Sammy Sasso picked up his second Freshman of the Year honor from a national media organization Friday as FloWrestling recognized the 149-pounder with its FOY honor. The Pennsylvania native was named Freshman of the Year by InterMat last month after the cancellation of the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Freshman of the Year: Sammy Sasso of Ohio State
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) April 24, 2020
From Flo's announcement of the award finalists:
Slammin Sammy was a middleweight stalwart for the Buckeyes. Sasso sported a 24-3 record going into NCAAs, where he received the #3 seed. Sasso also spent time ranked number one this season, after he defeated Brayton Lee and Pat Lugo in the back-to-back dual meets. Sasso is known for his thrilling matches like his tiebreakers win over Yahya Thomas at the Big Ten Championships.
That weekend of road victories over Lugo and Lee established Sasso as a legitimate title contender. He finished the shortened season as the No. 3 seed to the cancelled NCAA tournament after making it to the finals of the Big Ten Championships.
Sasso was one of four Buckeyes named first-team All Americans by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, along with Kollin Moore, Luke Pletcher and Kaleb Romero. He was recognized last week during a virtual team awards night with the program's Freshman of the Year award, as well.
Sammy Sasso burst onto the scene boasting a 24-3 overall record and No. 1 ranking for several weeks. He racked up a dozen top-25 wins and was entering the NCAA Championships seeded third nationally. pic.twitter.com/KujTjhr6K8
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) April 21, 2020
Two other Buckeyes were finalists for Flo's annual postseason awards: Romero was a finalist for the Breakout Performance award after finishing No. 6 in the country, and Moore was a finalist for FloWrestler of the Year after going wire-to-wire as the No. 1 man in the country at 197 pounds. Ohio State was also a finalist for Team of the Year.
