Sammy Sasso will get a good bead on where he ranks among 165-pound national championship contenders this weekend at the Cliff Kean Invitational. (PressPros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless).
A stiff early-season test of a depleted Ohio State wrestling roster will hint whether No. 5 OSU can count on production from the middle of its lineup as the season progresses.
Columbus, OH – Tom Ryan designed Ohio State’s wrestling schedule with some leeway for injuries to heal and clarity to arise before the No. 5 Buckeyes settled into the weekly grind of seeing Top 10 wrestling competition almost every week in the Big Ten.
Plans are one thing, but reality is another, and the latter has shown little respect for how the OSU coach hoped things would unfold.
“We’re a little banged up right now and we don’t have our lineup set yet,” said Ryan, whose team competes Friday and Saturday in the Cliff Kean Invitational. “We have some guys coming off injuries and we have some guys banged up, so we won’t be at full strength.”
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That’s unfortunate, both because Ryan would like some answers in weight classes that remain up in the air and because this weekend’s event in Las Vegas affords what he says is, “the best best tournament of the year outside of the Big Ten and the national tournament.”
Twelve of the 30 teams entered rank among the Top 25, which qualifies as a robust field, although not quite as robust as the Big Ten, where OSU trails Penn State (1), Iowa (2) and Nebraska (4) in the NCAA rankings and precedes Michigan (8), Minnesota (9) and Illinois (13).
Nagging injuries will prevent Dylan D’Emilio from competing for OSU at 149 and shelve Ryder Rogotzke at 184, while 174-pounder Carson Kharchla remains on schedule for a January return from knee surgery.
Luke Geog has been solid for the Buckeyes at 197 pounds and could make a leap from No. 20 in the national rankings with a strong showing at the Cliff Kean Invitational.
The Buckeyes are hoping for big weekends from Paddy Gallagher at 157 pounds and Sammy Sasso at 165 to fortify what has been an underperforming portion of the OSU lineup in recent years.
Sasso’s return from being shot in a car-jacking on campus is the most-inspiring story in NCAA wrestling this season, hopefully ending in the national championship that barely eluded him at 149 in 2022, his fourth straight season as an All-American.
Gallagher came to OSU from the storied Lakewood St. Edward program, which has won the last nine Ohio big-school team championships and 12 of the last 13.
He was the nation’s No. 2 overall wrestler when he signed with the Buckeyes after the pandemic, which erased Gallagher’s chance to win a third Ohio high school state individual title, but didn’t lessen the expectations on him to produce immediately in college.
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Gallagher was poised to deliver on those last season when he tore a ligament in his right knee in early January, just before the Big Ten season started.
In OSU’s 36-6 win over Tennessee-Chattanooga in the home opener in November, Gallagher trailed to start the third period, but pulled out the win in sudden victory.
“Last year, I would have lost that match,” Gallagher said. “I wouldn’t have kept my cool. That guy fought harder than I was expecting. I wasn’t really in match shape yet, but I found a way to win, so that was a good way to start the year.”
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Sasso’s return that night understandably claimed the headlines, but Gallagher’s victory and the manner in which it came didn’t escape his coach’s notice.
“That match was big for Paddy,” Ryan said. “He was starting to wrestle really well last year when he got hurt. He was ranked as high as sixth in the country and was really starting to figure things out.
“Not every elite recruit comes in and starts rocking it right away. It takes time. He has the durability in his mind and the grittiness and the love to train. He’s gotten better every year. We need him to step up this year.”
In hindsight, the knee surgery may prove what gets Gallagher where he’s always wanted – on the podium at the NCAA championships.
“Even when you take two weeks off from wrestling, you’re all jacked up,” he said. “A year is a whole different thing. I’m just now getting back into the groove, so (surgery and rehab) was a mental battle for sure. Really, more of an emotional battle.
Nick Feldman is No. 8 in the country, one of three Top 10 heavyweights and one of six in the Top 20 entered this weekend.
“Watching everyone train all the time, sitting around, being bored, that’s tough. You’re just watching, and it sucks. But sitting out, getting sad you’re not doing all this stuff and getting the results you want, you figure some things out.
“I’m not concerned with being a people-pleaser any more. I’m just trying to be my best. That’s what I’ve learned through this whole experience.”
A strong finish this weekend at Cliff Kean, where Gallagher enters ranked No. 8 in his weight class, with three competitors in the field ranked ahead of him, would be another confidence boost.
“We had high hopes for him last year and then he got hurt,” Sasso said of Gallagher. “I’m not worried about him. He’s a tough kid who comes in and works all the time. I’m excited for his season this year.”
Sasso enters the Cliff Keane ranked No. 3 at 165, where eight of the nine wrestlers immediately behind in his weight class are also entered.
He could have opted out, declining a difficult weekend as he continues to re-discover skills long dormant during his recovery, denying competitors a he’ll likely see in March a look at him while he’s still adapting to his new weight class.
“I’m looking to go win and score a lot of points and have some fun,” Sasso said. “I love competing. To me, it just wouldn’t have made sense to shelf myself and hide from anyone. That didn’t make any sense to me. I think it’s going to be a good weekend. I’m looking forward to it.”
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