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Men’s College Notebook: Oklahoma Cruises Over Iowa; NC State Wins Thriller in Raleigh

Forrest Takes Off the Redshirt in Style

All week, the Oklahoma State coaching staff was keeping a tight lip on if they would send out true freshman Jax Forrest against Iowa this weekend. If he were to wrestle, it would mean he burns the redshirt and will be in the postseason lineup.
Not only did he compete, but he made sure the nation knew he was coming for the national championship at 133 pounds less than two months after he graduated high school and enrolled a semester early.
Sporting a perfect 9-0 record and climbing up to #6 in the national rankings, he scored a top-10 win for the second straight weekend. Last weekend, it was fellow true freshman sensation Aaron Seidel from Virginia Tech; this weekend, it was two-time NCAA finalist Drake Ayala of Iowa.
Thanks to a takedown and four-point near fall from a cradle in the second period, Forrest breezed to a 19-3 tech fall win. It was the first time Ayala had surrendered bonus points this season.

Cowboys Cruise Over Iowa

Forrest dominated the headlines from the nationally televised dual on ESPN in front of a sellout crowd of 12,629 in Stillwater, but the Cowboys continued to make noise heading into the postseason as a team.
They avenged their lone loss of the season (18-16 to Iowa at the National Duals in November) by winning seven of the 10 bouts, with four going for bonus, and three of those were falls in the 32-11 win.
The win was the largest victory over Iowa since 1961, and it’s the most points the Cowboys have scored against the Hawkeyes.
Oklahoma State hurried out to a 17-5 lead … more at … https://www.themat.com/news/2026/february/23/men-s-college-notebook-oklahoma-cruises-over-iowa-nc-state-wins-thriller-in-raleigh

March 1, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

National Wrestling Hall of Fame Inductees

Sun Devil Wrestling Head Coach Lee Roy Smith to be inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame
Coach Smith will be one of four distinguished members to be inducted into the class of 2026
STILLWATER, Okla. – The National Wrestling Hall of Fame announced on Thursday afternoon that former Sun Devil Wrestling Head Coach Lee Roy Smith will be inducted as a distinguished member of its 2026 Hall of Fame class. The Class of 2026 will be honored and officially inducted during the 49th Honors Weekend on June 5 and 6, 2026, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Ben Askren, Tervel Dlagnev, and Shannon Williams-Yancey, as distinguished members, will join Smith. Also joining the hall will be Meritorious Official honoree Zach Errett; Order of Merit recipient James L. Porter, MA, LAT, ATC; Medal of Courage recipient Patrick Morrissey; and Outstanding American honoree Retired United States Army Major General Michael J. Nardotti, Jr.
“The National Wrestling Hall of Fame is honored to announce the Class of 2026, an illustrious group whose enduring contributions exemplify the foundational principles of our sport. Every Hall of Fame class is special, but this one is even more so as it includes Lee Roy Smith, who will be retiring next year after more than 20 years of superb leadership as executive director of the Hall of Fame,” said John Harris III, National Wrestling Hall of Fame Board of Governors Chairman. 
Smith becomes the third member of his family to be inducted as a Distinguished Member, joining brothers John Smith and Pat Smith, who were inducted in 1997 and 2006, respectively. The Smiths are the second family to have three Distinguished Members, joining the Peery family: father Rex Peery, inducted in the Charter Class of 1976, and brothers Ed Peery and Hugh Peery, both inducted in 1980. There are seven other sets of brothers who have been inducted as Distinguished Members: Ed Banach (1993) and Lou Banach (1994); Tom Brands (2001) and Terry Brands (2006); Stanley Henson (1978) and Josiah Henson (2006); Cliff Keen (1976) and … more at … https://thesundevils.com/news/2025/10/30/former-sun-devil-wrestling-head-coach-lee-roy-smith-to-be-inducted-into-national-wrestling-hall-of-fame

March 1, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | | Leave a comment

ACC Wrestling Matches All-Time High with 39 NCAA Automatic Qualifiers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) — The Atlantic Coast Conference will send 39 automatic qualifiers to the 2026 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, matching the league’s all-time high and reinforcing the ACC’s position among the nation’s elite wrestling conferences.
The 39 pre-allocations equal the conference record previously set in 2022 and reflect the ACC’s outstanding performance throughout the 2025-26 regular season. The NCAA Championships will take place March 19-21 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
The ACC’s automatic qualifiers are distributed across 10 weight classes: 125 (5), 133 (3), 141 (5), 149 (4), 157 (4), 165 (4), 174 (3), 184 (4), 197 (3) and 285 (4).
Pre-allocations to each qualifying tournament were determined based on regular-season performance through February 23, using a sliding scale that measured win percentage, coaches’ ranking and RPI ranking. Wrestlers had to meet minimum standards of a .700 winning percentage, a top-30 coaches’ ranking and a top-30 RPI ranking, with a maximum of 29 wrestlers qualifying per weight class.
The 2026 ACC Wrestling Championship is set for Sunday, March 8, at Cassell Coliseum on the campus of Virginia Tech, where the conference’s automatic bids to nationals will be secured.
Following the completion of conference championships nationwide, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will select 42 at-large qualifiers on March 10. Championship brackets and seeds will be revealed … more at … https://theacc.com/news/2026/2/26/acc-wrestling-matches-all-time-high-with-39-ncaa-automatic-qualifiers.aspx?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

March 1, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment