The Top 3 Potential Matchups in Oklahoma State’s Dual against Oklahoma

STILLWATER — The Cowboys’ Sunday dual isn’t short on storylines.

For one, it’s Bedlam. That’s always a big deal. Secondly, there’s a chance that high school phenom Jax Forrest makes the walk for the Cowboys after enrolling early, which would be a moment the entire wrestling world would be buzzing about. Then there are some potential matches particularly in the back half of this dual that if they were happening in March could be the difference in a spot on the NCAA podium.

Here are the top three potential matches of Sunday’s Bedlam dual.

3. 184: No. 10 Zack Ryder vs. No. 11 Brian Soldano

This bout would mark either guy’s biggest victory of the season.

Ryder, a redshirt freshman, is 0-3 against guys in the Top 10, but two of those matches were to Nebraska’s Silas Allred and all have been decided within a takedown. Outside of those three bouts, his only loss this year came to Cornell’s Christian Hansen at National Duals, an odd match that took seemingly half an hour because of blood time.

Ryder was on a six-match win streak before his most recent loss to Allred. That streak included a Cougar Clash title and three bonus-point wins.

Soldano is 11-2 on the season, which includes a third-place finish at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational last month. He’s had success putting his opponent’s shoulders to the mat this season with three pins.

2. 174: No. 11 Alex Facundo vs. No. 7 Carter Schubert

Penn State transfer Alex Facundo had a super difficult start to the season, wrestling four Top 5 opponents at national duals.

He went 1-3 at that event before a pair of bonus-point wins in the Air Force and Arizona State duals. Facundo then won the Cougar Clash and picked up another tech-fall win in the West Virginia dual before dropping a tight bout to Nebraska’s Christopher Minto, who Facundo beat at National Duals.

Schubert has sort of come out of nowhere this season to climb inside the Top 10 of the rankings. After going 6-4 in his first two seasons of college, Schubert is 11-3 this year. He won the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational at the beginning of December.

1. 197: No. 8 Cody Merrill vs. No. 9 DJ Parker

The lone blemish on redshirt freshman Cody Merrill’s record this season came via a late takedown to Iowa’s Massoma Endene, who currently ranks fourth at this weight.

Merrill has beaten his other eight foes, a run that has seen him pick up four ranked Ws.

DJ Parker is 12-3 on the year with his only losses coming to Penn State’s Connor Mirasola and two to Oregon State’s Justin Rademacher, who won a U20 world champ this past summer.

Parker has six ranked wins this season and came fourth at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, with both his losses at that event coming to Rademacher.

Bedlam

When: 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Watch: ESPN+

David Taylor’s Pre-Bedlam News Conference