2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2023

Keegan O'Toole

BOK Center

Finals Media Conference

165 pounds

O'Toole (Missouri) d. Carr (Iowa State), 8-2

Q. What are your emotions?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: I'm super grateful. I've been saying it all week that I'm so blessed to have the people around me that I do have. And I thought in that match I was fearless. And that's what I've been trying to achieve all tournament. And just having a loving family, loving coaches, teammates, always there for me, feels amazing. But this isn't just me. This is everyone around me.

Q. Could you walk us through how all this transpired? You get (inaudible) you bring it to even 3-3, and then you get pinned in sudden victory. (Indiscernible) have a masterpiece in the finals over a great wrestler. How did you make all this happen?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: Like I said, just amazing people around me. Amazing coaches. Coach Dom Bradley, Coach Maple. Brian Smith, Tyrel Todd -- all my amazing training partners, Ben at home, (indiscernible) at home. I'm getting constant feedback from people at a higher level than me. I think that's what ultimately led to that victory.

Q. I asked you last night you had a second chance in the venue, a few more people than a couple weeks ago. What's it feel like to have a wider point margin this time and dominate this match? You had a nice embrace afterwards. I guess you were friendly competitors as well. Tell me about that and what this feels like?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: I think David's an amazing person, (indiscernible) amazing wrestler. It's just amazing to have that many high-level people in my weight class. My class was stacked this year. I had so many guys and three national champs, national finalists, bunch of All-Americans.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity. And getting to say hi to my mom hopefully here soon, couldn't find her. My dad, all my teammates.

I'm so happy for our team and we had a great performance. So damn close to being top four. It's almost heartbreaking. Kind of bummed me out a lot. One of my best friends and life-long training partners that I've been with since I was a little kid, Peyton Mocco, finally got it done as an All-American. That meant so much for me.

I was warming up my semifinals yesterday and I went out on the mat and there was tears in my eyes just because he won his match. And I've been with him since three feet tall. So amazing to have so many great people around me.

Q. Can you go through a little bit maybe what you learned from the Big 12 final and what the change or if anything?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: Like I said, just back in the lab. I'm not perfect at all. I make mistakes. I do things wrong a lot. I think it's all about how you come back, how you adjust from those. Just like anything in life, you have setbacks. If you treat it right have a great mindset you can always come back more. And that's what I thought I did.

Q. You're still not that old of a wrestler. Just a few years removed from high school. (Inaudible) I want to know when (indiscernible) decided to go up 65 what were your thoughts?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: I wasn't devastated about those losses just because I love the challenge. I don't want anything to be easy. One of our friends back home, a thrower, said anything worth a damn in this life shouldn't come easy. I always like to think of it that way.

When I took those two losses it sucked because I hate losing, but super grateful for it because I got so much better and from just the time I wrestled on February 15th until now it's March 18th. A month and three days and I've made massive improvements in my opinion.

Also when I found out he was coming up, I loved it. I love the challenge. He's a great wrestler, great competitor, great person. I wanted to take the mat with him and I did it the most times we could this year. I was looking at three times probably -- the dual, Big 12s, National Finals, and I thought that was going to happen back in October. And it happened. And now we're here.

Q. How do we get more people wrestlers to embrace that mentality that we need rivalries how do we make sure that happens?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: That's a difficult question because everyone's different. Everyone was brought up differently. Everyone's been around different people. Their environments are so different. But I think good coaches from when you're young. I've had it the wrong way and I've had it the right way. I've had it where I've been scared of the competition because I don't want to lose and I'm scared what the outcome of it is.

But I firmly believe that when I moved from where I was to (indiscernible) Academy when I was 12 years old, it changed my life. I'm forever grateful to those guys, they instilled in my mind never to be afraid of any challenge and be ready to compete whenever. And that's Tiger style too -- believe, compete, expect to win one more.

Q. Nationals will be in Kansas City, in a sense Missouri will be the host team to it, how special could that be for you?

KEEGAN O'TOOLE: I think it's awesome. It's only two hours away, which is really nice. We're hosting again, and it's going to be a lot more fans, a lot more Mizzou fans. And I get to wrestle in a different venue. This is back-to-back weekends, pretty much. So getting closer to Tulsa and I'll be back here obviously three more times.