A little more than half of the Ohio wrestling team sat down to eat dinner at a restaurant just outside of Kent. It was Saturday night, and it was about an hour after the conclusion of the first day of the 2014 Mid-American Conference Championships.
Most of the Bobcats sat around and carried on conversations, some loud, some quiet. One of the quietest was redshirt senior Jeremy Johnson, who had won both of his heavyweight matches earlier in the day and had already clinched a berth to the NCAA Tournament — the fourth time he’d qualified in his career.
“Tired,” he kept saying. “I’m so tired.”
The next day, March 9, Johnson dominated his finals match with a 7-1 decision to capture his second individual MAC title of his career.
Nobody thought he looked tired.
Even if he had given off such an impression, however, one could forgive him for doing so. Johnson, who hails from Broadview Heights, Ohio and is known on the team as “Trizzy Train,” has had a busy season of an even busier career. He owns a 36-4 record for the 2013-14 campaign, a personal-best win total. He finished dual matches with a perfect 17-0 during the regular season and has won 15 straight matches dating back to the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1.
Johnson will enter the NCAA Championships with a 138-35 career record, one of the greatest careers amassed in the history of Ohio wrestling. In addition to his MAC titles and an All-American honor, he is still chasing down one final achievement: a national title.
“After not accomplishing that All-American status last season, there was a lot of work that needed to be done,” Johnson said. “I put a lot of work in this summer, and I think that’s paying off now on the mat. The number one goal when I came here was to be national champion, and I still have one more shot at that.”
His wrestling career isn’t the only thing that has taken off since coming to Ohio. Johnson has also hit his stride in the classroom, saying he has gone from earning a 2.9 grade-point average in high school to being a 3.5 student in college.
“I work much harder with schoolwork and studying,” Johnson said. “Coaches preach all the time that you have to have your entire life figured out, and you need to have a balance. So, the same motivation I put into wrestling is what I put into academics.”
Johnson entered his collegiate career as a two-time national champion and All-American from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School.
Although his success on the mat is more than enough to earn the respect and admiration of his teammates, mere age and experience make Johnson a leader on the team on their own. Johnson is one of just three Bobcats with senior status, as six underclassmen were in the starting lineup for the majority of season.
Redshirt sophomore Phil Wellington, a 197-pound wrestler, has been Johnson’s training partner for the last three years.
“I definitely look up to (Johnson) for his work ethic and his capability of winning,” Wellington said. “We have similar goals. And after going against that bigger competition all week, guys that I wrestle are a little bit lighter and not as strong.”
For the Bobcats’ coach Joel Greenlee, who was a highly successful heavyweight wrestler himself in his competition days, being able to coach another great heavyweight has been a special experience. He notes that the mentality he’s seen in Johnson is reminiscent of the one he saw two season ago, when Johnson was an All-American.
“I’ve seen a lot of extra work out of him,” Greenlee said. “You see a little bit different mindset. You see the same kind of mindset you saw in his sophomore year when he was an All-American, where he wants to go out on top and do everything in his power to have the best year he can have.”
Replacing Johnson’s presence on the mat won’t be easy. He’s accounted for 154 points for the Bobcats this season, giving whoever wrestles the heavyweight spot next year some big shoes to fill. Exactly who will be picked to assume that role is another question. Ohio currently has one freshman heavyweight, Greg Moray, who was redshirted this season after suffering an injury in December.
The team also has a pair of recruits coming in next season, including Jesse Webb, who currently ranks No. 13 among all 285-pound high school wrestlers.
As for what the future holds for Johnson, wrestling looks to remain a big part of it. He wants to enter the international circuit, and has plans to compete for spots on the 2016 and 2020 Olympic teams.
He also has a desire to coach and plans to return to the team as an assistant next fall.
But much of that is no doubt absent in Johnson’s mind at the moment. Next fall, the Olympics: all of that is a long time away.
And right now, the “Train” has one last stop to make.
@_tony_wolfe_
aw987712@ohiou.edu
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Heavyweight Champ"
