March 29, 2019
Wrestling Page 2
Spotlight Knight Nick Suriano JACKSON THOMPSON SPORTS EDITOR
As a child, Nick Suriano made frequent visits to College Avenue. Years later, as a man, he would return to the 200-year-old campus a hero, one who had left no stone unturned on his route to immortality. The Paramus-born, New Jersey lifer launched his athletic career as a youth football defensive back, but then his father, Robert Suriano, introduced him to the world of wrestling at age 7. From then on he discovered his lot, and spent the next 14 years fighting his way to the top of the field. Though he was never in one place, he would reach his ultimate goal close to home. By the time he was 12, he had officially abandoned football to commit to the craft of wrestling, just in time to prepare for one of the most storied high school careers in the history of New Jersey wrestling. “I just loved the individuality of wrestling and the freedom I felt. I felt like I had more control,” Suriano said. As a standout at Bergen Catholic, Suriano went a perfect 1590, winning the state title every year there, but his success was just the tip of the iceberg in the context of a foreshadowing high school career. A high-octane workout routine, which Suriano has become synonymous with on social media, stemmed from habits in high school. In 2016, as Suriano was closing his undefeated career at Bergen Catholic, the 5-foot-5inch, 130-pound wrestler was featured on Sports Illustrated, in an article that highlighted his extreme weightlifting and cardio tendencies. “I try to put myself through the worst punishments you can possibly go through … I try to make it worse than any tough match,” Suriano said, according to Sports Illustrated. When he was 15, he was introduced to head coach Scott Goodale, and later that same year would come another first meeting with a now-familiar figure. At the final round of the 2014 USA Wrestling (USAW) Cadet World Team Trials, a high school sophomore Suriano would challenge Charles Page High School’s Daton Fix. The first high school meeting between the two best lightweights in the country ended in a Fix USAW title, but the two wouldn’t have to wait long for a rematch. “We were the two best guys at the weight and it’s just the matchup that everyone wanted. Everyone wanted to see Suriano versus Fix,” Suriano said. The very next year, with the two once again at the top of the national high school rankings, they met at the Snake Pit for a bout that has since simply been labeled “The Marathon Match.” Suriano and Fix wrestled for 35 minutes in that match, the longest match on record in the
histor y of high school wrestling, and one that would see Suriano even the odds from the previous year. Suriano got his revenge and evened up the series against Fix, 1-1. It would be the last time the two would meet in high school, but only a preview for rivalr y that would come to a precipice five years later on the sport’s biggest stage. “He helped me manifest my dream, honestly,” Suriano said. Despite being a New Jersey lifer, and his familiarity with Rutgers, when Suriano’s career at Bergen Catholic was finished, he opted to leave home and take his talents to one of the countr y’s highest profile college wrestling programs. Penn State, a University notorious for poaching New Jersey talent away from Rutgers, would be Suriano’s destination of choice. Suriano started his collegiate career 17-1 in the 125-pound weight class, before an ankle injury ended his freshman campaign. Not only would the injury end his first season in the Big Ten, but it would also end his tenure as a Nittany Lion. “I had to sit and watch people I beat go and win something that I had wanted to achieve my whole life. I learned that there’s more to life than wrestling and winning. That’s what I know how to do, so when I got hurt and I couldn’t do that anymore, it taught me a lot. I took it as a time to build, learn and reflect on myself,” Suriano said, according to Team USA. Suriano made it to the program he desired most as a high school wrestler, and was just as successful as he was expected to be at the next level on the premier wrestling team in the country, but one season was all it took for him to realize it’s not where he belonged, and then wasted no time coming home. In summer 2017, Suriano requested a release from Penn State so he could return home and transfer to wrestle for Rutgers, but it would not be as easy as just packing up and coming home. The Big Ten’s transfer policy granted Penn State the ability to block Suriano’s eligibility if he did transfer to Rutgers, and Penn State followed suit. The rule would have taken Suriano’s sophomore season, only leaving him two more years of eligibility to wrestle for Rutgers, but an appeal to the Big Ten committee would be the difference as Suriano was granted full transfer rights and eligibilty to wrestle at the Rutgers Atheletic Center (RAC) for the following season. It was a sophomore season that seemingly saw Suriano pick up right where he left off. In his first campaign as a Scarlet Knight he went 25-1 and undefeated in dual meets, but just as it did a year earlier, an injury would impede his aspirations. SEE KNIGHT ON PAGE 10
Wrestling Page 3
March 29, 2019
Spotlight Knight Anthony Ashnault MATTHEW HOWE CORRESPONDENT
Graduate student 149-pounder Anthony Ashnault did things his way. New Jersey’s first-ever undefeated four-time state champion could have gone to any premier wrestling program in the country upon his graduation from South Plainfield High School in 2013. In fact, Ashnault turned down scholarships from Penn State, Oklahoma State and Michigan to stay home and go to a school he grew up just 15 minutes away from. Of course, he had some ties to Rutgers. His older brother, Billy, also wrestled for the Scarlet Knights, and at the time of his commitment was named director of Wrestling Operations. What ensued for Ashnault’s career can be regarded as one of the single best athletes to ever compete for Rutgers, in any sport. Over the course of his entire career, Ashnault was a three-time Big Ten Champion, a national champion and amassed a 123-18 career record, the most all-time in program history. This season could be considered one of the most impressive single-season performances by a Rutgers athlete ever, in any sport. Ashnault capped off his senior campaign with a 32-0 record, 8 pins, seven major decisions and four technical falls. Of course, the icing on the cake was the elusive national championship, which he secured last week in Pittsburgh by beating Ohio State’s Micah Jordan. “I came to Rutgers to do that kind of thing, to get more recruits, like I said after the semis,” Ashnault said. “To be honest, I was a little nervous. Once (junior 133-pounder) Nick (Suriano) won I could be free out there and let it fly. So I’m
grateful for him — he pushed me a lot. He could be one of the reasons why I finally jumped to get in here.” He is even up for the Dan Hodge Trophy, which is equivalent to college football’s Heisman Trophy. There are three other wrestlers competing for the award against Ashnault: Penn State’s Bo Nickal and Jason Nolf, as well as Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis. So what is next for Ashnault? Coaching seems to be the obvious answer, as he is expected to join the Knights’ coaching staff next season alongside head coach Scott Goodale. He is also expected to transition to freestyle wrestling, where he will now compete on the world stage for a shot on the U.S. team. “Heck, yeah, man I’m going to Pan Am Games with the senior-level guys about April 20. I think, I compete in Buenos Aires, Argentina,” Ashnault said. “I’ll be with a lot of the starting guys. That’s where I want to be. My goal as a little kid was to be Olympic champ, national champ and now I got that part done.” Still, Ashnault could not help but reflect on his time here at Rutgers, as well as the opportunities he’s had over the last six years of his college career. “I thought it would be a little more satisfying, but I just realized that my potential still has a little bit more to go. And, you know, this was a stressful time. College is stressful,” he said. “You’ve got goals for yourself. I had six years, but usually you only get four years to do it. And when you don’t accomplish it so many times in a row, you start getting down on yourself. And it took a lot of soul searching to prove to myself that I am worth it, and the grind is worth it, and it’s going to happen one day. And it happened.”
“College is stressful. You’ve got goals for yourself. I had six years, but usually you only get four years to do it. And when you don’t accomplish it so many times in a row, you start getting down on yourself.” ANTHONY ASHNAULT Graduate Student 149-pounder
Rutgers Wrestling All-Time Wins List Anthony Ashnault
123-18
Mike McHugh
117-38
Rod Van Ness
113-35
Dominic Cerrato
113-42
Anthony Surage
111-18
Jon Forster
110-56
BANNER YEAR
The Anthony Ashnault Story