OSU Wrestling: No. 2 Cowboys Thump No. 3 Nebraska 27-6

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STILLWATER — The gap between the No. 2 and the No. 3 wrestling teams in the country seems to be rather large.

Oklahoma State hammered Nebraska 27-6 on Friday in front of a sold-out crowd in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

“Tonight’s the standard,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “Every opponent we wrestle, no matter who it is, come. It’s worth the drive to watch this team compete.”

It’s hard to start anywhere but 125, where true freshman Rocklin Zinkin took out former national champion Vincent Robinson 2-1 in tiebreakers.

Zinkin got close on a few takedowns while the two were standing up but was unable to convert. When the bout got to tiebreakers, Zinkin rode Robinson out in the first period, leading Robinson to let Zinkin straight up to go for a takedown, but Zinkin didn’t give it up.

“Rocklin going out there stole the momentum tonight,” Taylor said. “Honestly they just couldn’t really recover. But also, it’s the way our team wrestled. Our team smothered them. We smothered them all night long. We were on them, pushing them to the edge, snapping them down.

“I don’t know how many stall calls we earned, but we could’ve earned double that. I just think they got tired of probably calling them for stalling, which is not really fair to our guys because it’s the way that they wrestle.”

To this point, Zinkin has been piling on points, as he averaged 19.4 a match entering Friday. But that wasn’t going to be the case against a wrestler of Robinson’s caliber, so Zinkin proved not only that he can beat a former national champ but he can also win a tight match.

What was once a fun start for a true freshman has quickly turned into Zinkin being a legit guy in the national title picture. Troy Spratley has yet to take the mat this season, but he had previously had some troubles against Robinson, going 1-4 against him the past two seasons.

“We obviously know coming into this season we have a lot of really great kids and great competition, and that stuff just sorts itself out as the year goes on,” said Taylor on 125 moving forward. “It’s not a 125, or 33, or 41 — it’s not any weight classes specific. You just earn it. You earn it by going out and wrestling.

“Troy is gonna be back. Really excited for having Troy be back. I feel really confident that Troy’s gonna be back this next weekend, and really looking forward to him being back. Obviously Troy has done an amazing job the last couple years, and just wanted him to be healthy. And as these guys continue to wrestle, just gotta make the most of your opportunities when you go out and wrestle and enjoy what you do.”

There were plenty of other big OSU wins.

Landon Robideau won his national title rematch against Antrell Taylor, winning 3-1. Robideau, the 2026 157-pound champ, is now 2-1 against Taylor, the 2025 157-pound champ.

It was a unique match in that all of Robideau’s points came in the third period, with him escaping and then forcing back-to-back stall points in quick succession. Robideau was moving forward all match. The stalls were well-earned.

“Points are hard to come by — it’s just hard to come by when a guy just goes backwards the whole time,” Taylor said. “Just it is what it is. There was a few opportunities he could’ve scored, leg up in the air. I’m sure he’s kind of thinking about those right now, but the kid (Antrell Taylor) is really good. I mean, he’s really good at what he does. He’s hard to score on. He’s really good, and Landon continuing to make opportunities and continuing to try to separate himself.”

Then after the intermission Casey Swiderski picked up a massive win against three-time All-American Meyer Shapiro at 165 pounds. Swiderski won 4-2 with a takedown in the third period.

Swiderski was down at 149 pounds last season, while Shapiro was a three-time All-American at Cornell at 157 pounds before transferring to Nebraska this offseason. Shapiro was 35-0 in duals entering Friday.

“It’s the first time he’s dealt with the 10-minute intermission, and he’s back there and he’s like, ‘Dave, you gotta slap me, get me going,'” Taylor said. “I’m like, ‘Casey, you got 10 minutes, dude. You’re not ready for the slap. You got to wait a little bit.’ He’s like, ‘Ahh.’ I’m like, ‘No, you gotta chill. You got 10 more minutes before you wrestle.’ But he was so excited to go out there and compete.”

While at Iowa State last season, Anthony Echemendia gave Sergio Vega two of Vega’s tougher matches. Vega beat Echemendia 4-2 on Friday, picking up his takedown in the first period. Vega has still yet to be taken down as a college wrestler.

At 184, Mikey White continued to look freaky. He beat Penn State transfer Lucas Cochran 9-5. White took Cochran down three times in the bout. The Cowboy had a 3-2 lead going into the third before scoring two of his takedowns and wrestling to the whistle.

White is still raw in some areas — most notably wrestling from bottom — but he is already a tough out and will only get tougher as he continues to gain experience.

Two Cowboys won via bonus points on Friday, and they came in back-to-back matches. Jax Forrest teched No. 8 Jacob Van Dee 21-6 before freshman Jayden Raney majored fellow freshman Lincoln Sledzianowski 10-2 at 141 pounds.

The only bouts the Cowboys lost came at 174 in heavyweight.

Lorenzo Norman made his OSU dual debut at 174 pounds after losing to teammate Alex Facundo at the Cowboy Invitational. Norman was in a scrap with No. 2 Christopher Minto, but Minto won it 5-1 with a takedown in the third.

Dreshaun Ross suffered his first loss, dropping his bout to Cade Ziola 4-1 on a last-second takedown off an exchange that Ross started. Ziola is a redshirt freshman and ranked 14th nationally. Both of those guys will be ranked higher than 14 come March.

Up next, the Cowboys hit the road to wrestle Arizona State in Tempe next Friday — the day before the Cowboy football team plays in Tempe.

Results

Post-Dual Interviews