Ohio State had a down year last season by its own lofty standards. The Buckeyes finished ninth at the 2021 NCAA Championships with three team members earning All-America honors. 

In a vacuum, that sounds like a solid season. But Ohio State doesn’t do moral victories.

Consider that the Buckeyes finished no worse than third at the national tournament in the six previous seasons. Since Tom Ryan’s arrival in Columbus, his team has finished outside of the Top 10 just once and ended the season as NCAA runner-up five times in addition to winning it all in 2015.

“The big dream is a trophy for this team,” Ryan said during a visit with reporters Wednesday. “The number one thing for me is to be a team that is aggressive…wrestling freely and scoring points.”

Back To Basics

Having a down year sparked an offseason focus on getting back to basics on the mat, and a shared commitment from staff and student-athletes alike to get better at folkstyle wrestling. For a program known for freestyle prowess and history of elite RTC talent and World team appearances, making the commitment to getting better on the bottom was no small thing.

“Typically, this team has so many good guys that we go into a freestyle mode,” Ryan explained in February following the team’s loss to Iowa inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “The season ends, and you're very focused on making World teams, and U23 teams, and you focus on a lot of freestyle.”

Ryan and his staff made it known that the focus this offseason on the “chosen suffering” of top/bottom wrestling and not simply counting on the team’s ability to go takedown to takedown.

“This team will get better on bottom because we'll put more time and energy into it,” he promised. 

In practice, that took the form of grueling sessions of nothing but top/bottom work.

“Every day for two months it was strictly just bottom,” redshirt senior Dylan Koontz said. “And the coaches even said it was going to get boring, repetitive, but we’ve got to get better on bottom.”

One man who was already confident in his mat abilities was NCAA runner-up Sammy Sasso. Among the team’s most respected leaders, Sasso summed up the team’s goal for the year by explaining the mindset it takes to become elite on the mat.

“Our coaches know that if we got a really nasty mindset on top, [we] get people on their back and pin them, [then] we’d have to get better on bottom,” Sasso explained. “It’s that mindset: When you do these long top and bottom practices, you’re fighting, trying to hold somebody down and somebody’s trying to get out. After a while you just get that mindset: I’m not letting this guy hold me down anymore.” 

Sasso singled out new assistant coach Logan Stieber as “one of the best, if not the best” in the sport at having that “nasty mindset” and the skills to back it up. He cited working with Stieber as one of the key reasons he and his teammates will be better this season.

Making Moves

The team hosted its annual wrestle-off event last week, showcasing a number of returning starters who will keep their job, including Malik Heinselman (125), Sasso (149) and Tate Orndorff (285). On the other hand, a few established starters will move up a weight, causing a bit of a reshuffle. 

The two most notable moves were Jordan Decatur moving up to 141 and Ethan Smith moving up to 174, pushing Kaleb Romero up to 184 to challenge Rocky Jordan. Decatur defeated both Anthony Echemendia and Dylan D’Emilio in their wrestle-off matches, so unless he opts to take a redshirt season, he has earned the right to start at 141 according to assistant head coach J Jaggers.

Jaggers said he and the staff have counseled Decatur to consider waiting until after the Ohio Intercollegiate Open to make his decision, meaning D’Emilio could wrestle the weight for the Buckeyes in Sunday’s home opener versus North Carolina.

Smith will be the starter at 174, which seems well settled at this point. Romero, however, suffered a minor injury the day before wrestle-offs that precluded him from facing Jordan for the spot at 184, and will likely keep him on the sidelines versus the Tar Heels. It seems unlikely that he won’t return to the lineup sooner rather than later, and the loser of the match could well end up challenging Gavin Hoffman for the starting spot at 197.

Ultimately, the question will be what lineup combination gives Ohio State the best opportunity to get back on the podium in March. Iowa and Penn State continue to set the standard in the Big Ten, which is to say for the sport at large. With the improvements the staff and athletes think they have made after a relatively normal offseason, it’s time to find out if the Buckeyes belong back in the conversation with the sport’s reigning kings.

The Buckeyes open their season Sunday, hosting North Carolina in the Covelli Center at 1 p.m.

Projected Starting Lineup

125 – Malik Heinselman – Senior

133 – Dylan Koontz – Redshirt Senior

141 – Jordan Decatur – Junior

149 – Sammy Sasso – Redshirt Junior

157 – Jashon Hubbard – Redshirt Junior

165 – Carson Kharchla – Redshirt Sophomore

174 – Ethan Smith – Redshirt Senior

184 – Kaleb Romero – Redshirt Senior 

197 – Gavin Hoffman – Redshirt Junior

HWT – Tate Orndorff – Redshirt Senior