David Taylor to Compete in the 2024 World Team Trials

Today's entries for the 2024 World Team Trials confirmed what many had suspected for the last few weeks - 2020 Olympic gold medalist and first-year Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor would come out of his brief retirement to compete at 92 kg. Taylor fell in the finals of the 2024 Olympic Team Trials to fellow Penn State star Aaron Brooks and was named head coach of the Cowboys a few weeks later. 

Taylor has already put together one of the most complete careers in US wrestling history - excelling at every possible level. He was the #1 overall recruit in the high school Class of 2009 and then went on to win two NCAA titles and two Hodge Trophy's at Penn State. After college, he captured three world titles and a world silver medal, to go along with his Olympic gold. 

Taylor's arrival in Stillwater has injected a shot of energy into an Oklahoma State program that finished 10th in the nation in 2024 and missed out on the top ten in each of the two previous seasons. Since Taylor's taken over, the Cowboys have received commitments from four of the top-56 wrestlers in the Class of 2025. Three of them were previously committed to other schools.

The 92 kg bracket could be quite imposing for Taylor. Since Zahid Valencia was a world medalist at the weight in 2023 - he'll be waiting in the best-of-three finals. Based on the pre-seeds (of which Taylor is now #1), he could have multi-time All-American Marcus Coleman in the challenge tournament quarterfinals, followed by either Mike Macchiavello or Eric Schultz in the semis. Then potentially Trent Hidlay, Jay Aiello, or Pat Downey in the challenge tournament finals, before a Sunday series against Valencia.