All-American Smith to Transfer to Ohio State

Just a few hours ago, we posted an article about the top-six wrestlers available in the transfer portal. One of them was Jaxon Smith, an All-American for the University of Maryland. In that article, we speculated that Smith could draw attention from a trio of power programs looking for a 174 lber (Ohio State, Minnesota, and Virginia Tech).

That proved to be accurate as Smith has announced via social media that he will transfer to Ohio State.

Smith qualified for the NCAA Championships on three occasions while wrestling for Maryland. In 2025, he broke through and earned All-American honors by taking sixth at 184 lbs. As a redshirt freshman, Smith was an NCAA bloodround finisher. Also that season, Smith had his best Big Ten finish, third.

After getting on the NCAA podium in 2025, Smith was selected to participate in the NWCA All-Star Match to kick off the 2025-26 campaign. He then saw action in the next two weeks of the season and then was lost for the year due to an injury. Smith reportedly lost more weight than anticipated due to the injury and intends to go 174 lbs for the 2026-27 season. That is a perfect fit for Ohio State, which did not have a logical successor to Carson Kharchla in the pipeline.

With Smith’s addition, Ohio State could unveil a lineup that includes four returning All-Americans, along with additional podium threats. In 2025-26, Ohio State won the National Duals Invitational and then finished fifth in Cleveland at the NCAA Championships.

Smith came to Maryland as the #36 overall recruit in the high school Class of 2021. He was the centerpiece of a Terp recruiting class that was ranked eighth in the nation.