On Friday, Oklahoma released its schedule for the 2025-26 season and it’s an intriguing one. Roger Kish’s team has some different opponents and some excellent challenges for a revamped Sooner team. Oklahoma reloaded on the fly this offseason by hitting the transfer portal hard. They also have a highly regarded recruiting class that was primarily kept in redshirt status last year.
We’ll start with the actual schedule itself. Rather than reposting it in order, we’ve broken it into three parts. The non-conference duals, conference duals, and special events.
These are the schedules that we’ve already previewed: Cornell, Little Rock
 
Non-Conference
November 14th: Penn State (away)
November 15th: Bucknell (away)
November 23rd: Indiana (home)
December 13th: Rutgers (away)
December 14th: Rider (away)
 
Conference
January 11th: Oklahoma State (away)
January 16th: Air Force (home)
January 18th: West Virginia (away)
January 30th: Iowa State (home)
January 31st: Northern Iowa (home)
February 8th: Arizona State (home)
February 13th: Missouri (away)
February 15th: Wyoming (away)
March 6/7th: Big 12 Championships (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
 
Special Events
November 9th: TigerStyle Invite (Columbia, Missouri)
December 5/6th: Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Las Vegas, Nevada)
December 21st: Norman Duals (Duke, SIU Edwardsville, Long Island)
 
Number of Top 20 teams from the 2025 NCAA Championships: #1 Penn State, #3 Oklahoma State, #9 Northern Iowa, #14 Missouri, #18(t) Arizona State, #18(t) West Virginia
This is quite the schedule for Oklahoma. There’s no easing into this one as they go to Missouri’s TigerStyle Invite to start the season. It’s not a huge event, but it has more quality than quantity in terms of wrestlers and teams. I’ve seen word that, in addition to the hosts, Little Rock, Maryland, Purdue, and South Dakota State are expected to compete.
Just a week later, Oklahoma takes on the four-time defending champion Penn State Nittany Lions…on the road. At this point, we’re not exactly sure how the 133/141 slots will materialize for PSU; however, it’s a safe bet that all ten Sooner wrestlers will be tested.
I love to see new matchups and duals we generally don’t see very often. A clash with Penn State definitely fits the bill. The Sooners are the rare team that will face Penn State coming off a win against the Nittany Lions. The last time these two teams squared off was at the 2010 Virginia Duals, a contest won by OU, 22-15. Oklahoma has actually won its last two against Penn State, though the VA Duals match was the only one during the Cael Sanderson era.
Another very notable new wrinkle on Oklahoma’s schedule is an appearance at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. They haven’t been to this tournament in a few years (2021), so it’s another place to see some fresh opposition. The tournament is littered with some of the top Big Ten schools (Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State), so it’s one that can significantly help or hurt from a rankings standpoint - but is helpful either way in developing young talent.
Overall, I like that the OU staff has really turned up the scheduling intensity. They could have a lineup that features a handful of starters from their #3 ranked Class of 2024. Let’s see what the young guys are made of!
Speaking of the Big Ten, there are first-semester duals with Indiana and Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are a perennial top 20 team, while Indiana might be pushing for that status. Both will be very competitive, yet winnable for this OU team.
As always, one of the key dates on the Oklahoma schedule is the Bedlam Dual with Oklahoma State. This one takes place on January 11th in Stillwater. Kish’s staff likely has a bad taste in their mouth after last year’s meeting. David Taylor’s team rolled to a 35-3 win on the Sooners' home mat.
A couple of weeks later, they have a tough home weekend that sees visits from Northern Iowa and Iowa State. The Cyclones had a down year in 2024-25, but have reloaded and will be a huge challenge. UNI has lost a couple of big guns, but will bring the fight as we’ve been accustomed to seeing from a Doug Schwab team.
Once again, the Big 12 Championships will be close to home, in Tulsa, so the Sooner fans won’t have to go far to cheer on their squad in the postseason.
Notable Potential Matchups for Oklahoma’s Stars
Beric Jordan (125)
November 14th: Luke Lilledahl (Penn State)
November 23rd: Jacob Moran (Indiana)
January 11th: Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State)
January 18th: Jett Strickenberger (West Virginia)
January 30th: Stevo Poulin (Iowa State)
January 31st: Trever Anderson (Northern Iowa)
 
Alex Braun (141)
November 14th: (Penn State?)
November 15th: Dylan Chappell (Bucknell)
November 23rd: Henry Porter (Indiana)
December 13th: Joey Oliveiri (Rutgers)
January 11th: Cael Hughes (Oklahoma State)
January 18th: Jordan Titus (West Virginia)
January 30th: Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State)
February 8th: Emilio Ysaguirre (Arizona State)
February 15th: Cole Brooks (Wyoming)
 
Rafael Hipolito (157)
November 14th: Tyler Kasak (Penn State)
December 13th: Conner Harer (Rutgers)
January 11th: Teague Travis (Oklahoma State)
January 18th: Ty Watters (West Virginia)
January 30th: Vince Zerban (Iowa State)
February 8th: Kaleb Larkin (Arizona State)
February 12th: J Conway (Missouri)
February 15th: Jared Hill (Wyoming)
 
Peyten Kellar (165)
November 14th: Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State)
November 15th: Noah Mulvaney (Bucknell)
November 23rd: Tyler Lillard (Indiana)
December 21st: Aiden Wallace (Duke)
January 11th: Ladarion Lockett? (Oklahoma State)
January 30th: Aiden Riggins (Iowa State)
January 31st: Ryder Downey (Northern Iowa)
February 8th: Nicco Ruiz (Arizona State)
February 12th: Maxx Mayfield (Missouri)
 
Brian Soldano (184)
November 14th: Rocco Welsh (Penn State)
November 23rd: Sam Goin (Indiana)
December 13th: Shane Cartagena-Walsh (Rutgers)
January 11th: Zack Ryder (Oklahoma State)
January 18th: Ian Bush (West Virginia)
January 30th: Isaac Dean (Iowa State)
February 12th: Aeoden Sinclair (Missouri)
February 15th: Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming)
 
DJ Parker (197)
November 14th: Josh Barr (Penn State)
November 15th: Dillon Bechtold (Bucknell)
November 23rd: Gabe Sollars (Indiana)
December 13th: Remy Cotton (Rutgers)
December 14th: Brock Zurawski (Rider)
January 11th: Cody Merrill (Oklahoma State)
January 18th: Rune Lawrence (West Virginia)
January 30th: Rocky Elam (Iowa State)
February 12th: Evan Bates (Missouri)
February 15th: Joey Novak (Wyoming)
There are lots of fun potential matches we could see this year involving Oklahoma wrestlers. One I’m particularly focused on is Beric Jordan at 125 lbs. Jordan was the highest-ranked wrestler (#16) in their special Class of 2024. In his first year as a starter, Jordan will get tested early and often. Oklahoma has duals that should see him face three returning All-Americans (Spratley/2nd, Lilledhal/3rd, and Poulin/8th), plus the returning Big 12 champion (Strickenberger). The CKLV could feature the returning national champion (Robinson) along with another All-American and ACC champion (Ventresca).
Another Sooner I’m paying close attention to is Peyten Kellar (potentially at 165 lbs). If that’s the case, he could have a very healthy set of potential opponents. The reason I’m looking at Kellar is because he’s transferring in from Ohio. The Big 12 schedule, plus OU’s other challenging events, is a sharp uptick from the MAC slate. Can Kellar handle top 15 or top 20 competition every time out?

It was another day and another gold medal for the United States at the U20 World Championships. Yesterday, PJ Duke and Justin Rademacher struck gold for the men’s freestyle team. Today, that distinction went to Luke Stanich at 65 kg. Additionally, two other Americans wrapped up their tournaments on Tuesday, bringing home some hardware. Will Henckel earned the silver medal at 79 kg and Connor Mirasola won bronze at 92 kg.
Stanich finished his tournament with a 4-3 win over Japan’s Reiji Uchida in the gold medal match. It was a fitting end for a wrestler who had to grind out every one of his victories. Though he ultimately won in the opening round via tech, Stanich was down to Turkiye’s Abdullah Toprak 8-0, before gassing him out and putting together a remarkable comeback. In the quarterfinals, Stanich needed a second-period takedown to defeat Rutgers’ Alex Nini (representing Italy), 3-3 on criteria. In the semis, Stanich also used some second-period heroics to get back Russia’s Amal Dzhandubaev, 3-1.
It was more of the same in the gold medal contest against Uchida. Stanich struck first with a perfectly timed leg attack in the opening stanza, which gave him a 2-0 lead at the break. In the second, a step out point in favor of Uchida brought the score to 2-1. Stanich extended his lead to 4-1 with an excellent reshot within the first minute of the period. Shortly after, Uchida got a takedown of his own, to pull the score to 4-3. That’s how the match would end, as Uchida was never close to scoring again on the Lehigh All-American.
With more wrestling left tomorrow, the US men’s freestyle team already has three gold medals, a benchmark that they’ve hit only twice within the last 20+ years (2017, 2021).
There will be two opportunities for the American men to add to that total tomorrow as Marcus Blaze (61 kg) and Max McEnelly (86 kg) both advanced to gold medal matches Tuesday morning.
Blaze and Russian Maghomedkhan Magomedkhanov both exchanged scores early in the bout for a 2-2 score. Blaze added another takedown and Magomedkhanov was cautioned for not opening up on the bottom. That led to a sequence that blew open the contest in Blaze’s favor. On the par terre restart, Blaze turned Magomedkhanov twice in a gut-wrench for a commanding 9-2 lead. After a failed challenge, it grew to 10-2. From that point, Blaze cruised to a 15-4 tech and a berth in the world finals.
With a bronze medal for the 2024 U20 World Championships, Blaze is guaranteed his second career U20 medal.
McEnelly had much more of a struggle in his semifinal bout with Iran’s Abolfazl Rahmani. A pair of second period step out points gave the Iranian a 4-3 lead. Never deterred, McEnelly continued to push and eventually got in on a leg attack and secured the go-ahead points and 5-4 advantage. During the closing seconds of the bout, McEnelly was called on a questionable fleeing caution, knotting the score at five; however, he still held the advantage on criteria. The bout ended 5-5 in McEnelly’s favor.
The Minnesota All-American is a past U17 world medalist, but this is his first U20 team (and therefore first medal).
Henckel also faced off with an Iranian in a pivotal bout, the 79 kg gold medal match. He did not fare as well as McEnelly. A sequence early on in the second period ended up changing the complexion of the bout. Trailing 3-2, Henckel forced a shot and gave up a takedown and was turned, which put his deficit to 7-2. As the second period progressed, Mahdi Yousefi was visibly tired and Henckel was able to inch closer with a handful of push-out points. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough and Yousefi prevailed, 8-6. Henckel settled for a silver medal.
The final American to take the mat on Tuesday was Connor Mirasola in a bronze medal bout against Azerbaijan’s Anar Jafarli. It took a bit before Mirasola was able to break through the defense of his stout Azeri foe; however, once he did it opened the floodgates. Mirasola went into the second period up 4-0 and never let up - resulting in a 10-0 tech.
Also, on Tuesday was the first set of women’s freestyle matches. Three weight classes got underway.
At 59 kg, Aubre Krazer was the only American woman to advance to the semifinals. There, she met the defending U20 world champion Sakura Onishi. Onishi only needed 2:30 to rack up a tech fall and advance to Wednesday’s finals. With the loss, Krazer will drop down to a bronze medal match against an opponent that will be determined through the repechage process.
Speaking of repechage, one other American woman has medal hopes alive as Jordyn Fouse was pulled into repechage at 68 kg. Fouse dropped her first match of the tournament, 13-2, to Japan’s Ray Hoshino. Fouse will start Wednesday with a repechage bout against Turkiye’s Ayse Erkan, a U20 world silver medalist in 2024.
In addition to medal matches and repechage, tomorrow will feature four women’s freestyle brackets getting underway (55, 62, 65, 76kg). 
 
Men’s freestyle 
61 kg
Round of 32: Marcus Blaze over Sandro Hungerbuehler (Switzerland)  10-0
Round of 16: Marcus Blaze over Sargis Begoyan (Armenia)  Cautions
Quarterfinals: Marcus Blaze over Askat Toktomatov (Kyrgyzstan)  11-1
Semifinals: Marcus Blaze over Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov (Russia)  15-4
Gold Medal Matchup: Marcus Blaze vs. Ahora Khateri (Iran)
 
65 kg
Gold Medal Match: Luke Stanich over Reiji Uchida (Japan)  4-3
 
79 kg
Gold Medal Match: Mahdi Yousefihajiver (Iran) over Will Henckel  8-6
 
86 kg
Round of 16: Max McEnelly over Razmik Yepremyan (Armenia)  10-0
Quarterfinals: Max McEnelly over Dachi Papinashvili (Georgia)  10-0
Semifinals: Max McEnelly over Abolfazl Rahmani (Iran)  5-5
Gold Medal Matchup: Max McEnelly vs. Bozigit Islamgereev (Russia)
 
Women’s Freestyle
57 kg
Round of 16: Carissa Qureshi over Csilla Van Os (Netherlands)  15-2
Quarterfinals: Anna Stratan (Kazakhstan) over Carissa Qureshi  9-2
 
59 kg
Round of 32: Aubre Krazer over Anel Skokayeva (Kazakhstan)  11-1
Round of 16: Aubre Krazer over Erdenebolar Lkhagvasuren (Mongolia)  10-3
Quarterfinals: Aubre Krazer over Marta Hetmanava (Belarus)  9-1
Semifinals: Sakura Onishi (Japan) over Aubre Krazer  10-0
 
68 kg
Round of 16: Ray Hoshino (Japan) over Jordan Fouse Fall 4:05
 
Final Medal Round Matches
Men’s freestyle
57 kg
Gold Medal Match: Magomed Ozdamirov (Russia) over Sumit Malik (India)  8-5
Bronze Medal Match: Nurdanat Aitanov (Kazakhstan) over Baiaman Kerimbekov (Kyrgyzstan)  11-0
Bronze Medal Match: Vasif Baghirov (Azerbaijan) over Ion Bulgaru (Moldova)  8-2
 
65 kg
Gold Medal Match: Luke Stanich (USA) over Reiji Uchida (Japan)  4-3
Bronze Medal Match: Abdullah Toprak (Turkiye) over Amal Dzhandubaev (Russia)  14-10
Bronze Medal Match: Arman Muskiyan (Armenia) over Viktor Borohan (Ukraine)  4-0
 
79 kg
Gold Medal Match: Mahdi Yousefihajiver (Iran) over Will Henckel (USA)  8-6
Bronze Medal Match: Davit Tchetchelashvili (Georgia) over Amit (India)  9-6
Bronze Medal Match: Said Saidulov (Russia) over Ion Marcu (Moldova)  11-0
 
92 kg
Gold Medal Match: Sherzod Poyonov (Uzbekistan) over Kamil Kurugliyev (Kazakhstan)  3-2
Bronze Medal Match: Gadzhimurad Gadzhibatyrov (Russia) over Sorato Kanazawa (Japan)  15-5
Bronze Medal Match: Connor Mirasola (USA) over Anar Jafarli (Azerbaijan)  10-0
 
Wednesday’s Gold Medal Matchups
Men’s freestyle
61 kg: Marcus Blaze (USA) vs. Ahora Khateri (Iran)
86 kg: Max McEnelly (USA) vs. Bozigit Islamgereev (Russia)
 
Women’s Freestyle
57 kg: Felicitas Domajeva (Norway) vs. Tapsya (India)
59 kg: Sakura Onishi (Japan) vs. Karin Samuelsson (Sweden)
68 kg: Ray Hoshino (Japan) vs. Srishti (India)

Here are the full results from Tuesday's session one. We'll have a more in-depth recap at the conclusion of today's medal round matches.
Men’s freestyle 
61 kg
Round of 32: Marcus Blaze over Sandro Hungerbuehler (Switzerland)  10-0
Round of 16: Marcus Blaze over Sargis Begoyan (Armenia)  Cautions
Quarterfinals: Marcus Blaze over Askat Toktomatov (Kyrgyzstan)  11-1
 
86 kg
Round of 16: Max McEnelly over Razmik Yepremyan (Armenia)  10-0
Quarterfinals: Max McEnelly over Dachi Papinashvili (Georgia)  10-0
 
Women’s Freestyle
57 kg
Round of 16: Carissa Qureshi over Csilla Van Os (Netherlands)  15-2
Quarterfinals: Anna Stratan (Kazakhstan) over Carissa Qureshi  9-2
 
59 kg
Round of 32: Aubre Krazer over Anel Skokayeva (Kazakhstan)  11-1
Round of 16: Aubre Krazer over Erdenebolar Lkhagvasuren (Mongolia)  10-3
Quarterfinals: Aubre Krazer over Marta Hetmanava (Belarus)  9-1
 
68 kg
Round of 16: Ray Hoshino (Japan) over Jordan Fouse Fall 4:05
 
**Qureshi and Fouse are still eligible for repechage