The Magic Man has pulled a rabbit out of his hat. 

First-year Oklahoma State coach David Taylor made a late lineup switch, subbing Teague Travis into the Cowboy lineup for the postseason in place of Carter Young, who held the 149-pound starting spot throughout the season. 

“It’s a tough decision,” Taylor said. “As a coach, we gotta feel like we put our 10 best guys out there. Teague’s excited and hungry to compete. We’re looking forward to supporting him.”

Travis began the season as Oklahoma State’s 157-pound starter, notching a win against Utah Valley’s Ryker Fullmer and an overtime loss to Oregon State’s Ethan Stiles before suffering an injury that’s kept him sidelined from competition ever since. 

Travis’ injury prompted the Cowboys to insert Caleb Fish into the lineup at 157, where he’s posted a 16-7 record. It appeared as if Travis would miss the remainder of the season, but his work with strength coach Nick Montoni and trainer Nick Goldstein gave Oklahoma State another option. 

“He had his injury, and guys can take two routes,” Taylor said. “You can kinda just say, ‘I’m done until next year.’ But he started feeling good and just followed his plan with Nick (Montoni) and our trainer. He just was always working. As he could get on the bike, he was on the bike. As he was training, he was training. He took the initiative to get his weight down to get in great shape.”

Travis placed fourth at 157 at last year’s Big 12 Championships and reached the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships. 

Seed Talk 

Oklahoma State earned some favorable seeds in the Big 12 Championships. Travis, who hasn’t competed yet this season at 149, is unseeded. The other nine Cowboys are all seeded fourth or better.  

While most of the seeds are favorable, there are some — like #4 Troy Spratley (125) and #4 Tagen Jamison (141) — who face tougher bracket paths. 

Jamison said seeds aren’t reflective of what guys can do on the mat. 

“If you look at the seeds from every conference, none of them match up with what each guy can do at his weight,” Jamison said. “I don’t look into the seeds a whole lot. I mean, I saw that I was fourth. I’m excited to prove people wrong. I get to avenge a couple losses that I don’t think I should have lost.”

Here are OSU’s seeds:

125: Troy Spratley, #4

133: Reece Witcraft, #4

141: Tagen Jamison, #4

149: Teague Travis, NR

157: Caleb Fish, #2

165: Cameron Amine, #3

174: Dean Hamiti Jr., #1

184: Dustin Plott, #2

197: Luke Surber, #1

HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson, #1

Spratley received a tough draw as the #4 seed after posting a 17-3 record with only one conference loss to the #3 seed, Jett Strickenberger of West Virginia. Granted, he never wrestled the #1 or #2 seeds. 

Taylor said not to oversimplify it and just go out and wrestle. 

“I glanced through them, it’s just the conference tournament, it’s tough, you gotta wrestle and beat the guys,” Taylor said. “We talk about our guys building a reputation. Nothing’s changed from the dual meets we’ve had. We’ve seen a lot of these opponents throughout the year, a couple of them we haven't seen. We just gotta go out and compete, that’s what it’s about.”