LaDarion Lockett's Top 7 Schools At The Beginning Of Recruiting Season
LaDarion Lockett's Top 7 Schools At The Beginning Of Recruiting Season
LaDarion Lockett opens up about the first couple weeks of his recruiting process and lists his top 7 schools so far.
LaDarion Lockett, the #6 recruit in the class of 2025, was raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and while he grew up cheering for the Oklahoma State Cowboys and training at the Cowboy Wrestling Club, he's exploring all options during the early stages of his recruiting process.
Many wrestling fans might assume that Lockett is destined to be a Cowboy because of his Stillwater upbringing, and he is strongly considering Oklahoma State, in large part because of his deep connection to the program throughout his childhood. Many of Dee Lockett's early wrestling memories took place in Gallagher Iba Arena. He's attempted to craft his style by combining elements of Jordan Oliver's speed and slick technique with Alex Dieringer's brutal hand-fighting and solid leg attacks. He hasn't always been a spectator at Oklahoma State duals either. He took the mat himself once during intermission of an Oklahoma State dual in an exhibition against the current #1 ranked 132-pounder in the country, Cael Hughes. Lockett has admired Cowboy wrestling for as long as he can remember.
LaDarion Lockett's OSU intermission match with future Cowboy Cael Hughes
Dee Lockett's Top 7 Schools
Despite Lockett's ties to Oklahoma State, he's taking an expansive approach to his college search. The Cowboys are in the running, but so are a lot of other schools. He's open to a range of institutions across the country. Lockett emphasized that his list of top schools could change, but at present, here are the top 7 colleges he's considering:
Arizona State
Cornell
Iowa
Iowa State
Little Rock
Minnesota
Oklahoma State
In the early days of the 2025 recruiting season, Lockett connected quickly with Zeke Jones, Frank Molinaro, and Eric Thompson at Arizona State. He's also recently wrestled with future Sundevil Kaleb Larkin who finished third in the mini tournament at the U20 World Team Trials this year, so he knows he'd have good partners to work with in Tempe.
Cornell is the furthest program from home that Lockett is strongly considering at the moment. He likes their academic excellence, the coaching staff, and the fact that the Big Red are regularly in the running for NCAA team trophies. Lockett also sees current U20 world teamer Meyer Shapiro as a strong option as a potential future training partner. Lockett and Shapiro squared off at Who's Number One a year ago, and Lockett knows they could help sharpen each other's skills in the same training environment.
As a future 165 to 184-pounder, Lockett also believes Iowa, Iowa State, and Minnesota could be future destinations for him, and he plans to visit all three. His initial contact with coaches from those programs has him curious to learn more.
Little Rock is a budding program that has also made Lockett's list. He has a long history with Head Coach Neil Erisman who used to help coach the kids' club in Stillwater (and was the official for Lockett's intermission match with Cael Hughes in the photo above). Two other Little Rock coaches, Albert White, and Austin Schafer, were also Oklahoma State wrestlers who Lockett has looked up to in the past.
What Lockett Has Learned So Far
On June 15, the first day of recruiting season for the class of 2025, Dee Lockett was in Colorado Springs for a training camp to prepare for the U17 World Championships later this summer. When the clock turned to midnight on the East Coast, Lockett was in a room with a number of the nation's top high school wrestlers, some from the class of 2025, some not. Both Lockett and California native Nicholas Sahakian were receiving calls. Older recruits who have already been through the process like Missouri commit Aeoden Sinclair and Michigan commit Brock Mantanona were also present at the camp as were younger wrestlers like Adam Waters and Paul Kenny. Christian Castillo was also there, but Lockett says Castillo put his phone on "do not disturb" and went to bed.
Lockett's U17 World Team Trials series-clinching victory over Vince Bouzakis
Lockett and Sahakian waited anxiously for the clock to strike midnight, and after it did, both had received calls in the first ten minutes. For Lockett, those calls came from Little Rock and Oklahoma State.
Since the initial night of calls, Lockett has received numerous calls and texts from top programs, but he believes he would have been contacted more if coaches weren't already convinced that he was going to Oklahoma State. He keeps a mental list of who's called and who hasn't.
In Lockett's many calls with coaches, he's been surprised to learn how many options he has and how different some of those options are from one another in terms of academic excellence and campus culture. Lockett believes his official visits will help him better understand these differences, and while he loves Oklahoma State, he's looking for the best place to help him achieve his goals of being an NCAA champion, being part of a team that's pushing for titles, and achieving the kind of academic success that will set him up for life after wrestling.
Lockett is grateful that he's grown up near Oklahoma State. He sees the value in becoming a Cowboy, and OSU could very well be his future college home. If it's not, he knows that another program will have to show him high levels of excellence and opportunity to outshine the wrestling environment he's grown up around in Stillwater.