Champion Cowboys Up and Down on Big 12 Championship Night as Forrest and Vega Shine
TULSA – The Big 12 Championships for Oklahoma State was a tale of two halves. You don’t normally associate halves with wrestling. Wrestling matches have three periods, but Big 12 Champion team champion Oklahoma State had eight finalists at 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174 and then a skip to heavyweight. The Big 12 was kind enough to lay it out with four OSU title matches, the break at 184 and 197 where OSU had Zack Ryder (injured) finish eighth at 184 and Cody Merrill wrestle through to third at 197.
There were two clear standouts and they came at 133 pounds and 141 pounds, the end of the night just as somebody that mapped the schedule out must have thought of.
Jax Forrest is still new, still young, and still unbeaten. The only disappointment with Forrest was he didn’t land his fourth tech fall of the tournament. However, his 15-2 major decision was more entertaining than the tech falls from Friday. Forrest got under his opponent Kyler Larkin of Arizona State and somehow slipped through his legs to gain control and get the opening takedown. From that point it was managerie of moves from the 19-year-old mid-year enrollee.
He used his ball and chain move multiple times and one time captured it from a standing position. This is a move where he locks up his opponent’s arm and leg from the same side in a way where he can control his position. In the second period he scored a four-point near fall and then reset and got a two-point near fall all that while rolling up 3:28 in riding time.
“It’s called ball and chain,” Forrest said of the move. “I started doing it when I was young and it worked, so I never looked back from it. I just keep it going and developing it each day.”
He was down to start the third and got the escape and a takedown and another two-point near fall. He was working hard to the end to get that tech fall, but fell just short at 15-2. Forrest is 16-0 and rolling toward the NCAA Championships.
No surprise, Forrest was handed a championship belt and named the Most Oustanding Wrestler. He deserved it.
“Yeah, I’m different I guess. My dad wrestled and my mom swam and athletics is just built in me,” Forrest said being humble. “You wouldn’t guess it but my mindset built in me is to score points and I would have got that tech (fall) but there were just a couple of minor things that I’ll work on the next two weeks.”
Sergio Vega at 141 rematched with his closest contested opponent from the regular season in fellow Tucson Sunnyside High School grad Anthony Echemendia of Iowa State.
The wrestling was exciting but a scoreless first period followed escapes by each in the next two periods. On to overtime and sudden voctory saw Echemendia with Vega’s leg up in the air and then into a dangerous hold that caused them to go back to neutral. In the tiebreaker, Vega escaped in 18 seconds.
Coming back, he had to work extremely hard but was able to ride out the next 30 seconds and take a 2-1 decision to stay unbeaten at 22-0 on the season.
“It was time to get tough,” Vega said of that last 30 seconds. “I’ve been doing it all year. I don’t care what is happening in the match. It is just get tough and grit out that match.”
Forrest and Vego are the first Big 12 freshman champions from OSU since 2021 and they are the 14th and 15th in school history.
“We call all those little guys the squirrels and I found out that a group of squirrels is a scurry,” head coach David Taylor said of his lower weight wrestlers including Forrest and Vega. “That’s how they are and that is how they wrestle in practice. They are their best practice anc competition going into these tournaments.”
Not to be overshadowed but No. 1 seed Troy Sprately at 125 pounds was looking for his first Big 12 individual championship in three tries and he third time was Spratley’s time. Going against Iowa State’s Stevo Poulin, a familiar foe, he won it in the third period in clutch fashion as went from down to a reversal for two points. He was working on riding Poulin out, but Spratley later said he couldn’t just do it that way. He turned the Cyclone and picked up a two-point near fall for a 5-2 decision.
“I’ve been here twice and have come up short,” Spratley said sporting a classic black eye from practice this week. “I said the third time that I’m getting one and I meant it when I said it. That is what you saw when I went out there and got a turn. I could have ridden him out, but I wanted to make a statement and get a turn.”
All of the Cowboys qualified in Tulsa at the Big 12 Tournament for the NCAA Tournament.
The championships started at 149 pounds with Oklahoma State’s top seed Casey Swiderski going againat No. 6 seed Caleb Rathjen of Northern Iowa. Swiderski started the scoring with an ankle grab to a single leg for a takedown. Rathjen escaped and the first period ended 3-1 with only 21 seconds of riding time.
Swiderski started the second period down and escpaed quickly for a 4-1 lead. The third period started with Rathjen down and Swiderski working to keep him there. He worked very hard and got the riding time advantage. The escape for Rathjen came at 45 seconds left. The push was on and Swiderski was called for stalling. He was smart and won it 5-3 with riding time to earn the Cowboys their first champion of the night and clinch the team title with 163 points.
After that it got rough as second seed Landon Robideau took the mat at 157 pounds against top seed Kaleb Larkin of Arizona State. Robideau had a single leg and a good chance, but a counter by Larkin resulted in the takedown and a 3-0 lead. Larkin started the second period down and got the quick escape for a 4-0 advantage.
Robideau kept working and got a high single leg and had Larkin bouncing around on his right leg but couldn’t finish. He did finally get both legs for a takedown to make it 4-3, but that was it. No other scoring and Larkin took the title at 157. It was just the second loss of the season for Robideau.
At 165, Dee Lockett was coming in with momentum, but so was Nicco Ruiz, the third-seed from Arizona State. The first period both wrestlers were working from their knees a lot and there was no scoring. Ruiz got the escape to start the second and led 1-0. Lockett started down and got the escape to start the third period to tie it 1-1.
Neither wrestler wanted to go all out with the chance of exposing their body and giving up a takedown. It was on to sudden victory and again, no scoring although there was one heck of a scramble. In the tiebreaker Ruiz was down to start and escaped in five seconds for a 2-1 lead. The second 30 second period Lockett had to start neutral to get a takedown. It is tough to get an escape in less than five seconds. No more scoring and Ruiz won a low scoring 2-1 decision for the championship.
The final of the first half of Oklahoma State wrestlers in the finals was at 174 pounds with top seed Alex Facundo taking on third seed Cam Steed of Missouri. Steed just looks bigger and in a first period scramble with no takedown, Steed was able to get Facundo tilted and the count was on. It was a four-point near fall and a 4-0 lead.
In the second period Facundo started down and got the quick escape to go 4-1. The third period, Facundo cut Steed loose to trail 5-1. He knew what he was doing as he worked a takedown to make it 5-4. The Steed escape made it 6-4, still within a takedown. Then in the final seconds, Facundo was going all out and extended where Steed was able to take control of his frame for another takedown. He cut Facundo loose for an escape to make it 9-5. Steed had riding time and the final was 10-5.
Three straight championship match losses, two of them by top seeded Cowboys in Lockett and Facundo.
The second half didn’t get any better, but honestly, Iowa State’s Younger Bastida was a prohibitive favorite at heavyweight. It was wrestled tight like a lot of heavyweight matches and the first period was three minutes of feeling out the competition.
The Cowboys Konner Doucet scored first being on bottom to start the second and got the escape. Midway through the second period, Bastida started working and got Doucet’s legs. He still had to flip him to find control for the takedown and a 3-1 lead. Bastida got the escape in the third period for a 4-1 lead and that is how it finished. Bastida staid unbeaten at 28-0 on the season and Doucet dropped to 20-3 on the season.
Doucet’s match was the last Oklahoma State loss of the night.
“We never one time talked about winning this tournament,” head coach David Taylor said of the Big 12. “This is great but we are focused on being our best version at the end of the year. We had a good tournament and we need to keep working and be ready to compete at nationals.”
The NCAA Championships start in Cleveland on March 19-21.
Big 12 Wrestling Championship
BOK Center - Tulsa, Okla.
Championship Night Results
Team Scores
1. Oklahoma State 176.0
2. Iowa State 144.0
3. Arizona State 94.0
4. Missouri 84.5
5. West Virginia 77.5
Individual Championships
149 lbs. No. 1 Casey Swiderski - Oklahoma State (17-5) 5-3 dec. No. 6 Caleb Rathjen - Northern Iowa (12-6)
157 lbs. No. 1 Kaleb Larkin - Arizona State (24-2) 4-3 dec. No. 2 Landon Robideau - Oklahoma State (19-2)
165 lbs. No. 3 Nicco Ruiz - Arizona State (24-5) 2-1 OT tb1 dec. No. 1 Dee Lockett - Oklahoma State (19-2)
174 lbs. No. 3 Cam Steed - Missouri (18-5) 10-5 dec. No. 1 Alex Facundo - Oklahoma State (19-6)
Hwy. No. 1 Younger Bastida - Iowa State (28-0) 4-1 dec. No. 2 Konner Doucet - Oklahoma State (20-3)
125 lbs. No. 1 Troy Spratley - Oklahoma State (19-3) 5-2 dec. No. 2 Stevo Poulin - Iowa State (17-7)
133 lbs. No. 1 Jax Forrest - Oklahoma State (16-0) 15-2 MD No. 2 Kyler Larkin - Arizona State (21-2)
141 lbs. No. 1 Sergio Vega - Oklahoma State (22-0) 2-1 dec. OT-tb1 No. 2 Anthony Echemendia - Iowa State (22-3)
