In the last few weeks, wrestler-turned-coach David Taylor has touched many things and turned them into gold. But it seems there are still some aspects where he’ll have to pull up his socks. But before we get to that part, to give you some context…

On December 6, the OSU Cowboy’s team entered unarguably the toughest regular-season wrestling contest in the nation—the 2024 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational. Being the coach, David Taylor had high hopes for his mentees, given how he had nitpicked his squad for Stillwater, putting aside his own preparation for the World Cup slated for late-October. He had invested time and brainpower to build a dream team ever since assuming the position in May 2024, just like he did at Penn State as a student-wrestler.

Thankfully, the debutant coach’s efforts paid off. At the CKLV 2024, OSU took the driver’s seat, and set up a record by entering the top five lists. The ten wrestlers in the team ended the contest by claiming a whopping 192 team points—just 6.25 points shy of the tournament record—and 77 points ahead of second-place finisher Nebraska in the team race. Notably, the previous record of 192.85 was also set by the OSU themselves, in 1983. They also combined for a 48-10 record with beating 31 ranked wrestlers and 18 conference opponents.

As per Oklahoma State’s official website, the 10 team wrestlers placed no lower than fifth, becoming the first team to do so since 1999 and just the fourth ever. The kicker? All these four feats have been achieved by OSU.

Looks like Taylor’s boys are on their way to rewriting history. But don’t celebrate too early as Penn State is here to give them a reason to cut their celebrations short!

As it stands, David Taylor’s old home is still flying high. Want proof? On December 9, Cliff Keen Athletic presented their rankings in WIN Magazine—in both TPI and dual-team rankings, Penn State had the last laugh, topping the charts. In the Tournament Power Index, Oklahoma State clinched the second spot whereas they slipped to the third position in the Top-20 Dual Teams list, behind second-ranked Iowa. 

Notably, this comes despite some OSU wrestlers stealing the spotlight at the recently concluded Las Vegas event…

Dean Hamiti (174-pound) and Wyatt Hendrickson (heavyweight) won the titles in their weight brackets and added a load of points to the Cowboy’s bag. Both the wrestlers picked up individual titles in their categories. Additionally, Hendrickson also won the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler award.

But in WIN Magazine’s charts, Hamiti took up the third rank on the individual list, akin to Hendrickson in the heavyweight category. But that’s not all…

Apart from them, there are several Cowboy wrestlers who made it big on the list. Take Dustin Plott, for example. The OSU senior also claimed the third spot in the 184-weight band. Troy Spartley, David Taylor’s dark horse, took a better position on the list, and made it to the second rank in the 125-pound category. Was this all? No, not certainly.

Instead, David Taylor is breaking his knuckles. The former world champion is surely enjoying his time in Stillwater. He is also hopeful that his Cowboys will make better use of the time. 

David Taylor is hopeful to see a better time 

David Taylor appears to have fit into the OSU fold. The former Olympic champion has seen numerous ups and downs during the last few months. He regards those as an integral part of his job. Furthermore, Taylor is gradually absorbing his mood while discussing his employment. The feeling even let him reveal his own emotions. In one such attempt, he said, “Yeah, it’s been good. It’s been fun. I mean, we had a really good environment on our matches here at home.” As per him, the environment followed only by the wrestlers’ positive engagement. 

After CKLV 2024, David Taylor took a moment to reveal his emotions. The scintillating results made him proud. At the moment, he also gave his flowers to the wrestlers. In an interaction, he said, “I think stuff that we’re working on a practice, you know, they’re willing to do it and I think it’s just Your expectations coming in where they met or surpassed. We’re just trying to get better, you know I think we look at this as an opportunity to wrestle a lot of really good competition and to see where we were at.” He also added, “You know, they’re listening and they’re they’re obviously they’re accepting and they’re being, wanting to get better. I think that was what we saw this weekend.”

He seems to have discovered the formula for achieving success as a coach already. It should only be a matter of time before they reach the top of the national wrestling rankings. Do you think they’ll be able to do it?