Wrestler of the Year: Yonger Bastida, Iowa State (Heavyweight)
Coach of the Year: David Taylor, Oklahoma State
Freshman of the Year: Jax Forrest, Oklahoma State (133 pounds)
Newcomer of the Year: Alex Facundo, Oklahoma State (174 pounds)
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Ian Bush, West Virginia (184 pounds)
IRVING, Texas – The Big 12 Conference’s annual wrestling awards were announced on Thursday with Iowa State, Oklahoma State and West Virginia earning all honors. The Cowboys took home three of the five awards after winning the 2026 Big 12 Wrestling Championship presented by Allstate in Tulsa earlier this month.
Wrestler of the Year - Yonger Bastida (Iowa State)
Bastida was the 2026 Big 12 heavyweight champion and the No. 1 overall seed in the weight class at the NCAA Championships. He enters the NCAA’s in Cleveland with a 25-0 record, including 11 wins over current top-15 wrestlers and a nation-leading 15 tech falls.
The senior leads the Big 12 and ranks seventh nationally in the NCAA’s Most Dominant Wrestler award standings averaging 4.48 team points per match, while registering 119 takedowns this season and has only allowed two.
Coach of the Year - David Taylor (Oklahoma State)
Taylor has guided the Cowboys to Big 12 titles in each of his first two seasons at the helm of the program, becoming the second coach in Conference history to win a Big 12 Wrestling Championship in each of his first two seasons as head coach.
After winning individual titles at this year’s Conference Championship, including Most Outstanding Wrestler Jax Forrest, Taylor leads OSU into the NCAA’s ranked third nationally and with an NCAA qualifier in every division.
Freshman of the Year - Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State)
The Most Outstanding Wrestler of the 2026 Big 12 Wrestling Championships made the most of his freshman campaign after enrolling at OSU midyear after graduating high school early. The 133-pounder is 14-0 with six ranked wins, which includes a 5-0 mark in Big 12 dual meets.
Of Forrest’s 14 wins, he’s collected bonus points in 12 of them with two pins, nine technical falls and one major decision. Forrest earned Big 12 Most Outstanding Wrestler after not allowing a point that was not an escape while outscoring his opponents 70-12 over the tournament to become the first Big 12 freshman to win the award since 2021.
Newcomer of the Year - Alex Facundo (Oklahoma State)
Facundo amassed a record of 16-6, including a 10-0 mark in Big 12 dual meets, for the Cowboys after transferring from Penn State. He closed the season by winning 15 of his last 18 contests, picking up all eight of his ranked wins in that span.
Facundo earned Big 12 Wrestler of the Week honors after his win in late January against Missouri’s Cam Steed in Columbia, who later went on to win a Big 12 title.
Scholar-Athlete of the Year - Ian Bush (West Virginia)
Bush, a redshirt junior from Cameron, West Virginia, led the Mountaineers on the mat and posted an impressive 4.0 cumulative GPA in Finance and Accounting. He earned five wins over a ranked opponent to headline a season that featured 20 victories.
Bush’s most impressive victory came against Oklahoma’s No 11 Brian Soldano by a 4-1 decision. He finished third at the Big 12 Wrestling Championships, marking his highest career finish and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Wrestling Championships.