Cowboys in third place through first session of 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships

Amid a flurry of teams contending for a top-five slot in the team race, Oklahoma State has placed itself in good standing.

Through the first session of the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, the Cowboys are in third place with 14.5 team points. They went 10-0 in first-round bouts, clinching three in bonus-point fashion to advance 10 wrestlers to the second round for the first time since 1968, when the Cowboys won the team title. They trail first-place Penn State by 8, and second-place Iowa by only 0.5.

OSU started the day with an 11-2 major decision from fifth-seeded Troy Spratley against 28-seed Andrew Binni of Navy. A couple early takedowns and near-fall points propelled Spratley to a bonus-point win with relative ease.

Top-seeded freshman Jax Forrest logged OSU's next bonus-point win. He pinned OU's Carter Schmidt in only 2:00 of match time, which is slightly longer than his 47-second pin of Schmidt during OSU's 37-0 Bedlam win on Jan. 11. Nonetheless, a product of Forrest's unique talent that complements the Cowboys' lineup all so well.

From that point, it was smooth sailing for OSU.

The Cowboys garnered decisions from second-seeded Sergio Vega at 141, 8-seed Casey Swiderski at 149, 5-seed Landon Robideau at 157, 5-seed Dee Lockett at 165 — who narrowly missed out on a major decision — and 8-seed Alex Facundo at 174.

At 184, 22-seed Zack Ryder delivered with an upset of 11-seed Shane Cartagena-Wals of Rutgers. The bout transpired in defensive fashion, being tied 1-1 heading into sudden victory. But a thunderous takedown from Ryder seconds into the overtime period ended it, and the Cowboys reaped their rewards in turn.

Seventh-seeded Cody Merrill posted OSU's third and final bonus-point win of the opening session, courtesy of a 18-3 tech fall against 26-seed Ben Vanadia of Purdue. Merrill displayed what might have been his most compelling holistic offensive performance of his redshirt-freshman campaign, logging five takedowns en route to a dominant debut in nationals.

Seventh-seeded Konner Doucet closed things out with a 2-1 decision of 26-seed Luke Luffman of Illinois at heavyweight.

The second session begins at 6 p.m. central standard time. Nine of OSU's 10 are favored to win their second-round bouts, with Ryder being the lone exception at 184.