Two now-former Penn State wrestling starters are joining PSU legend David Taylor at Oklahoma State.
Monday evening, Alex Facundo and Gary Steen each announced that they’re moving to Stillwater a little more than a week after word got out that they were entering the transfer portal.
This doesn’t come as a surprise.
For one, neither Facundo or Steen found a consistent place in the Penn State wrestling lineup followed the 2022-23 season, when each was a regular starter (Facundo at 165, Steen at 125).
Each of them also has a relationship with Taylor through the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, which Taylor was apart of through last May when he took the Oklahoma State job.
Facundo, who finished 12th at the 2023 NCAA Championships in Tulsa, was a guy many felt could have been a star if given the opportunity. But he took an Olympic Redshirt for the 2023-24 season and missed all of this year due to injury.
With Penn State having stars at 157 (Tyler Kasak) 165 (national champ and Hodge Trophy finalist Mitchell Mesenbrink) and 174 (former national champ Levi Haines), there really wasn’t a realistic shot of Facundo returning to the starting lineup in 2025-26, so his transfer didn’t catch anybody off guard.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Nor did Steen’s.
Steen was thrown into the first in 2022-23 after Penn State’s projected starter, Robbie Howard, went down with a season-ending injury.
He struggled, going 6-15.
The next season, true freshman Braeden Davis won the starting job and then the Big Ten Championship. When Davis moved up to 133, Luke Lilledahl picked up right where he left off and won the Big Ten title as a true freshman.
We’ll see what else David Taylor has in store during this transfer portal window.
