A Look at Oklahoma State's Recent History with Blue Chip Recruits

Last night, we learned that the top heavyweight prospect in the Class of 2026 and the #3 overall junior, Dreshaun Ross, has given the Oklahoma State Cowboys a verbal commitment. His pledge gives David Taylor’s team verbals from three of the top 22 juniors in the country - joining #14 Rocklin Zinklin and #22 Kellen Wolbert. 

Ross’s commitment also felt like the appropriate time to dig into Oklahoma State’s recent history with elite, blue-chip recruits. The story of the overlooked walk-on who turns into an excellent college wrestler is great, but more times than not, you need the thoroughbreds to win the NCAA wrestling race. The 2024 NCAA finals are evidence of this statement. 

Of the ten national champions from last year, Virginia Tech’s Caleb Henson had the “lowest” recruiting ranking of the bunch. He was deemed the #16 overall recruit in the Class of 2022. Eight of the ten champions were ranked in the top ten of their respective classes. Expanding it out to the NCAA finalists from 2024, five of the runners-up were ranked in the top ten and another was ranked #11. The outliers were #49 Lucas Davison and #59 Mitchell Mesenbrink (after the cut-off in the recruiting rankings - Mesenbrink performed in a way worthy of a much higher ranking). 

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