CLEVELAND — Jax Forrest had only answered a few questions about the NCAA wrestling championship he’d just won late Saturday night when his post-match news conference was cut off.
Forrest, one of Oklahoma State’s three true freshmen to win titles, was needed back on the floor of Rocket Arena to accept the runner-up trophy with his team.
And while Saturday night was highlighted by OSU’s three individual champions, it was also about team growth for the Cowboys, who are intently focused on scaling the mountain of the Penn State dynasty, and Forrest couldn’t miss the chance to celebrate with his teammates.
“We’re really young,” Forrest said when his interview resumed. “We’re losing one guy from this year and we’re gonna be really good. We kick each other’s butt in practice and it just shows out there on the mat. We’re tough. When we’re in the tough matches, we beat guys up.
“We’re just gonna keep getting better.”
Under legendary coach Cael Sanderson, Penn State has won all but two titles since 2011, including the last five after defeating the Cowboys by 50.5 points Saturday. For the second year in a row, the Nittany Lions set the team points record for the event with 181.5.
Yet OSU’s 131 points are the second-most ever scored by a runner-up, and the Cowboys had a record of their own as the first team to have three true freshmen win titles. Two of them — Forrest and 141-pound Sergio Vega — finished undefeated seasons on Saturday, becoming the first true freshmen to accomplish that feat since 1947.
“We’re all just some killers who wanna win,” Vega said. “We wanna be national champions and we didn’t get that job done this year, but I guarantee we will do it.”
The three freshmen who won titles, and the other three who didn’t, are a foundational structure on which Taylor can easily build.
“We’ve got a real brotherhood at Oklahoma State,” Landon Robideau said after winning the 157-pound title to complete a 21-2 freshman season. “And it’s something I’ve never felt before, even going through high school having really close friends. It’s not the same.
“Something’s different in Stillwater. We have the best people around us and I think it’s showing.”
With as dominant as Penn State has been, it was clear it would take a seismic move to shake the program’s grasp atop the sport.
When Chad Weiberg hired Taylor two years ago, that might’ve been the move. Time will tell, but OSU looks like a program in the early stages of its incline, nowhere near the peak.
Taylor was masterful in his transfer portal recruiting when he was hired in 2024, landing a pair of wrestlers who went on to win national championships and announce the program’s return from the slight lull it saw at the end of John Smith’s career.
Taylor’s first true high school recruiting class produced the guys who won titles Saturday night. His next class of signees includes five more top-100 prospects, three of whom are in the top 10 in the Raney brothers, Jayden and Jordyn, plus heavyweight Dreshaun Ross.
With a small senior class this year, and only one regular starter in the group, Taylor is building the type of depth that further suggests the rise of the Cowboys is real.
Still, the scoreboard Saturday night showed the long climb that remains, and Taylor’s perspective of it is simple.
“We gotta some score more points,” he said, not in a dismissive way, but a strategic one. “It takes a team effort. What Penn State has built is incredible. You’re talking about the best team in history. But what we’re putting together is a great team. We have a very strong nucleus of guys who really believe, and you see the belief.
“We’ll keep that momentum building. We have a lot of high-character kids, and we gotta keep working towards it. It doesn’t happen overnight. It definitely doesn’t. But we’re just gonna try and keep getting better.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State wrestling taking steps to close gap with Penn State
About the Author
