Tagen Jamison is also back from last season’s lineup. There has been outside talk during the offseason on if Jamison can continue to make 141 pounds or if he’ll need to move up in weight. Cael Hughes, Teague Travis and Carter Young each wrestled portions of the season in OSU’s lineup last year and are all back on the team, as well.

The Cowboys added Zack Ryder (Penn State), Richard Figueroa (Arizona State), Alex Facundo (Penn State), Casey Swiderski (Iowa State) and Gary Steen (Penn State) from the portal, with most of those guys expected to factor into things.

There is also a good younger crop of guys on campus. Cody Merrill is expected to step into the Cowboys’ 197-pound spot after redshirting as a freshman last season. Taylor brought in a stacked class of freshmen that includes guys like LaDarion Lockett, Landon Robideau, Sergio Vega, Kody Routledge, Kruz Goff and others.

The National Duals Invitational takes place Nov. 15 and 16 at BOK Center in Tulsa. Most of the event will be streamed on Flo. The final will be on ESPNU.