CLEVELAND -- Ohio State senior heavyweight wrestler Kyle Snyder has lost just five times in his career, and one of those defeats, his only one in a limited schedule this year, came at the hands of Adam Coon of the University of Michigan late in the regular season.
But Snyder used that loss as motivation heading into the Big Ten Championships, where he won his third straight heavyweight title and is one win away at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland from becoming a three-time National Champion.
“There was no doubt that I could make the adjustments,” Snyder said at NCAA Championships Media Day.
“I've always been real confident in myself, and I've lost a lot worse than that growing up and in practice and different situations. So I always feel like I can make adjustments, and I just knew against Adam, I needed to be a little bit more efficient in the way that I wrestled him.”
Snyder made the adjustments in time to earn a redemption win over Coon with a 4-2 decision in the second sudden victory period in the title match of the Big Ten Championships.
“Usually, I don't have a game plan,” Snyder said. I just try to move forward and be really offensive and try to score a lot of points, and then, if my opponent can handle that, they can handle it. But a lot of times, I win wrestling positions and win the match.
“Against Coon, he’s so big that I have to be a little more efficient with my hand fighting, finish my attacks better, pick and choose a little bit. With that adjustment, I feel really good. I felt good about the second match and I feel even better about the third match if we end up competing against each other. I think that I'll be able to score more than I did and it won't go to overtime. I think I can end it before then.”
With the redemption victory over Coon, Snyder’s resume got a little more impressive, as he became a three-time Big Ten Champion at heavyweight (2016-2018), to go along with back-to-back NCAA titles (2016-2017) and an Olympic Gold Medal at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.
The youngest Olympic and World champion in United States wrestling history, a three-time All-American, two-time finalist for the Dan Hodge Trophy and 2016 NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Wrestler, Snyder aims to enjoy his final collegiate experience and continue on in the sport he loves well beyond this weekend.
But if Snyder wants to punctuate his career with another National Championship, he will have to defeat Coon in a rematch.
“I've had a great time at Ohio State,” Snyder said. “I've accomplished a lot of things, not just in wrestling, but just feel like I've become a stronger man, stronger in my faith, mentally stronger, so I'm happy with all of that. I'm happy with the way that my career went.
“I'm excited for the future. I love freestyle wrestling, so I'm going to be competing for a really long time, hopefully, after this.
“This is just another great tournament to wrestle in and compete in front of. It's a unique tournament because you get to compete in front of so many people and the team aspect of it is really cool, but I’ve got a lot of wrestling left, so I'm excited for that.”
