I may be old –ok no “may be” about it—I’m ancient. But I am young enough that until today the wrestling team of The Ohio State University had never in my lifetime won The Big Ten title—the toughest conference in America—by far. They actually won it Sunday by tying Iowa at 120 points each, but a title, especially after 64 years, is a title. I have not felt this warm kind of glow over sports since, well, January when I sat in stadiums in New Orleans and Dallas and just breathed in the joy and relief. But that doesn’t diminish the heartwarming end to a very long, very cold history for OSU wrestling.

In two weeks our thoughts will turn to Logan Stieber—the now four time B1G Champion and B1G most valuable wrestler—and his attempt to become the fourth wrestler in history to win four national titles. But for now I just want to relish what just happened. Here are some things I will never forget.

I have experienced many exciting times in St. John’s Arena—I have even competed in a few. But nothing matched the sheer excitement of Nathan Tomasello’s two dramatic wins. First he beat two time defending B1G and national champion Jesse Delgado (Illinois). Trailing late in the match he was able to hit a go ahead takedown and then was able to ride Delgado out for an excruciating minute. When he did, the crowd erupted in a way I am not sure has ever happened in Columbus in front of so many wrestling partisans. I thought the match would be an apt measuring stick for Nathan because I was sure he had grown to the point he was ready. And he was.

There was a little frustration with the refereeing, which did not surprise me—the same ref that squeezed a stall warning out of Nathan was the same one who, in the judgment of many, unfairly deprived Nick Heflin of an NCAA title last year. I mention this because that same referee came back to haunt the Buckeyes at several points, including Kyle Snyder’s narrow loss in the 197 title bout.

But back to Nathan. Last year, after completing his redshirt freshman year, he won the US Open Junior Freestyle title in Las Vegas. That entitled him to a bye into the final round for the US Team Trials later in the summer. Thomas Gilman, who had just competed as a freshman for Iowa, skipped the US Open but was able to grab an at large invite to the Team Trials where he upset Tomasello. The same result occurred when the two collided in Columbus for the Ohio State/Iowa dual. Tomasello had a score to settle and that he did, racing out to a three point lead, hanging on to a one point win after an escape and a stall.

An even bigger crowd erupted. As the first of three head to head matchups between the two team leaders—Ohio State and Iowa—the Buckeyes had to have this. When Nathan came to Ohio State he wanted to serve as a sparkplug to get the team fired up and he has done that. While Nathan is a thoughtful and respectful young man, he is a fiery competitor on the mat—just the kind of persona that can give a cue to those who follow. Now he has the hardware to drive home his message.

Saturday night (the second of three sessions) was a memorable one for the Buckeyes. The first session yielded few surprises—those Buckeyes expected to win did, those not expected to win did not. Which was disappointing. Immediately before the semis (where Tomasello enjoyed his sprint past Delgado), his teammates who had lost in session one sprinted through the second and third rounds of the consolation brackets. Two big wins each by Johnni Dijulius, Josh Demas and Mark Martin had brought the Buckeyes ever so close to team leading Iowa. By the time Tomasello, Logan Stieber, Bo Jordan and Kyle Snyder won their semi-final matches, the Buckeyes had made up a seventeen point deficit and now led the Championship by 1.5 points.

I also think of the maturity of Kyle Snyder. Obviously as a former World Junior Freestyle gold medalist, the young man must have some poise and that was on full display. Wrestling four seed Nathan Burak of Iowa in the semis, he was attempting to avenge his only B1G loss of the year. I will never forget how Kyle, after finally fighting for a one point lead with both wrestlers on their feet, planted himself on the end line. He knew all he had to do was not get taken down. By using the end line, he could force the action out of bounds if he got in trouble. Burak had no choice but to meet him there and take his defeat like a man.

I think of the fire of Johnni DiJulius and several astounding throws he pulled off, one to come from behind to score a late 7-3 win. I actually saw Johnni shoot twice rather than use his dreaded two on one looking for a dump. I have witnessed Johnni win most scrambles and I’ve rarely seen him lose one, so it has always occurred to me he should use this as a way to strengthen his already powerful tool box. He hit a great double leg in the third place match and after a long scramble seemed to have won the takedown. The ref disagreed but I loved the improvisation.

I cannot help but think of the guts and disappointment of Hunter Stieber. Out nearly the entire year with bad elbows, Hunter showed up for the Big Ten Championship and won his first two matches, looking comfortable and confident in the process. The second win however required a last second reversal after extended effort. The win prompted pandemonium from the crowd and sent Hunter automatically to the NCAA championships in two weeks.

But this is an elbow injury we are talking about—when hurt they always hurt and when Hunter came out for his semi-final match against Jason Tsirtsis, defending national champion from Northwestern, he simply offered his hand and with it the award of a medical default to Tsirtsis. At the time, Coach Ryan said Hunter would go in session three if the team needed him. It did, or so it appeared at the time. Hunter went out against a 16-12 sophomore from Illinois. Soon it was clear his left arm was limp. He hit one of his cobra strikes for a takedown but with only one arm could not reel in his catch. He quickly found himself on his back for the pin. Hunter’s sixth place finish delivered the points essential for the team title, but it came at a very high price. It is very likely he aggravated the elbow enough that Buckeye national title hopes will have to rest on his teammates.

I remember and credit wrestlers from other teams, who as enemies of our enemies became our best friends. First there was Tsirtsis who went to the 149 title match against number one seed Brandon Sorenson of Iowa. Although the Buckeyes had opened a gap by winning head to head title matches (Tomasello and Stieber), they had lost a third place match at 133. The Buckeyes needed help to slow the Hawkeye advance and Tsirtsis delivered with a one point win that went to the wire. He must have thought he was in Evanston as Ohio State fans urged him on and erupted at his victory.

Kyle Snyder lost a close match to coasting Morgan McIntosh of PSU (with the coddling aid of the suddenly oblivious to stalling referee that tormented Tomasello and Heflin). Meanwhile, on the mat next door, Minnesota’s Scott Schiller did the Buckeyes a solid by keeping Iowa’s Nathan Burak from gaining third place points.
With the team score tied at 120, and no Buckeye competing at heavy, the Buckeyes needed Northwestern’s Mike McMullan to stop Iowa’s Bobby Telford. It was a match-up of three and four seeds. Telford is the classic B1G heavy—tall, fairly lean, but carrying a bit of non-muscle extra weight for ballast. McMullan looked substantially undersized—shorter but without the unproductive weight. After Telford took a 3-0 lead, the drama seemed to have left the arena and the year but McMullan got an instantaneous escape, then used his quickness to spin around the lumbering Telford for a tying takedown. When he escaped in the third period, he played cat and mouse for the duration. The crowd counted an interminable 5-4-3-2-1 and erupted in delirium as witnesses to the crowning of hometown B1G champions.

Before I leave the subject of non-Buckeye wrestlers and the aid they gave, let me say one more thing about Thomas Gilman—I don’t recall ever seeing anything like it. On the award stand he hid his runner-up bracket card behind his back–i actually have seen that little pouty move often. But, then he bolted from the podium and ran out of the gym while Nathan Tomasello received his applause. The applause quickly turned to boos at the sight of Gilman’s “look at me” dash. I understand these are young men that in losses are dealing with a great deal of disappointment, but even twelve year olds know better than pull a stunt like that. It is true, Iowa wrestling is not known for its grace. But Gilman could have gone quietly to plot his revenge. What he did instead what essentially give an already intensely driven Tomasello bulletin board type material. That is not a smart thing to do.

As tempting as it might be to say the Buckeyes backed into the title after razor thin losses at 165 and 197, nothing could be further from the truth. In the finals, Ohio State won two of their four title matches—Iowa lost all four of theirs. In fact, Iowa won only one match on the mat in the last session when Cory Clark edged Johnni DiJulius for third. They did collect a medical forfeit (and the pin points that come with it) at 184. Of the two teams, it was an Ohio State wrestler who struck the last winning blow—Mark Martin.

In overtime for the fifth place match Mark hit a sudden double leg and muscled his way to the winning takedown. He beat his chest defiantly and with just cause. Mark had had bad luck throughout the tournament due to the seeding (which in reality he earned from his season performance). He faced Iowa’s tough Mike Evans in the quarters and lost a hard fought 2-0 decision. Then he ran into the ever tough four seed Logan Storley. Mark appeared to be riding Storley out for a signature win when Storley hit a freak move for the win. What Martin did do this weekend was show anger and toughness—two things that will help him in two weeks in St. Louis. He is good enough (sorry, did not mean to paraphrase Stuart Smalley)—you just sense if he could hit that break-through win he might go to a new level. He left the B1G giving you the feeling that might be coming.

As a footnote, as Martin was delivering the Buckeyes’ crucial last point, Storley was hanging on for a close win over Evans—another helping hand from up north.

I thought of Ammon Butcher, the phenomenal accounting student on a full ride scholarship from the Fisher School at OSU. As a high school wrestler he broke his neck in a tournament and now inspires everyone with his upbeat approach to life as a quadriplegic. Embraced by Coach Ryan and the wrestling team, he patrolled the sidelines this weekend and reveled in the same euphoria we all did.

And then there is Coach Ryan, the native of Long Island, New York who lost his NCAA championship match in what the famed Dan Gable called the most physically and emotionally exhausting match he ever coached. Coach Ryan finally landed at Ohio State and treated the program as a CEO would treat a business, investing his energies in all aspects of the program. An innovator and tireless worker he has recruited the most talented kids and built a fence around the talent rich Ohio high school program. Thinking of this passionate, friendly and funny man, I contemplated his joy even as he shared, or maybe in part because he shared, the honors with his teammate and long-time friend, Iowa coach Tom Brands. I thought of the smile that must be bringing to their common mentor Dan Gable.

And I thought of the powers behind the throne, assistants Ross Thatcher, J. Jaggers and the quiet genius Lou Rosselli. I watched them cajole, cheer and exalt in the progress, match by match.

This is the best ending Ohio State could have hoped for, overlooking if it is possible, the probable loss of Hunter Stieber (just my guess, as a long time sufferer of elbow injuries). The stars wrestled like stars and the potential All Americans wrestled like All Americans who now threaten to break through to elite levels. Josh Demas finished fourth only because he ran into the very strong James Green of Nebraska twice. He wrestled with passion and aggression. The exact same thing can be said of Johnni DiJulius and Mark Martin. The raw courage that Hunter Stieber showed was emotionally uplifting for everyone who saw it. The Jordan and Snyder losses are painful, but you just know they will come back looking for redemption in two weeks, because no doubt—they are the real deal.

Oh and then there’s that guy named Logan Stieber. My best memory of Logan this weekend was the poetic gesture of having his weight coach, the great J. Jaggers, a two time national champ himself, hand Logan his championship award on the podium.

After the Ohio State Wrestling Team lost to Lehigh—let me say that again, Lehigh!—it is tempting to say that the hype surrounding this team has exceeded its grasp. First, let’s be clear about something—in football, Lehigh is venerable (think Lehigh v. Lafayette) but insignificant on a national stage. On the wrestling stage however, Lehigh is more than a credible program—in fact it is a co-favorite to win the prestigious EWIA.

But come on—if the Buckeyes are the team we have hyped them to be—me most of all—then they should have been able to sneak by Lehigh. But Lehigh came out with an attitude that said, “you think you’re so tough? How about I hit you in the face a few times and then see how tough you are.”

Don’t get me wrong. Every young man who steps on a mat wearing an Ohio State singlet is a remarkable young man. They have each achieved a level of distinction in the world’s toughest sport that deserves our utmost respect and gratitude that they represent Ohio State. Recently I had the expectation of speaking to the team, which I thought was a weird joke of nature—it is they who can pass wisdom and experience to me, not the other way around. I mumbled through enough to have done my expected duty, but it was I who left feeling uplifted by our time together.

Nonetheless, when it comes to competition against their current peers, half the Buckeye lineup rarely disappoints, and the other half rarely surprises. We were hoping the narrative would change. Who wants to classify a remarkable group that way? But the truth is, to achieve its ultimate goal, the team has to have one or two wrestlers break through his collegiate past to become an elite competitor. At this point, while there are candidates to do so, none has shown many signs he is up to the task.

So, at the top are Nathan Tomasello, Logan Stieber, Hunter Stieber, Bo Jordan and Kyle Snyder. No one would be surprised to see any of them as a Big Ten champ or NCAA finalist.

The team is ably rounded out by Johnni DiJulius, Josh Demas, Mark Martin, Kenny Courts and Nick Tavanello. Despite my implication to the contrary, no one would be surprised to see any of these young men finish as All Americans—which puts them in the rarefied air of the top eight in their weight class. Each has either been firmly entrenched in, or has flirted at the edges of, a top ten ranking most of the year.

Yes, half the team could make it to the NCAA finals and the other half could be All Americans. If that happened the Buckeyes would in fact run away with the team title. The problem, in a recurrent theme, is math—not all those who could make it to the finals, and not all those who could be All Americans, will in fact do so. The odds say no.

If the Buckeyes are to achieve their potential, one or two in the All American tier are simply going to have to do what they have mostly failed to do all year—surprise in a pleasant way by wrestling above their ranking.

If that happens, it will be those individuals who will be the team MVPs because those will be the wrestlers who will elevate their teammates from being teammates of one or two NCAA champions to being NCAA champions themselves.

First, we have to recognize that although Hunter Stieber is an undeniable talent—he went undefeated until the 2013 NCAA semis, and still finished third—he has been out all year hurt. He intends to come back for the Big Ten. Of course Devin Carter of Virginia Tech missed most of last year but was still able to make it to the NCAA finals—only to get crushed by Hunter’s brother Logan. Still, it is a lot to ask for Hunter to duplicate the effort.

And of course, Johnni DiJulius could express great indignation at not being labeled an elite wrestler—he has beaten some very strong competitors in the last few years. But he also shows signs of fading as he did last year. In a sense, Johnni is as good as anyone in his class, but he is committed to a style that would make him unbeatable if he added more traditional wrestling tools. As it is, he is kind of like a pitcher with a great fastball without a second pitch. The good wrestlers seem to wait him out and go for a close win late. I would have preferred to see Johnni risk a bit this year and take the stride to diversify his arsenal, but it really seems a little late to do that now.

Josh Demas also has elite talent but he has had so much injury time away from the sport that he is chasing others who have been able to compete and advance over this period of time. Mark Martin, Kenny Courts and Nick Tavanello also compete well but the truth just might be that none of them has the right body type to compete at their weight. Having said that, Nick, who is clearly undersized as a heavy, wrestled like a mad man in last year’s heavy consolation bracket. He came one win shy of attaining All American status in an heroic series of matches. But he too has been hurt this year: even if recovered he has lost the experience and conditioning under pressure that he might need to make the same push down the stretch.

If there is a secret to a breakthrough, one may only have to look back as far as Lehigh. The underdog Mountain Hawks came in with a chip on their shoulder. Even though Nathan Tomasello won a major decision in the opening bout, it was obvious his Lehigh counterpart was fighting as hard as he could to force Nathan to give everything he had. At 164 Bo Jordan has literally beaten his opponents into obvious submission this year. While he put a tech fall on his Lehigh opponent, young Mr. Peppelman was fighting him off to the very end.

In other matches, it was just obvious that the Lehigh wrestlers were going to fight like a father defending his family. They pushed around the higher ranked Buckeyes and you could see the confidence grow with every match. At some point you expected to see an “I’ve had enough of this crap” explosion from the Buckeyes but it never happened.

In apparent exasperation at fans criticizing teammates, Logan tweeted earlier this season that people don’t understand how hard it is to win a match. Amen, to that—winning is brutally difficult and as I said, win or lose these warriors deserve our respect. But it is also the easiest thing in the world to lose a match you could have won. The Mountain Hawks put on display for everyone to see how a big dose of hostility can break the will of a better competitor.

What this team possess in talent, it frankly lacks in fierceness—in a sport where fierce goes a long way. Little Lehigh demonstrated what determination can do. Dan Gable once said a winning wrestler knows he is going to win before he steps on the mat. If there is to be a Buckeye MVP or two in an historic season, he or they may just need to borrow a page out of the playbook of a small eastern school and go out there with the determination to will his opponent into submission.