Wrestling Notebook: Doucet Returns, Swiderski Goes Up in Weight, Transfer Integrating Well

STILLWATER — The big story from David Taylor’s Tuesday meeting with the media was the Cowboys’ coach calling out the champs, but he shared a lot of good info about the ongoings of his program.

Here were some of the other talking points.

Doucet Is Back?

Media members were handed rosters before walking into the interview room, and the most surprising part of that roster was the fact that Konner Doucet was on it.

Doucet’s first season as a Cowboy was in 2020-21, which means the 2026-27 season would be his seventh year in Stillwater. The first of those years was COVID, and then Doucet redshirted in 2021-22. It sounds as if the year he is getting back was the 2024-25 season, when Wyatt Hendrickson won a national title and Doucet was hurt.

“There’s that window of guys getting an extra year before that five-for-five started,” Taylor said. “When Wyatt came him, (Doucet) was hurt for most of the season and was able to get that last year.

“It’s good to have him around. Konner is just a great leader, really awesome person to have in room to have wrestling every single day and to have on our team. So, we’re excited to have him for another year.”

Last season was Doucet’s best, as he finished fourth and earned his first All-America honor.

Taylor and Co. are bringing in a blue-chip heavyweight prospect this year in Dreshaun Ross. Ross finished as the No. 4 overall wrestler on MatScouts’ big board rankings for the 2026 class. Ross won at the U20 World Team Trials this summer and will represent to United States at the U20 World Championships this month in Slovakia at 125 kg.

“Those guys (Hendrickson included) are scrapping,” Taylor said. “They’re so good for each other. They are so good for each other. They’re great for Dreshaun. They’re giving him a lot of experience and a lot of really valuable information.

“Typically when you have a good heavyweight, you can’t find a person for them to wrestle, and it’s so nice that they have each other. I mean, you’re talking about really high level training, and it’s what it takes to be great.”

Swiderski Up in Weight

If you followed the summer wrestling circuit, this won’t be too big a surprise, but Casey Swiderski was listed at 165 pounds on OSU’s updated roster.

Swiderski was OSU’s 149-pounder last season, taking eighth at nationals while becoming a two-time All-American.

At U23 Nationals this summer, Swiderski competed up at 74 kg (about 163 pounds). He took fifth in one of the more loaded brackets of the event, going 6-2. One of those losses was to Nicco Ruiz, the reigning Big 12 champ at 165 pounds, where Swiderski kept it tight but lost 5-4. He also had a nice win against Ohio State’s e’Than Birden, who went 18-8 last season at 165.

In some ways, Swiderski moving up two weight classes was surprising, given he started his college career at 141 pounds, but if you think back to about this time last year, the Cowboy RTC put on a semi-secret dual in Texas against the Chinese National Team, where Swiderski wrestled up at 74 kg and didn’t look small.

Swiderski’s move coincides with the belief that Sergio Vega will make the move up from 141 to 149 for his sophomore season after Vega won a national title as a true freshman without getting taken down.

“Casey and Sergio last year, spent a lot of time with them helping them with their weights,” Taylor said. “Casey’s kind of, definitely a little bit bigger now, but he was cutting a lot of weight. So, honestly he doesn’t look really all that much different to me than what he did. He’s a high-energy guy, but it’s hard for him to wrestle with a lot of energy last year (when he was cutting weight). So, I think now he just has a lot more — yeah, I would say energy.

“I thought he wrestled pretty good this summer. Made a little mental mistake at U23s, but that’s also kind of Casey sometimes. Gotta keep working on getting better, but I would say his adjustment to getting a little bigger has gone well.”

Transfers Integrating Well

There was a wonder going into the offseason as to whether Taylor would use the portal given he already had a young team that finished comfortably in second at the NCAA Championships.

Taylor didn’t go crazy portal shopping, but he did add Bennett Berge from South Dakota State and Lorenzo Norman from Stanford.

Berge finished fourth at the 2024 NCAA Championships at 184 pounds. He bumped up to 197 pounds last season, going 17-7.

It’s believed Berge will be back down at 184 in Stillwater. That’s a spot Zack Ryder manned last season, but late last year, Ryder suffered a shoulder injury that he toughed out to finish eighth at NCAAs. Taylor wasn’t asked about Ryder’s status Tuesday, but there’s a chance he isn’t ready to go by the start of the season.

After qualifying for nationals as a redshirt freshman in 2025, Norman wrestled just two matches last season and missed the rest of the year with injury. He’s a 174-pounder, a spot Alex Facundo held down for the Cowboys last season. Facundo went 18-8 in his first year with the program, going 2-2 at NCAAs.

“I think the portal is definitely an extension of your recruiting,” Taylor said. “When we first got here, we were obviously in a big recruiting phase in all aspects. Now with having two really good recruiting classes that have come in, great kids, you’re just kind of thinking about where do you need. Maybe if it’s depth or maybe it’s injuries. There’s just different factors that go into it, but ultimately it’s really no different. The people that do the best here are really the guys that really wanna be here. I think when guys really wanna be here, they’re here for the right reasons.

“I would say that definitely with Bennett and Lorenzo. I think they’re both great kids that love wrestling and really felt like, ‘Hey, for me to make the best jump in my career, this is where I need to be.’ Those are the kind of guys that make a great culture and make a great team. They’ve done a great job, and every year is a year-to-year basis. There’s no this is the formula, this is what we’re gonna do-type deal, but just continue to try to find the right people to fit what we’re trying to do. That makes your best team.”