When Myles Martin took to the mat against top-seeded Bo Nickal in the 174-pound weight class NCAA championship match, he knew he'd already lost three times earlier this season to the Penn State star.
"I approached the match really different than I approached the other match," Martin said Monday. "I wrestled afraid and I kind of gave him too much respect. This time, after having those matches under my belt and realizing what I did wrong and that I need to focus more, I just went out there and wrestled free."
That shift in mindset allowed Martin to top Nickal, 11-9, when it mattered most, making him the first true freshman in program history to win it all and the first 11-seed to take the NCAA crown since 1979.
Not even an hour later, sophomore Kyle Snyder took down another top seed, this time Nick Gwiazdowski of North Carolina State, to win the heavyweight national title.
The two individual national titles led to a third place finish by Ohio State in the team standings, a year after the Buckeyes won the whole thing for the first time in the program's now 95-year history. With Snyder, Martin and a host of other talented youth on roster, it is set to continue its upward trend.
"As a coach, you're looking at the organization as a whole," head coach Tom Ryan said Monday. "You're defending national champions. You have to stay relevant. You don't go from first to 15th. That's a non-option. You've got to do that in a way because it's somewhat of an individual sport as well. You gotta do it in a way that you're maintaining trusting relationships with your student athletes."
Despite Nickal falling to Martin in the 174-pound final, Penn State still won its fifth team championship in six years. Coached by the only collegiate wrestler to never lose a match, Cael Sanderson, the Nittany Lions have a dynasty in place on not only the Big Ten stage but in the national realm.
They don't show signs of stopping either, capturing two individual titles in New York as well and stomping second-place finisher Oklahoma State by 25.5 points in the standings. When matches began Saturday at Madison Square Garden, Penn State already had the team title clinched.
"They've got a strong program with a great leader there," Ryan said of the Nittany Lions and Sanderson.
The east coast breeds the top wrestling talent in the country year in and year out. Martin (New Jersey) and Snyder (Maryland) hail from the area, but spurned Sanderson to be part of what Ryan continues to build in Columbus. Ohio State's third place finish this season is the ninth top-10 showing in the last 10 seasons (which coincide with Ryan's tenure), fifth time in the top five and fourth time among the top three.
"When I got the job here, it was pretty simple thinking that every single year Ohio State wrestling enthusiasts would wake up in the morning and believe they have a chance to win the tournament. I think we're there now," Ryan said. "I think that at least with the roster that we have, we're at the place where, 'Hey, Ohio State can win it. There's no doubt Ohio State can win it.'"
Ohio State can, but is set for an uphill battle against what Sanderson has established State College, Pennsylvania. The Buckeyes are on their way to competing consistently with the Nittany Lions and other top programs, however, with an Olympic training facility in place and a larger one on the way in the next few years. (Ryan said he hopes to be in the new building by 2018. It is set for construction by the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and tennis courts on Olentangy River Road).
“This team can win it next year. There's no question that we have the talent and the people on the roster to win it. That's certainly the goal.”– Tom Ryan
"We're grateful, we're thankful we're here, but our facility is no longer in the top-20 of the United States. We're far behind many schools in the country. Gene (Smith) addressed that," said Ryan, who called Ohio State "the best job in the country."
"We have the money raised to build a complex that will be the nicest on planet Earth. We went to Michigan, who has the nicest in my opinion right now. We saw Cornell's, we've seen Iowa's, Penn State's and took the best of all of them and we'll put something together that tops all of theirs to provide these guys with all the things they need to attain their goals."
Among those goals are individual national titles every year, which yield team laurels. It's part of Ryan's "11 train tracks" approach, with each wrestler honing in on winning it all and what it takes to get there.
"I think there are definitely more pieces than me in this program and we had a lot of guys who didn't All-American but have the talent to possibly be national champs," Snyder said Monday. "It's special that I can be a part of it and I can help this team a couple more years, a couple more seasons.
"But I think even when I leave we're going to be in good hands with guys that we have in the program."
Snyder now turns his attention to the Olympic trials on April 10, something he said Ryan and his staff will work tirelessly to prepare him. He became the youngest world champion in United States history in September.
So yeah, the table is set for Ohio State to form into a perennial title contender.
"If everyone wrestles well, everyone stays healthy and God gives us the ability to just keep winning matches, getting guys that we need and building the program as we get the new facility everything will just change for us," Martin said. "Having guys like Kyle, having an (Regional Training Center) program just helps our program get more guys that we need to compete and beat teams like Penn State, Iowa and Oklahoma State."
The plan was for Snyder and Martin to both redshirt the 2015-16 season, before Ryan and his staff convinced them they could win titles. Snyder moved from the 197-pound weight class to heavyweight, while Martin made an improbable run to the top in his own division.
Four-time national champion and Hodge Trophy Award winner Logan Stieber is out of eligibility and set to join Ryan's staff after the 2016 Olympics trials, a talent that doesn't come around in every recruiting cycle.
But Ryan truly believes he and the Buckeyes have the right pieces in place to not only win championships in the unlikely fashion Martin did or as Snyder did, but move forward as a program to compete with a titan in Penn State and others for team titles.
"Are we going to win it? Are things going to fall into place where people stay healthy and live clean lives and continue to live clean lives? Who knows," Ryan said. "I would say right now we're in a good place. We were first and third. We don't want to be third, but if third was the best we could do, then we take third. This team can win it next year. There's no question that we have the talent and the people on the roster to win it. That's certainly the goal."
