David Taylor's Oklahoma State Wrestling receives 2024 NCAA Champion in latest transfer portal pick

Wrestling Senior World Championships Belgrade 2023 - Source: Getty — David Taylor at the Wrestling Senior World Championships Belgrade 2023 - (Source: Getty)

David Taylor-led Oklahoma State men's wrestling team welcomed 2024 National champion Richard Figueroa to the college program. The latter will utilize his final year of eligibility under Taylor's tutelage.

David Taylor was bidding for the Paris Olympic podium when he committed to Oklahoma State as head coach of the wrestling team. He lost straight matches to Aaron Brooks and ended his run for title defense. He retired after that but returned to contend for the 2024 World Championships podium.

He won bronze after defeating Kamran Ghasempour and called his freestyle career off to focus full-fledgedly on coaching. He led six Cowboys to All-American honors at the NCAA Championships and two of his mentees to the National title in his first season.

As per recent news, another wrestler will have his guidance in his final year of college eligibility. Richard Figueroa, who competed with Arizona State Univeristy for the first four years of his college, has transferred to Oklahoma. He shared the news on his Instagram, captioning:

"Back in black and orange! To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” ― Winston S. Churchill. Saddle up for one last ride!"

Figuero redshirted in 2022 and had a poor 2023. However, he made his way to the top, winning the National title in his sophomore season in 2024.

David Taylor was all praises for Wyatt Hendricksen for defeating the Olympic gold medalist at the recently concluded 2025 Championships

David Taylor celebrating his win at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - (Source: Getty)

Taylor boasts two National titles in his impressive list of laurels. He also made it to a couple of Big Ten pole podiums when he competed with the Penn State Nittany Lions. As one of the most formidable wrestlers of his time, Taylor was amazed to watch Wyatt Hendricksen take the heavyweight win at the 2025 Nationals in his first season of coaching.

Reflecting on his approach with Hendrickson, he said to FloWrestling:

"That was crazy. I just think this is a sport where you know everyone's got a chance, you just got to believe and you know Wyatt believed and honestly not one time this year did we talk about a wrestling game, from the moment he got there you know was just, let's become a better wrestler".

The 34-year-old added:

"Everyone knew Wyatt for the pinner and he was great prolific pinner but he was pretty sloppy, made a lot of mistakes and that's what cost him in these tournaments, you get hurt and I told him when he get here, I said I'll plan for you.."

David Taylor earned two Dan Hodge Trophies, becoming the third wrestler in history to win multiple honors.`

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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Edited by Anisha Chatterjee