Oklahoma State finished the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships with three individual national champions, all freshmen in Sergio Vega at 141 pounds, Landon Robideau at 157 and Jax Forrest capping the night at 133.
Forrest and Vega became the first undefeated true freshmen national champions since 1947. It also marked the first time in NCAA history a program had three freshmen national champions.
Penn State had the team championship clinched, their fifth-in-a-row, so ESPN had the choice on how they wanted to end this edition of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. They chose to go with the most electric wrestler in the nation this season in mid-year enrollee and unbeaten Big 12 Champion and Outstanding wrestler Jax Forrest. The top seed at 133 pounds, Forrest came in 17-0 and did not allow an opponent out of the first period until his rival Aaron Seidel of Virginia Tech in the semifinals. Good choice, but that same choice led to a show stopper in the opening bout.
We start in reverse order with Jax Forrest and the top seed faced No. 2 seed Ben Davino of Ohio State with the unstoppable force in Forrest battling the immovable object in Davino. Davino had not been taken done in his collegiate career.
In the first period, Forrest saw just how good Davino’s defenses are as he repeatedly warded off Forrest shots. Davino was constantly moving. The second period Davino started down and 36 seconds in he got the escape to lead 1-0.
On to the third period and only the second time this season that Forrest trailed that deep into a match. Honestly, he doesn’t get that deep that often. Forrest down was able to escape in nine seconds. You almost got the feeling Davino wanted to be unattached to Forrest.
Then Forrest worked a single and quickly up the body and on top of Davino. Finally, with the takedown and lots of work, Forrest got into his signature ball and chain move, but Davino also got out of it. Forrest became satisfied with the ride and gained the riding point advantage. Davino escaped late and Forrest was the second unbeaten freshman champion of the night at 18-0. Davino taken down for the first time fell to 31-2.
“I just had to stay focused. I’m a crazy wrestler and I like doing crazy stuff,” Forrest told ESPN. “You can’t always do that and sometimes you got to be positional and you have to be smart. I showed that today.”
The move to leave high school early by Forrest proved right. The move by Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor to make Forrest the starter at 133 proved just as right.
“I didn’t come here to be an All-American. I called Coach Taylor and I said, ‘do you believe me that I can win a national title this year.’ He said, ‘if nationals were today, you’d be my guy.’ I had a few hard days in the room, but I trust my coaches and I trust my ability and national champ forever now.”
Back to the beginning of the night, another unbeaten Cowboys freshman Sergio Vega against unbeaten and two-time NCAA champion and Big 12 Wrestler of the Year Jesse Mendez.
Vega came out confident and Mendez was careful with taking shots. The official quickly gave a stall caution to Vega, which was difficult to understand. No score in the first period with a lot of handfighting, a Mendez trademark. Vega started the second period down and escaped after 42 seconds for a 1-0 lead.
In the third period, with Mendez starting down, Vega used a crazy elevator move to maintain control and ride for almost 30 seconds. Mendez got the escape to tie it 1-1. He tried a shot late and Vega worked a cradle but the two escaped each others grasp. It was on to sudden victory overtime.
A similar sequence as Mendez got deep on single leg, but Vega managed to recover and again worked to a cradle as he started with a crotch hold. He was working to get his leg free as he had control of Mendez. The primary official eyeballed it and with Vega’s leg coming partially loose, held up the three for the takedown. No review. Sergio Vega had knocked off a two-time NCAA champion and became the first true freshman to go unbeaten in NCAA wrestling since 1947.
“You just have to dig deep,” Vega said when asked by ESPN about the winning takedown. “I was tired the entire match. I’ve done hard things since I got to Oklahoma State. Casey Swiderski has helped me so much, all of my teammates. He got me ready for that moment and I wouldn’t have done it without him.”
Vega won 4-1 and immediately went to his brother and his father and former coach Danny Vega and shared tears of joy and hugs.
“So much of my life, I lost so much and he never gave up on me, him and my brother,” Vega said of the impulse to go straight to family. “It means so much to do it for them.”
The middle of the night was good for Oklahoma State and yes, technically Halloween took place in Haddonfield, Ill. Oklahoma State’s 157 pound freshman Landon Robideau that has the theme from that movie as his walk out song and the mask of Jason makes it’s presence at his matches is from Minnesota. This event was in Cleveland, Ohio. Hey it’s close enough.
Robideau was taking on defending NCAA champion Antrell Taylor, a wrestler from Nebraska that he lost to 3-2 in overtime in a dual in December at Lincoln.
This match had way more action than the score indicates and enough blood, most all of it from Robideau to make the director of the movie Halloween happy.
Robideau spent much of the first period with Taylor right leg but could not finish the move. The period ended scoreless and there were two of several blood timeouts. The second period Taylor was down and as he tried to escape he turned into Robideau and the Cowboy put him on his back and initally was awarded three near fall points. Nebraska coach mark Manning threw the red brick for the review and that shaved a point. Robideau led 2-0 after the review. After 51 seconds, Taylor got his escape and it was 2-1.
In the third period, Robideau escaped quickly and led 3-1 and then after he got a shot on Taylor and was trying to finish at the edge, Taylor was ruled to be crawling out and was called for his second stall, a point for Robideau. Coach Manning threw the brick again and the offsite review committee upheld the stall. Robideau led 4-1. Robideau picked up a stall call with 30 seconds left, but he was able to stay clear of Taylor and won a 4-2 decision.
“Just keep my head in and my hands in position, get re-attacks,” Robideau told ESPN’s Quint Kessenich of what he was thinking late in the third period. “Make sure I wasn’t overwrestling and stayed in position.”
“Michael” was celebrating all the way back in Stillwater at O’Brate Stadium.
This was the first time for two true freshmen to win individual national championships since 2018 and this time, unlike 2018 they were both from the same school. Robideau avenged that loss in december and finished his freshman season 21-2 and on top.
Cody Merrill was up at 197 pounds, the No. 7 seed was a grinder in getting to the finals against top seed Josh Barr of Penn State, who was the only wrestler in the country to have a 100 percent bonus rate. The closest match he had all year was eight points and a major decision win.
Merrill did a good job warding off an early single leg shot, but later in the first period went down on a solid double leg by Barr. he did escape to make it 3-1 just before the end of the first three minutes.
The second period, Merrill started down, and he narrowed the score with an almost immediate escape to 3-2. That was it for the second period. The official shouted he wanted more action as they started the third period with Barr down. Merrill was trying to ride and on a switch got caught with locked hands for a penalty point. As the call was made, Barr reversed Merrill to go up 6-2. Merrill got the escape, but that was it. Barr avoided him the final minute and took a 6-3 decision. A loss for Merrill, but the first decision for Barr this season. No other wrestler took the 24-0 champion that close. Merrill finished at 21-5, but he wrestled way over his seed.
Oklahoma State finished three-out-of-four in the championship finals and solidly in second-place as a team with 131 points. Penn State had a record 181.5, but it is safe to say the Nittany Lions know there is a team loaded with young champions that is coming for them.
NCAA Wrestling Championships Final Team Scores
1. Penn State - 181.5
2. Oklahoma State - 131.0
3. Nebraska - 100.5
4. Iowa - 92.5
5. Ohio State - 84.5
NCAA Wrestling Championships Finals Results
125 lbs - No. 1 Luke Lilledahl - Penn State (25-0) vs. No. 10 Marc-Anthony McGowan - Princeton 19-7): Lilledahl wins by Dec 2-1
133 lbs - No. 1 Jax Forrest - Oklahoma State (18-0) vs. No. 2 Ben Davino - Ohio State (31-2): Forrest wins by Dec 5-2
141 lbs - No. 2 Sergio Vega - Oklahoma State (24-0) vs. No. 1 Jesse Mendez - Ohio State (26-1): Vega wins by Dec. SV 4-1
149 lbs - No. 10 Aden Valencia - Stanford (21-7) vs. No. 1 Shayne Van Ness - Penn State (25-1): Valencia wins by SV-1 8-5
157 lbs - No. 5 Landon Robideau - Oklahoma State (21-2) vs. No. 2 Antrell Taylor - Nebraska (26-4): Robideau wins by Dec 4-2
165 lbs - No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink - Penn State (27-0) vs. No. 3 Mikey Caliendo - Iowa (22-5): Mesenbrink wins by TF 20-4 (5:13)
174 lbs - No. 1 Levi Haines - Penn State (26-) vs. No. 3 Christopher Minto - Nebraska 24-6): Haines wins by Dec 2-1
184 lbs - No. 3 Max McEnelly - Minnesota (24-2) vs. No. 1 Rocco Welsh - Penn State (24-1): McEnelly wins by Dec 4-3
197 lbs - No. 1 Josh Barr - Penn State (24-0) vs. No. 7 Cody Merrill - Oklahoma State (21-5): Barr wins by Dec 6-3
285 lbs - No. 2 Isaac Trumble - NC State (21-0) vs. No. 1 Yonger Bastida - Iowa State (29-1): Trumble wins by Dec 5-0
Oklahoma State finished the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships with eight All-Americans and it was the other four honorees that clinched the team second-place finish during the morning medal round.
Senior heavyweight Konner Doucet in his third NCAA Championships reached All-American status finishing in fourth. Junior Troy Spratley at 125 pounds was in the finals in 2025 and showed his determination and devotion to the team with a fall over Indiana’s Jacob Moran to earn the fifth-place spot on the podium.
Casey Swiderski at 149 pounds and tough Zack Ryder, who battled through a left shoulder injury, both earned eighth-place finishes.
