Oklahoma State wrestling: Kaid Brock receives medical redshirt, will return for 2020-21 season

Kaid Brock will wrestle for Oklahoma State during the 2020-21 season after being granted a medical hardship waiver and a sixth year of eligibility since he missed this past season due to a knee injury, coach John Smith said on the Pistols Firing Podcast on Thursday.

Brock, a two-time NCAA All-American at 133 pounds in 2017 and 2018, torn the ACL and meniscus in his knee in August and missed the entire 2019-20 season.

“We were going to try and bring him back this year, then after about five months and after his surgery with his knee, he kinda had a setback a little bit and we realized then we needed to hold him out,” Smith said. “At one point in time we had thought about bringing him back out in late January [or] mid-January and he had a little bit of a setback. Nothing that was serious, but enough that was going you know what we need everyone to fill the full six months and he needed some additional time to heal up. He’s in pretty good shape right now with his knee.”

With Brock out of the lineup, Smith turned to true freshman Reece Witcraft and redshirt junior Dusty Hone at 133 and 141, respectively. Witcraft (18-10) and Hone (21-9) both qualified for the NCAA tournament before it was canceled along with all winter and spring sports due to the coronavirus. Hone filled in for redshirt sophomore Kaden Gfeller (5-1), who dealt with an ankle injury throughout the season and only competed at the Southern Scuffle.

Brock went 22-9 for the Cowboys during the 2018-19 season and became the 43rd member of OSU’s 100-win club. The Stillwater native was a Big 12 tournament finalist at 141 pounds and fell short of earning All-American status for the third time in his career at the NCAA tournament.