The 2018 NCAA tournament is over, and we finally have a moment to reflect on this season and take a first look ahead at next year. Today, we're examining Ohio State's performance as the best runner-up of all time.

For pretty much the entire 2017-18 season, we knew there were only two teams with a realistic shot at the national title and that it might be the greatest team race ever.

The Buckeyes put up 133.5 team points, which is the 15th-highest total in the history of the NCAA wrestling tournament. Before the officials deducting a team point when Kyle Snyder threw his headgear into the crowd after the finals, Ohio State had 134.5 points, good for 13th all-time and tied with Iowa's 2010 national champion squad. Prior to this year, the most points scored by a runner-up was 125.5 by the 2001 Hawkeyes.

Penn State and Ohio State combined to score 275 points, the second-most combined team points from a first- and second-place team all-time. The team race was not decided until the final PSU wrestler took the mat, and every wrestler who qualified for those teams scored points.

Ohio State entered the tournament with all 10 wrestlers seeded, and each of them won in round one. The Buckeyes put nine in the quarterfinals on Friday morning and went 19-1 overall on the first day. Coach Tom Ryan and his staff wound up with six in the semis, two in the finals, and a national champ, ending up with eight All-Americans. Fewer than 30 teams have tallied eight All-Americans in an individual season.

Graduating from this team are Snyder, a three-time champ and four-time finalist; Nathan Tomasello, who won the title as a freshman and then finished third his last three years; and Bo Jordan, who was a four-time All-American and finalist in 2017. They are the first set of teammates to each be four-time All-Americans and all complete their eligibility in the same year.

Aside from those three, this team features a two-time finalist and one-time champ in Myles Martin, who still has a year of eligibility left; a two-time third-placer in Joey McKenna; and Kollin Moore, who has placed third and fourth. Even with McKenna having a year left and Moore having two years left, this team had six guys (over half of its lineup) who placed in the top four multiple times.

More than anything, this points to not only the incredible job done by the Ohio State coaching staff but also the fantastic tournament and persistent excellence of the Nittany Lions. In order to beat this year's squad from Columbus, PSU had to put up 140-plus points, something that only 10 other teams had ever done before.

One final note, this Buckeyes team won its third Big Ten title in four years and scored the eighth-highest total in that tournament's history.