#2 Overall Cody Merrill Selects Oklahoma State

This afternoon the largest remaining domino in the Class of 2024 recruiting game fell as #2 overall Cody Merrill (Gilroy, CA) announced his collegiate intentions. Merrill has given a verbal to Oklahoma State University where he projects to wrestle at either 197 or 285 lbs. 

As a sophomore, Merrill won a 2022 California state champion at 195 lbs. He did not wrestle in the 2023 tournament due to injuries. On the national scene, Merrill has won Junior National freestyle titles in Fargo in each of the last two summers. Back in 2021, Merrill captured a stop sign in the 16U Greco-Roman division and was a runner-up in freestyle. Earlier that year, he placed top-four in both styles at the U17 World Team Trials. Those placements set the stage for Merrill to make the 2022 U17 World Team in Greco. In his first taste of international competition, Merrill went to Rome and came away with a bronze medal at 92 kg. 

Merrill was last seen at FloWrestling’s Who’s #1 where he put up a 14-3 major decision over Iowa State recruit Sawyer Bartelt to solidify his top billing. He’s currently ranked number one in the country at 220 lb by MatScouts. 

The Oklahoma State choice shouldn’t come as a surprise since Merrill’s high school coach is former Cowboy star Daniel Cormier, also of Olympic and UFC fame. 

We’ll have to see how the Oklahoma State lineup shakes out going forward. The Cowboys signed one of the top recruits in the Class of 2023, Christian Carroll, and he appears to be their heavyweight of the foreseeable future. Oklahoma State doesn’t have a set-in-stone plan at 197 lbs; however, they do have plenty of options at 174 and 184 that could grow into the weight. If Merrill maintains 197, then OSU would have an excellent one-two punch at the back of their lineup. 

Merrill joins #40 JJ McComas (Stillwater, OK) and Kolter Burton (American Falls, ID) in Oklahoma State’s Class of 2024. The Cowboys Class of 2023 was ranked #1 in the nation by InterMat.

For Merrill’s commitment profile and all of our recruiting information check out InterMat’s commitment page.