Eleven Warriors

Olympic 120 kg (265 lbs) Tervel Dlagnev trains full time at Ohio State with the Ohio Regional Training Center.  He was a 2x Division II Champion at Nebraska-Kearney (2007 and 2008), although his senior year it was widely recognized that he was the best heavyweight in the country, regardless of division.  Dlagnev is from Texas, which is not remotely a wrestling hot bed, and he did not start wrestling until his sophomore year of high school.  He's a late bloomer who has emerged as one of the best freestyle heavyweights in the world.  He placed 5th in the 2011 World Championships after placing 3rd at Worlds in 2010.  I am not sure how Tervel wound up in Columbus, beyond the general training environment and quality of his workout partners.  The RTC is run by 2x NCAA Champion Tommy Rowlands, an Ohio State alumn who is the greatest wrestler in school history.  Tommy is also a heavyweight, although dropped to 96 kg (211 lbs) for this Olympic Cycle, where he finished 2nd at Trials.  Tervel also has JD Bergman as his full time training partner, who was an NCAA Runner Up at Ohio State in 2008 and has represented the United States on the World Team (2010 I think?).  

Although no other Ohio RTC members made the Olympic Team, it is an incredibly strong room.  The RTC had three of the top four on the US Olympic Ladder at 60 kg (132), in Reece Humphries (NCAA Runner Up 2009 at Ohio State, World Team in 2011), Shawn Bunch (NCAA Runner UP 2005 at Edinboro, now signed to an MMA contract afterlosing  trials), and Logan Stieber (NCAA Champion for Ohio State as a red shirt freshman last season.  In the conversation for best pound-for-pound wrestler in college right now).  However, the lone non-Ohio RTC wrestler, Coleman Scott, formerly of Oklahoma State, won the spot, going through all three on his way to winning Trials.

Also training in the Ohio State room are Angel Escobedo, former NCAA Champion at Indiana, Colt Sponsellor, a former Buckeye All American, and James Yonoshonis, former Penn State All American.

The big draw (besides the Steelwood Wrestling Facility, which is pristine) is assistant coach Lou Roselli.  Lou was recently named one of the assistants for the Olympic Team in London, and he's widely regarded as the best lightweight coach in America.  Although I'd love from him to stay at Ohio State for as long as possible, I'd have to imagine his name comes up whenver there is a head coaching vacancy at any program.

The man to watch going forward is Stieber.  The Monroeville, Ohio product was the Jadaveon Clowny of recruits two years ago (although with much less drama; he commited to Ohio State after his sophomore year).  As a high school junior, he placed third at World Team Trials, and had a handful of wins over former NCAA champions by the time he enrolled at Ohio State.  A torn wrist ligament ended his true freshman year after just 5 matches, but after recovering he took silver at the Junior World Championships in Turkey.  He followed that by becoming the first Buckeye freshman to win an NCAA title last season, beating the reigning champion Jordan Oliver (who was on a 64-1 streak) 4-3.  Most impressive was that Oliver hammered Stieber 7-2 just a month before the tournament.  The finals match was a real testament not only to Logan, but Lou Roselli's ability to craft a gameplan.  Stieber finished as the runner up at Olympic Trials as a 20 year old, and is going to make a World Team sooner rather than later (maybe even next year).  

So that's probably way more than you were looking for, but the takeaway points are:  1) Heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev lives and trains in Columbus, 2) The Ohio RTC is probably the best regional training center in the country, 3) assistant coach Lou Roselli is a genius, and 4) current Buckeye Logan Stieber is a phenom and is one of the big names to know going forward in USA Wrestling.