TULSA, Okla. – The Oklahoma State wrestling program claimed its 56th overall conference championship and its first since 2021 Sunday night, finishing the 2025 Big 12 Wrestling Championships with a heavyweight title from Wyatt Hendrickson to seal the championship in the final bout of the tournament and 153.5 team points to defeat second-place Northern Iowa by four points.
Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor is the second coach in Big 12 history to win a team title in his first season as head coach, joining Cael Sanderson who won with Iowa State in 2007.
“It’s a team effort,” Taylor said. “You can talk about how every point matters. You can talk about the bonus points that we’ve been scoring as a team. We needed every single point today. There’s a lot of good experiences that we can take from this leading into the national tournament.”
With the team score tied at 149.5 between OSU and Northern Iowa and only the heavyweight title bout between Hendrickson and Arizona State’s second-seeded Cohlton Schultz remaining, OSU was in a must-win situation for the Cowboys to avoid a shared title at the event. As he’s done all season with his unblemished record, Hendrickson came through.
After recording a takedown in the first period that was answered with a reversal and back points, Hendrickson went into the second period with the score tied at 4-4. Fighting through an injury that kept him on the mat for about a minute, Hendrickson rose to the occasion and recorded an escape and another takedown in the second to take an 8-5 lead into the third. He then battled through a scoreless third period to take home his third career Big 12 individual championship and seal sole possession of the team crown for the Cowboys.
“I like adversity,” Hendrickson said. “I’ve had a lot of dominant wins this year and at the NCAA tournament it might not be that easy. It’s definitely not going to be a cakewalk by any means. Facing some of those hard situations is just going to prepare me even more for the national tournament.”
It was Hendrickson’s fourth-consecutive appearance in the Big 12 finals after winning in 2022 and 2023 and finishing runner up in 2024, all at Air Force.
The team championship marks OSU's 54th conference tournament title in wrestling. Oklahoma State has now claimed 20 of the 29 Big 12 tournament trophies that have been awarded in conference history, as well as the 2012 and 2013 regular season titles in the only years it was awarded.
With the addition of the individual title, OSU now has 122 Big 12 individual championships and 297 conference individual championships in its wrestling history.
As impressive as Hendrickson’s clinching win was, it was nearly made unnecessary by five closely contested Cowboy finals matches wrestled earlier in the night.
OSU’s other finalists included Troy Spratley (125 pounds), Tagen Jamison (141), Dean Hamiti Jr. (174), Dustin Plott (184) and Luke Surber (197). The first three fell in extra time and the latter two lost decisions, with all five facing top-tier opponents.
Spratley lost in sudden victory, 5-2, to West Virginia’s Jett Strickenberger; Jamison fell in tiebreakers to Northern Iowa’s Cael Happel, 2-2; Hamiti suffered his first loss of the season to two-time NCAA champion Keegan O’Toole of Missouri, 7-4, in sudden victory; Plott fell to defending NCAA champion Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa, 8-1; and Surber dropped his match to UNI’s Wyatt Voelker, 4-1.
It was the fourth consecutive Big 12 final for Plott, the third straight year for Hamiti to reach a conference final, the second appearance in the Big 12 finals for Spratley and Surber and the first conference final for Jamison.
There are nine Cowboy wrestlers who have secured their bid to the 2025 NCAA Championships, while Reece Witcraft will have to earn an at-large bid at 133 pounds to reach the tournament.
The Cowboys now turn their attention to the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, set for March 20-22.
2025 Big 12 Wrestling Championships
March 9, 2025 | BOK Center | Tulsa, Okla.
Session IV (Sunday Night)
Final Team Standings
1. Oklahoma State - 153.5
2. Northern Iowa - 149.5
3. South Dakota State - 110.0
4. Iowa State - 107.5
5. Northern Colorado - 79.5
6. West Virginia - 77.5
7. Oklahoma - 72.5
8. Missouri - 65.5
9. North Dakota State - 58.5
10. Wyoming - 58.0
11. Arizona State - 43.0
12. Utah Valley - 21.5
13. California Baptist - 15.0
14. Air Force - 11.5
