Oklahoma State led the Big 12 with six #1 seeds going into the tournament.

Troy Spratley (125), Jax Forrest (133), Sergio Vega (141), Casey Swiderski (149), Dee Lockett (165), and Alex Facundo (174) each earned the top spot at their weights. Perhaps the most interesting of OSU’s #1 seeds is Forrest, as he not only joined during the second semester, but he beat Arizona State’s Kyler Larkin and Iowa State’s Evan Frost for the top spot. 

Frost and Larkin each have one loss, but also each have more than 10 wins. Forrest has nine victories, but he’s undefeated. Oklahoma State coach David Taylor was unsurprised when he saw the seeds.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Taylor said. If he was the two or three seed, I wouldn’t have been surprised either. He’s had some good matches this year. I think on the coaches' ranking, he was a little higher and stuff. Maybe that’s why it happened. But… you can get caught in the weeds of that stuff. It just doesn’t do anyone any good, it really doesn’t. We’ve just gotta get ready to go, and whoever we’re wrestling the first match, that’s who we’ll focus on, and then we’ll move on from that.”

Oklahoma State’s postseason lineup last year featured zero freshmen and seven seniors. It was a far more seasoned lineup than the one the Cowboys are sending to Tulsa this year, which has only one senior to six freshmen. But make no mistake, these are no ordinary inexperienced freshmen. 

“These guys have wrestled in tournaments their whole life,” Taylor said. “And when you recruit some of the best guys in the country, they’re used to wrestling in big tournaments and World Championships, and big matches. That’s kind of probably why they end up here… But in terms of navigating the tournament, these guys have been doing that since they were little dudes wrestling at Tulsa Nationals.”

Taylor Staying In His Lane

Not necessarily in the Big 12, but the seeding selection process this year came under scrutiny in the Big Ten at multiple weights, most notably 174 and 133 pounds. Cael Sanderson, Penn State coach and David Taylor’s mentor, publicly criticized the selection process and suggested the coaches take up their own in re-seeding the tournament. Taylor was asked his thoughts on how tournaments should be seeded.

“I’m just gonna stay in my lane,” Taylor said. “Yeah, there’s no benefit in really talking about it. You can go through and you can kind of try to look at brackets — things are gonna happen that you’re not gonna be able to prepare for, and you’re just not gonna wrestle the way it goes. Just not much to really say about it.”

Schedule Change

Traditionally, the Big 12 tournament has been held on Saturday and Sunday. Now, the tournament is being scheduled a little differently. The Big 12s this year will be on Friday and Saturday. There will still be four sessions, but the finals will now be Saturday night rather than Sunday night. Taylor seems to be a fan of the scheduling change. 

“Sunday nights, it’s a little difficult,” Taylor said. “Probably for attendance in the finals, people just probably want to get home and get back to work on Monday. I think moving to Friday, Saturday is good. I think Saturday at 7 for the finals, it’ll be a really good attendance. I think last year it was a really good attendance, and I would imagine this year will be a really good attendance. I think that matters for our kids, our programs — to be able to have a place where you have the most successful event. I think Friday and Saturday is really good.”

The Forrest And Fix Fellowship

Oklahoma State’s only five-time All-American, Daton Fix, has a longstanding relationship with the program’s newest face, Jax Forrest. Fix and Forrest have trained together periodically since at least 2022, and now they’re full-time training partners. The parallels between the two can go on and on. Both were age-level World champions before they stepped on campus. They were both among the top high school prospects in their respective graduating classes. 

While Fix began his redshirt freshman year at 125 pounds, it was at 133 where he became a four-time NCAA finalist and was the first five-time champion in the Big 12 history. Fix has acted as a mentor for Forrest, who is now competing at the same college weight he did.

“He helps me so much with the wrestling piece and then just the mental piece,” Forrest said. “Everything that I’ve accomplished, that I want to accomplish, he’s been there. He’s been in that position, and he just helps me a lot. He’s really smart. He’s quiet, but once he starts talking, we’ve connected a lot just on the mat, off the mat, being with each other a lot. My mindset, and these big moments, I think, is so much better because of him.”