Athletic genes run in families. Ohio State Football has the Borens and Bosas, Buckeye Basketball had the Sullingers, and the WrestleBucks have the Stiebers and Jordans.
Add to that list the Synder Brothers, Kyle and Kevin. Senior Kyle, the reigning Olympic, World and NCAA champion, is practically a household name. Freshman brother Kevin, according to head coach Tom Ryan, is more or less a younger model of the greatest wrestler in the sport today.
Watching them in action together, he said, reminded him of the apex predators of the high seas, Orcinus orca.
"Watching Kevin, isn't it like watching, you've got Big Orca in Kyle, and you've got like Sea World, the Little Orca just swimming beside him," Ryan said after the Buckeyes hosted Kent State and Cleveland State in the annual Thanksgiving Throwdown. "[He] looks just like him, moves just like him."
Both Snyder brothers earned bonus point victories in the tri-dual meet, with Kyle earning his second consecutive victory by fall, earning the new and now coveted Pin Chain.
Kevin looked very much like his older sibling, landing a take down and a pair of 4-point near falls in the first period, adding four more takedowns in the second, and sealing the 20-5 tech fall with another takedown to open the third.
Kevin Synder - AKA "Little Orca" - will be in action next weekend as the Buckeyes travel to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational tournament, Dec. 1-2.