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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 20, 2015Kyle SnyderST. LOUIS, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: We welcome Kyle Snyder of Ohio State. First an opening statement from Kyle talking about tonight's match. KYLE SNYDER: Yeah, it was a really exciting match, especially for the fans, I think. A lot of people were looking forward to it happening. I was also looking forward to wrestling him. I haven't wrestled him in a long time. I knew he was going to have to be one of the guys that I would have to get past one way or another to be a national champ. So just really grateful for the opportunity to compete here at this awesome event. Just happy that I could help my team by making it to the finals. Q. When Nathan was in here he talked about the freshman chant‑‑ excuse me, the freshmen leaders, that type of thing. It is a unique group. Talk about how you young guys seem to be keeping this going and making this happen for Ohio State? KYLE SNYDER: Yeah, well, me, Bo Jordan, and Nathan Tomasello, we all kind of just got a leadership attitude. We like to be out in front of people. We like to be the guys that are making decisions. Then along with having a red‑shirt senior, Logan Stieber, four‑time national finalist, hopefully going to be a four‑time champion, we can look off what he's doing, learn from him, and take what we learned from him and kind of put it in our own little swagger leading our team. Q. You took a different route than some people. You didn't wrestle as a senior in high school. You went to the Olympic training center and competed twice at the Junior World Championships, a gold and a bronze. Then you went right in as a true freshman and are in the NCAA Finals. How did that time from late in your junior year to the time you ended up at Ohio State, how did that prepare you for being able to handle the challenge of this really difficult tournament? KYLE SNYDER: Well, going to the Olympic training center I think kind of served as a red‑shirt year, but it was even better I believe. I mean, I was wrestling with Dustin Kilgore, Don Reiter, Jack Jensen, and had Olympic World Championship coaches Brandon Slay and Bill Zadick. I got to wrestle with those guys every day and feel what an NCAA champ felt like and learn that, hey, I can wrestle with these guys right now and a year from now I'm going to be better and I'm going to win the tournament when I get there. So it was a great experience being out there in Colorado Springs and learning from those guys. I'm just really happy that I made the decision to go out there and train. Q. What did you have to do strategically against Cox? What were you able to get accomplished? What pulled you through towards the end? KYLE SNYDER: Well, I knew I wanted to get a first period take down to set the tone of the match. In my head I was thinking that I'm going to need to take him down at least twice to win the match because I knew he was a good mat wrestler. He's tough on top, good on bottom, hard to ride. I didn't end up getting the second take down, but I was stingy with my defense and got off bottom pretty quick. So I knew I just had to win the hand fight, be stingy if he got to my legs and use everything that I've learned over this past year to help me win the match. Q. You trained with Nick Heflin who wrestled with Cox in the finals last year and lost. Being your strength coach, how did he help you all with this match? I'm sure you're happy you got a win for him? KYLE SNYDER: Yeah, Heflin was good. He was good about reminding me that Cox, J'Den Cox is out there and that's somebody that I'm going to have to beat after a heavy bench set or something like that. He would be like hey, maybe Cox can do more and kind of tease me a little bit, make me think about it, kind of get me angry. Sometimes it's good to train angry, to train like you're hungry and you need something. Like it's yours. It's already yours and you're just going to get it a month later or however long later it is, yeah. Heflin is an amazing, amazing weightlifting coach. He also wrestled with me a ton this year and gave me some great feels. He definitely has played a large role in me making it to the national finals and hopefully becoming a national champ. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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