Ohio State landed a marquee recruit in Anthony Echemendia, giving head coach Tom Ryan an explosive middleweight option and a potential solution to who he starts at 157 pounds. 

The Cuban-born phenom wrestled 152 in his senior season for Sunnyside High School, 145 in Fargo — where he won titles in both freestyle and Greco-Roman — and 65 kg at Who’s #1 in October. But with Luke Pletcher feeling his oats at 141 and Slammin’ Sammy Sasso a potential title contender at 149, neither of those weights makes a tremendous amount of sense at the moment.

That leaves 157. Versus Stanford last week, Ohio State started redshirt junior Elijah Cleary, who won the team’s wrestle-offs over two-time Flo National champ Jaden Mattox. Ke-Shawn Hayes intended to wrestle 149 this season, but lost the spot to Sasso, and a nagging injury has kept him out of action late. Hayes already has his diploma from Ohio State, and it’s unclear how much interest he has in going back up to 157 at the tail-end of his injury-plagued career after bouncing around from 141 to 149 to 157 over the years.

One thing is certain: Tom Ryan is excited about what his team is getting with Echemendia.

“He brings a lot of things,” Ryan said Thursday. “I think what he brings as much as anything besides his talent level and his love of the sport, his toughness… he brings gratitude. He’s from an area that you’re just not given much, so anything he gets he’s so grateful for, and that’s an attitude we want to run rampant in here.” 

Echemendia will enroll in January; Ryan said his current plan is “to see how things roll” when his star recruit hits campus. One source close to the program indicated he could be settled in Columbus by mid-December, but it’s not yet clear how soon he’ll be able to train with the team.

As the lineup is currently constructed, the Buckeyes have eight wrestlers ranked in the top 25; Echemendia at 157 could easily make it nine. With Gavin Hoffman back in the lineup versus Pitt at 184, Ohio State’s lineup after the holidays could be incredibly exciting for fans, and even more challenging for opponents.

Andy Vance is a Columbus-based journalist who covers the Ohio State University wrestling program for Eleven Warriors, the largest independent sports site on the internet for Ohio State news, analysis, and community. He is co-host of the site’s Eleven Dubcast podcast. Follow him on Twitter @AndyVance