No. 26 Indiana to Face No. 15 Oklahoma in Norman

Sunday, November 23

Norman, Okla.

3:00 PM

Indiana University

#15 Oklahoma

No. 26 Indiana to Face No. 15 Oklahoma in Norman

11/23/2025 8:00:00 AM | Wrestling

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. –––– No. 26 Indiana will compete in its first ranked matchup of the season as it takes on No. 15 Oklahoma on Sunday (Nov. 23) at 3 p.m. in Norman.

The Hoosiers enter the matchup 2-0 and will be in their first true match of the season.

COLUMBIA REWIND:
-Indiana defeated Columbia, 22-19, in its last dual action on Nov. 14 to move to 2-0 on the season.

It was held at nearby Edgewood High School in Elletsville, Ind., marking Indiana's first home dual at a high school since 2010.

-Former Hoosier wrestler Paul Konrath is the head coach at Edgewood High School.

-The Hoosiers won six of the 10 bouts in the matchup with three coming in bonus-point fashion.

-The win also charted back-to-back seasons with a dual win over Columbia as Indiana won 23-21 in New York City in 2024.

-Tyler Lillard (165) and Sam Goin (184) each earned ranked victories in their wins over No. 26 Cesar Alvan and No. 16 Aaron Azyreov, respectively.

-Joey Buttler (149) got his first dual victory of the season with his 14-6 major decision win over Richard Fedalen.

OKLAHOMA PREVIEW:
-The No. 26 Indiana-No. 15 Oklahoma dual should be one of the best of the weekend.

-This will be the first time that the two programs have faced off in a dual since 1989 when Oklahoma won 36-10 in Norman.

-The all-time series is tied 1-1 with Indiana winning the first matchup, 15-4, on Feb. 28, 1925.

-This year's Oklahoma squad owns a 1-1 dual record with a loss at Penn State and a win at Bucknell.

-Sunday's matchup will be Oklahoma's first home test and Indiana's first true road dual.

RANKINGS REFRESH:
-Across the latest national rankings, Indiana has eight Hoosier wrestlers ranked in the top-33 at their weight class.

-This matches the most ranked wrestlers Indiana had at any point in last season's campaign, too.

-Indiana's ranked wrestlers include No. 13 Jacob Moran (125), No. 33 Logan Frazier (133), No. 28 Henry Porter (141), No. 33 Bryce Lowery (157), No. 23 Tyler Lillard (165), No. 31 Derek Gilcher (174), No. 15 Sam Goin (184) and No. 12 Gabe Sollars (197).

-This is Frazier's first time being ranked collegiately in his career and only the second time for Lowery.

-As a team, Indiana ranks No. 26 with the best dual lineup according to InterMat.

HIGH-LEVEL NON-CON:
-The Big Ten Conference always provides high level competition in Indiana's dual schedule, but the Hoosiers have their toughest non-conference dual schedule in years on deck for 2025-26.

-In addition to matches against Lock Haven, Columbia and Central Michigan, Indiana will face three ranked opponents in the non-conference slate.

-As it currently stands in the latest InterMat rankings, Indiana will travel to both No. 15 Oklahoma (Nov. 23) and No. 25 Little Rock (Dec. 7) and host No. 24 Army (Dec. 13).

-As a result to the stronger dual schedule, Indiana will wrestle in fewer tournaments on their main schedule.

HIGH-LEVEL RECRUITING:
-Indiana brought in six freshmen this fall to bolster the team's roster.

-The freshmen include Jackson Blum, Tyler Guerra, Gavin Jendreas, Matt Kowalski, Hunter Sturgill and Carson Thomas.

-The 2025 recruiting class ranked No. 16 nationally and No. 6 in the Big Ten according to FloWrestling.

-Jackson Blum (No. 47), Carson Thomas (No. 55) and Matt Kowalski (No. 71) all ranked in the top 100 in pound-for-pound rankings according to Flo.

-The class includes one in-state Hoosier in Jendreas as well as two wrestlers from Ohio (Kowalski and Thomas), and one from Michigan (Blum), Illinois (Guerra) and one from Tennessee (Sturgill).

TRANSFER TUNE-UP:
-Indiana only brought in one transfer in the 2025 offseason and that was Orlando Cruz from Purdue.

-Cruz is an Indiana native, from Crown Point and was a 2023 graduate of Crown Point High School. He rejoins high school teammates Gavin Jendreas, Logan Frazier, Sam Goin and Anthony Bahl as Hoosiers.

-Cruz will wrestle at 174 lbs. after wrestling at both 174 and 184 lbs. for Purdue.

-In 2025, he wrestled for Purdue at 184 lbs. in the Big Ten Championships. He went 10-13 as a redshirt freshman and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors.

-In his redshirt season (2023-24), Cruz went 18-7 with a 2-0 dual record.

ATTENDANCE GROWTH:
-Since Angel Escobedo took over, Indiana has seen tremendous growth in its attendance at home duals.

-Last season, Indiana averaged 2,110 fans per dual with the best-attended dual being 2,765 fans at Wilkinson Hall for its home matchup against Ohio State.

-The ranking was good for No. 15 nationally and No. 8 in the Big Ten according to the National Wrestling Media Association.

-It is an improvement from being ranked at No. 16 in 2023-24.

PROGRAM CONTINUITY:
-Indiana Wrestling's coaching staff features some of the best continuity in the country with every member of the team spending at least four years with the program.

-Head Coach Angel Escobedo is in his eighth season as the program leader. Assistant Coach Riley Lefever is in his fifth season at IU.

-CJ Red and Mike Dixon are each on their fourth season with the team. Dixon spent two years in a previous stint with the Hoosiers, too.

BUILDING & BUILDING:
-The Indiana Wrestling program is seeking to build upon its tremendous growth that it has shown over the course of the past three seasons.

-From 2022-25, Indiana has had three-straight years of 7-plus dual wins (8-5, 7-5, 8-5) and three Big Ten dual wins each season in that time.

-The program has also had six national qualifiers in back-to-back seasons (2024, 2025) and DJ Washington was the first All-American since 2017.

-In 2025, the team finished tied for 24th at NCAAs for the best finish at the national tournament since Angel Escobedo took over as head coach.

-Indiana has five ranked dual victories in that span, as well.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISPERSION:
-Indiana's roster features wrestlers everywhere across the country.

-Twelve wrestlers on the team are home grown, in-state Hoosiers.

-Of the 31 wrestlers on the team, there are 12 different states represented.

-The states represented on Indiana's roster include: Indiana (12), Ohio (4), Pennsylvania (3), Illinois (2), Michigan (2), Wisconsin (2), California (1), Colorado (1), Iowa (1), New York (1), Minnesota (1), Tennessee (1).