Tomasello looks to add to his success
Three steps inside the Ohio State wrestling room at the Steelwood Training Facility, Nathan Tomasello can turn to his right and almost shake hands with a larger-than-life, cutout photograph of his redshirt freshman self on the wall celebrating the program’s NCAA champions.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Tomasello said. “It takes you back through the last two years, ever since I got here. To accomplish that is pretty amazing. It’s more motivation for this year.”
A four-time Ohio highschool champion out of Parma and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Tomasello ended his redshirt freshman season for the Buckeyes with an 18-match winning streak that took him to Big Ten and NCAA titles at 125 pounds.
His in-season rise to the top of his weight class helped Ohio State share the conference team championship with Iowa and also win its first NCAA team title.
Ranked No. 1 at 125 by FloWrestling, Tomasello will open his sophomore season on Sunday by representing the Buckeyes in the 50th NWCA All-Star Classic at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
He will face West Virginia’s Zeke Moisey in a rematch of the NCAA final, which Tomasello won 9-5.
“I was hoping I would get picked,” he said. “I’m excited for it and ready to go. I’m excited to compete against Moisey again and to get after it. I’m glad he’s the one I’m going to be facing.”
Ohio State coach Tom Ryan saw a switch flip during the course of Tomasello’s 32-4 season. The losses were his first since his freshman season in high school.
“He really embraced learning opportunities,” Ryan said. “Every loss, you come back and assess the film. You watch it and you think, ‘ Wow! For 6 minutes and 45 seconds, I controlled that match. Here is the one position that cost me.’ He was really good at not getting down on himself and continuing to use the season as an opportunity to learn.”
Tomasello felt his mindset improve.
“I started wrestling my style,” he said. “I didn’t really worry about rankings or who the guy was. I was just going to go out and compete hard. The biggest thing was to not fear what was going to happen. A win or loss would take care of itself.”
In the Big Ten tournament, Tomasello upset two-time NCAA champion Jesse Delgado of Illinois in the semifinals.
“I think the Delgado win in the semifinals and 10,000 people erupting, I think that really gave him a huge boost,” Ryan said. “There is a natural progression in our minds as humans. I’ve got to go on the first step before I can do the 10th step. I think that win over Delgado (Tomasello decided) I’m not going to go step 1, 2, 3. I’m going all the way to the top.”
In the NCAA tournament, Tomasello upset unbeaten, top-seeded Alan Waters of Missouri in the semifinals 4-2 before defeating Moisey.
“It was just controlling what I could control,” Tomasello said. “It went well. At the end, I had a lot of confidence going into the finals. Wrestling is a very mental sport. That is the biggest thing for a freshman coming in, having confidence in your abilities at that level.”
Ryan wasn’t surprised by how Tomasello wrestled.
“He is a detail-oriented guy with big goals,” he said. “Many people live that way. They even think that way and train that way. But how often does it really work out like that?”