After a bounce back year which ended with the Oklahoma State Cowboys crowning two National Champions, and finishing 3rd overall at the NCAA tournament, a new season, and a much different team, will be taking the mats in Gallagher Iba Arena at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 7, 2025 against the Stanford Cardinal. If you cannot make it to Stillwater (you absolutely should), you can watch on ESPN+.
While this will be the first real test of the year for most of the Pokes, two new transfers showed out at the NWCA All Star Classic last week. #5 ranked 149 pounder Casey Swiderski (ISU transfer) beat the #2 ranked Lachlan McNeil (Michigan) by the score of 4-2. 1t 184, #7 Ranked Zack Ryder (Penn State transfer) dominated #4 Jaxon Smith (Maryland) 14-4. Smith has only been majored by two other guys in his collegiate career, Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks, so Ryder is in very good company. It was also the only major decision of the night. It is expected for OSU to have five completely new faces, and up to three more that have not seen much varsity mat time for the Pokes, with only Spratley and Doucet (and maybe Travis) having significant amount of previous starts.
This is the first dual meet for OSU, while Stanford was upset last weekend, 19-12, by Utah Valley, although Stanford was without two of their best wrestlers, Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin who also wrestled at the All-Star Classic last weekend, and at least two predicted starters, Nico Provo and Lorenzo Norman. All four are expected to wrestle this dual.
According to Intermat, this matchup pits the #6 ranked dual team (OSU) vs. #11 (Stanford), so there should definitely be some good wrestling. Let’s get to the likely matchups and predictions. As usual, rankings are taken from (Flo/Intermat).
125 (2/2) Troy Spratley (0-0) vs. (11/11) Nico Provo (0-0) or Edwin Sierra (0-1)
Nico is the penciled in starter for Stanford, but did not make the mat against Utah Valley last weekend, instead being replaced by Edwin Sierra, who lost to Bridger Ricks. Spratley and Provo have only faced each other once, way back in January 2023 where Nico took a 6-4 win in sudden victory. Since then, their paths have gone different directions. Nico has not even made the blood round the last two years, while Spratley made the finals last year. PREDICTION: Spratley easily beats Nico by a decision, if he goes, or gets big bonus against Sierra. OSU 3-0.
