Ohio State redshirt sophomore Sammy Sasso takes down a Rutgers wrestler during the Ohio State-Rutgers match on Jan. 24. Ohio State won 19-14. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
On March 11, 2020, Ohio State wrestling hung a banner in the wrestling room counting down the days until the NCAA Championships, but the number on the banner would only change once.
Fresh off a third-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, Ohio State was determined to dethrone the defending champion Penn State and avenge a runner-up finish from the previous season.
However, the team wouldn’t be given their chance at redemption.
On March 12, 2020, the Big Ten canceled all athletic competitions for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Buckeyes had already completed their conference season, leading the team to speculate about its future at the national tournament.
Ohio State assistant coach J Jaggers said the coaches and wrestlers knew the conference’s announcement could mean the NCAA Championships’ cancellation was also possible.
“It was like a horror movie,” Jaggers said. “It was all day, and even the day before that, where you just sensed that it was coming.”
The team was in the middle of practice when Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan received a call telling him the NCAA had canceled the wrestling championships.
After receiving the news, Ryan did something he doesn’t usually do: He brought the team into a huddle. In that huddle, he would tell his team everything he had just learned.
Ohio State redshirt junior Rocky Jordan entered the huddle, his knees still bloody from multiple matches the previous weekend. A national qualifier at 187 pounds, Jordan was training for his first NCAA Championship appearance.
Jordan’s face was one of many who fell in disappointment when they heard of the tournament’s cancellation.
“To work hard all year, to work hard my whole life for these moments, have a whole wrestling season, and have it canceled within six days of the tournament, it was tough,” Jordan said.
Ohio State redshirt junior Ethan Smith was also disheartened by the announcement but carried a small amount of optimism that the tournament may still go on.
“I remember being in shock, not really believing it,” Smith said. “There was this little sliver of hope that was, ‘Well, they’ll figure something out, and we’ll have it in two to three weeks,’ and that was the thought at first.”
But the NCAA’s decision to end the wrestling season held, and the Buckeyes were left without a final opportunity to compete for a national title.
With the tournament canceled, the athletic department told Ohio State coaches and wrestlers to pack their bags and go home — where they would stay for the foreseeable future.
Ohio State redshirt sophomore Sammy Sasso said he returned home thinking about what he and his teammates lost. He described himself as “heartbroken.”
“It’s wrestling, but when you’re in the moment, wrestling can seem much bigger than it is,” Sasso said. “In that moment, it was heartbreaking, and coping with it wasn’t easy.”
Sasso said he spent the next month feeling depressed and living an unhealthy lifestyle. He felt unmotivated to wrestle and had lost his passion for his craft.
Ryan said he shared similar feelings and expressed his discomfort with isolation and quarantine. For Ryan, it was the first time since his early childhood that he hadn’t been in a wrestling room during the wrestling season.
“It felt like life had stood still,” Ryan said. “It seemed like forever.”
The Buckeyes spent the next eight months in quarantine. Each wrestler would resort to personal training — lifting weights, running and stretching — and the coaches were left to their own devices.
When the wrestling student-athletes returned to campus, they were uncertain if they would be given an opportunity to compete this season. At the time, football had been postponed, and the future of collegiate sports in the pandemic remained unclear.
A month after the Big Ten presidents voted to cancel football, they reversed their decision, and the 14 teams would compete in a nine-game conference-only schedule.
The decision brought a heap of hope to the Ohio State wrestling program, but the Buckeyes would have to wait for a later decision on their season.
On Dec. 31, 2020, the Big Ten announced its 2021 wrestling schedule. Ohio State’s patience was rewarded with five dual meets and two tri-meets, all against conference opponents.
The Buckeyes navigated the historic all-Big Ten schedule to a 5-4 record and a ninth-place finish by scoring 69.5 points at the Big Ten Championships. Iowa took home the title with an impressive 159.5 points, the Hawkeyes’ highest scoring total since scoring 185 points in 1995.
Ohio State’s finish at the conference tournament was its lowest since it placed eighth at the 2011 Big Ten Championships. Still, the Buckeyes have an opportunity to take home a national title.
The Buckeyes will send seven wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Jordan, Sasso and Smith will compete. Joining them are redshirt freshman Dylan D’Emilio, junior Malik Heinselman, and redshirt juniors Kaleb Romero and Tate Orndorff.
Jaggers said the team does not have to worry about the tournament being canceled and feels confident the competition will take place. Ohio State will have the opportunity to make up for lost time, he said.
“It’s happening,” Jaggers said. “We’re going through all the protocol and the team’s done a really good job. Within the walls here, things are great and we are very on top of it in terms of all the procedures. Our training staff and medical staff have done a great job keeping us safe.”
Although Ohio State did not have the typical success the program has grown accustomed to throughout the past decade, the expectation is that the team will perform well at this year’s NCAA Championships in St. Louis.
“I’d like to have a handful of All-Americans and everybody score points,” Jaggers said. “I think if we wrestle our best, we could bring home a trophy.”
