Oklahoma State didn’t just beat Nebraska on Friday night. The No. 2 Cowboys put a clean stamp on the difference between themselves and the No. 3 team in the country, rolling to a 27-6 win in front of a sold-out crowd at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
David Taylor made sure the message was clear afterward.
“Tonight’s the standard,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “Every opponent we wrestle, no matter who it is, come. It’s worth the drive to watch this team compete.”
The night started with the kind of swing match that can tilt a dual fast, and true freshman Rocklin Zinkin delivered it. At 125 pounds, he edged former national champion Vincent Robinson 2-1 in tiebreakers, hanging tough through a tight, physical match and refusing to give Robinson the opening he wanted.
Zinkin had chances on a few takedowns while both wrestlers were standing, but couldn’t finish. Once the bout reached tiebreakers, he rode Robinson out in the first period, then stayed solid when Robinson chose to let him up and chase a takedown. Zinkin didn’t crack.
“Rocklin going out there stole the momentum tonight,” Taylor said. “Honestly they just couldn’t really recover.
But also, it’s the way our team wrestled. Our team smothered them.
We smothered them all night long. We were on them, pushing them to the edge, snapping them down.
“I don’t know how many stall calls we earned, but we could’ve earned double that. I just think they got tired of probably calling them for stalling, which is not really fair to our guys because it’s the way that they wrestle.”
Zinkin has spent much of the season piling up points - he entered Friday averaging 19.4 a match - but this was a different kind of test. Against Robinson, the freshman showed he can do more than run up a score. He can win a grinder against elite competition.
That result also adds another layer to the 125-pound picture for OSU. Troy Spratley has not wrestled yet this season, and Taylor pointed to the competition at the weight without treating it like a fixed hierarchy.
“We obviously know coming into this season we have a lot of really great kids and great competition, and that stuff just sorts itself out as the year goes on,” said Taylor on 125 moving forward. “It’s not a 125, or 33, or 41 - it’s not any weight classes specific.
You just earn it. You earn it by going out and wrestling.
“Troy is gonna be back. Really excited for having Troy be back.
I feel really confident that Troy’s gonna be back this next weekend, and really looking forward to him being back. Obviously Troy has done an amazing job the last couple years, and just wanted him to be healthy.
And as these guys continue to wrestle, just gotta make the most of your opportunities when you go out and wrestle and enjoy what you do.”
From there, the Cowboys kept stacking wins.
Landon Robideau won his national title rematch with Antrell Taylor, 3-1 at 157 pounds. Robideau, the 2026 157-pound champ, improved to 2-1 against Taylor, the 2025 157-pound champ, and he did it the hard way. All of his scoring came in the third period, first with an escape and then with back-to-back stall points as he kept driving forward and forcing the action.
“Points are hard to come by - it’s just hard to come by when a guy just goes backwards the whole time,” Taylor said. “Just it is what it is.
There was a few opportunities he could’ve scored, leg up in the air. I’m sure he’s kind of thinking about those right now, but the kid (Antrell Taylor) is really good.
I mean, he’s really good at what he does. He’s hard to score on.
He’s really good, and Landon continuing to make opportunities and continuing to try to separate himself.”
After the intermission, Casey Swiderski added another big one, beating three-time All-American Meyer Shapiro 4-2 at 165 pounds with a third-period takedown. Swiderski was down at 149 last season, while Shapiro arrived at Nebraska after a decorated run at Cornell and came in 35-0 in duals.
“It’s the first time he’s dealt with the 10-minute intermission, and he’s back there and he’s like, ‘Dave, you gotta slap me, get me going,'” Taylor said. “I’m like, ‘Casey, you got 10 minutes, dude.
You’re not ready for the slap. You got to wait a little bit.’
He’s like, ‘Ahh.’ I’m like, ‘No, you gotta chill.
You got 10 more minutes before you wrestle.’ But he was so excited to go out there and compete.”
Sergio Vega kept his own line clean at 149, beating Anthony Echemendia 4-2. Vega scored the only takedown of the match in the first period and still has not been taken down in college.
At 184, Mikey White kept looking like a problem. He beat Penn State transfer Lucas Cochran 9-5, taking him down three times and pulling away late after holding a 3-2 lead entering the third. White is still developing, especially from bottom, but he already wrestles like a guy who can make life miserable for anybody across from him.
OSU also got bonus points in back-to-back matches. Jax Forrest teched No. 8 Jacob Van Dee 21-6 at 133, and freshman Jayden Raney followed with a 10-2 major over Lincoln Sledzianowski at 141.
Nebraska’s only wins came at 174 and heavyweight. Lorenzo Norman made his OSU dual debut at 174 after losing to teammate Alex Facundo at the Cowboy Invitational, and he was in a battle with No. 2 Christopher Minto before Minto pulled away for a 5-1 win with a third-period takedown.
At heavyweight, Dreshaun Ross took his first loss, falling 4-1 to Cade Ziola on a last-second takedown after an exchange Ross initiated. Ziola, a redshirt freshman ranked 14th nationally, got the final say in a bout that looked like it could go either way. Taylor said both wrestlers will be ranked higher than 14 by March.
The Cowboys now turn to Arizona State in Tempe next Friday, the day before the Cowboy football team plays there.
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