Arizona State wrestling legend Zahid Valencia, a two-time NCAA champion and 2023 World bronze medalist, has decided to move from Tempe to Stillwater, Oklahoma to join the Cowboy Wrestling Club at Oklahoma State.

We are excited to announce World Bronze medalist, Zahid Valencia, will be joining Cowboy RTC! Welcome to Stillwater 🤠 pic.twitter.com/1TvLLn8XcG

— Cowboy RTC (@CowboyRTC) October 22, 2024

During David Taylor's first press conference as head coach at Oklahoma State last spring, he expressed the importance of building an elite regional training center in Stillwater. He reiterated the importance of a strong RTC last week on FloWrestling Radio Live. "A lot of people feel like it's kind of maybe an extra thing. I think it's an essential thing. Building it out properly, with the right people in place, I think is important."

Coach Taylor and company have one more of those 'right people' in place after tonight's announcement that Zahid Valencia, David Taylor's 2024 World Team Trials finals opponent, would be joining the team. Valencia joins a Cowboy RTC that includes World silver medalist Daton Fix and recent addition, 2024 Olympian Roman Bravo-Young.

Zahid Valencia's 2023 World bronze medal victory

Valencia is the first major addition to the Cowboy RTC's upper weight roster, and he's one of the major contenders to make World and Olympic teams between now and the 2028 LA Games. He made his first senior level World team at 92 kg in 2023 and secured a World bronze medal. He also reached Final X, the final stop on the journey to become a World teamer, twice, once against Kyle Dake at 79 kg in 2018, and once against David Taylor in 2022 at 86 kg.

The addition of Valencia to the RTC comes on the heels of a major recruiting shake up. Over the weekend, former 2025 Cornell commit Sergio Vega, a Who's Number One, Fargo, and Super 32 champ, announced that he would be joining the Cowboys rather than the Big Red in the fall.