Ohio State’s Tom Ryan remembers his time wrestling for the Iowa Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY — Ohio State Coach Tom Ryan has produced plenty of memories as a college competitor and coach.

Few, if any, affect him the same as his reflection on time spent at the University of Iowa. He has a fondness for his former stamping grounds.

'I get the chills when I talk about it,' Ryan said. 'I love the place, because it changed my life and the lives of a lot of people.'

Ryan has powered the Buckeyes to new heights, leading them to their first NCAA team title after sharing the Big Ten team title with the Hawkeyes last season. He returned Ohio State as a contender again and the venue where he was a 1991 NCAA finalist under legendary coach Dan Gable. The Big Ten Championships begin Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Action starts at 10 a.m.

Ryan transferred from Syracuse to Iowa. He left his familiar surroundings in New York for the traditional power in the Midwest. The move was the first domino to fall in a successful career that included two Big Ten titles at 158 and two All-America honors in 1991-92.

'It was a decision that when I made it, initially, it was relatively selfish,' Ryan said. 'It worked out for me.

'As you move through life, you realize that the decisions of one person can certainly have an impact on a lot of other people,' Ryan said. 'If I hadn't moved out here, I probably wouldn't have been the coach at Hofstra. I probably wouldn't be the coach at Ohio State. My oldest son wouldn't be graduating from Ohio State and one wouldn't wrestle at Ohio State, so you don't know how it plays out but God had a plan.'

Ryan was a piece that fit right into a dominant Hawkeyes team that went 41-0-1 in those two seasons. He lived with many of the wrestlers right across from Carver-Hawkeye Arena, rooming with current Iowa associate head coach Terry Brands, who was a two-time NCAA champion and three-time national finalist for the Hawkeyes. They became immediate friends as Ryan lived in a hotel his first summer here.

'Terry and I befriended each other and that was probably maybe the single greatest friendship, when you look at the timing of it,' Ryan said. 'I needed someone that really deeply loved it.

'To live with him, I'm the only one who made it three years with him. I kept coming back because he had the mentality that I wanted to be around. He was a difference-maker for me.'

Ryan reminisced about many of the talents he worked with during his time at Iowa. He was part of those teams with the Terry and Tom Brands, Terry and Troy Steiner, Chad Zaputil, Mark Reiland and incoming wrestlers like Lincoln McIlravy and Joe Williams. Ryan talked about practice with Randy Lewis, a four-time All-American, three-time NCAA finalist, two-time national champion and Olympic golf medalist for Iowa.

'He would put his hands behind his back and say start with my leg and then we'll go live from there,' Ryan said of Lewis. 'He made me a better wrestler. If you could finish on Randy, what are you afraid of in a competition of NCAA wrestling?'

The Buckeyes will battle top-ranked Penn State and Iowa for the top-two spots. To make it even more memorable, Ryan's son, Jake Ryan, is Ohio State's 157-pounder. The older Ryan hasn't shared much of his feats as a Hawkeye with his son, trying to avoid pushing the sport on him.

'I know other coaches have shared stuff with him,' Ryan said. 'He kind of has an idea of it.'

Jake Ryan is seeded fourth with a 15-2 mark and could face Iowa's fifth-seeded Edwin Cooper Jr. in the quarterfinal round. It could be the first of key head-to-head bouts between the two teams.

'It's going to be a fun match, assuming Cooper will get by his first opponent,' Ryan said. 'He'll have the first of a couple big matchups.'

HOME SWEET HOME?

Iowa hosts the Big Ten Wrestling Championships for the first time since 2005. Carver-Hawkeye Arena is expected to be full this weekend. The Hawkeyes have to ignite the possible powder keg.

'Home mat is what you make of it,' Iowa Coach Tom Brands said. 'Our fans certainly can be a factor and we have to give them a reason to be a vocal group.'

The fourth-ranked Hawkeyes are expected to battle top-ranked Penn State and No. 7 Ohio State in the team race. Penn State Coach Cael Sanderson has competed in CHA during his time as an undefeated four-time NCAA champion for Iowa State and as a national champion coach for the Nittany Lions. He has performed in hostile environments, especially in Iowa City.

'Anytime you wrestle in Carver, it's going to be a great atmosphere,' Sanderson said. 'We just have to do our thing, and if Iowa does their thing the crowd is going to get into it, and that's what makes it fun to compete in another team's arena.'

Iowa fans have set attendance records, including more than 44,000 at the Grapple on the Gridiron in November. They set the mark for the 2012 Olympic Trials, which returns this year in April.

'You know what we think of our fans,' Brands said. 'They are nothing but the best. They are top-notch. There is going to be a whole bunch of them.'

LIONS IN WAIT

Penn State is looking for its fifth Big Ten Championships team title in the last six seasons. The Nittany Lions won four straight from 2011-14. They fell to fifth last year, redshirting two-time NCAA finalist Nico Megaludis and Zain Retherford, an All-American with a fifth-place finish at 141 pounds as a true freshman in 2014.

Penn State is in position to return to its recent winning ways, including four top-seeded wrestlers. In addition to Retherford, red-shirt freshmen Jason Nolf (157) and Bo Nickal (174) and senior 197-pounder Morgan McIntosh hold No. 1 spots. Last year's moves have worked for Penn State Coach Cael Sanderson.

'I think we had a plan with a few guys,' Sanderson said. 'It's easy to say that at the end of the year, because maybe if we would have wrestled Zain, Nico and pulled Jason Nolf out of red-shirt, yeah, maybe we could have won the national tournament, but when you're starting the season we were a long ways off.'

Only three starters are seniors and five are sophomores or younger in eligibility. Retherford (25-0) is one of the latter and could meet Iowa's second-seeded Brandon Sorensen (23-0) in the finals.

'Zain Retherford has been an excellent leader for us, as far as a guy who does everything right, socially, academically (and) the way he competes,' Sanderson said. 'Having him as a sophomore, right now, with those leadership qualities, we're just excited about the future.'

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