Blue White Illustrated

Watch the throne David Taylor began visualizing this team's success five years ago. Now the Lions are only one tournament away from a historic fourth consecutive national crown. But there's a major issue: Everyone is gunning for them avid Taylor and Ed Ruth 1rst met 1ve years ago as unknowing high school seniors, long before they be- came the two most transcendent teammates in Penn State, if not college wrestling, history. But before they were even introduced, Taylor knew they had to be teammates. Taylor has always lived and breathed the sport, studying the country's top wrestlers. At the time – March 2009 – he knew about Ruth and knew he had the potential to be one of the greatest. Taylor was already committed to Cael Sanderson, his childhood idol, and he thought that if he could somehow get Ruth on their team, they could reach national cham- pionship heights. So, of course, the re- cruiting pitch flowed from Taylor. And it went like this: Join us and you'll become better than you ever thought you could be… at Iowa State. "He almost got me, too," Ruth recently recalled. "He was really convincing. He asked, 'Don't you want to reach your full potential?' Yeah, I do. Everything he said, he made me believe it." Sanderson, of course, was still head coach of his alma mater. Ruth had already signed a letter of intent with PSU in No- vember, but since the Nittany Lions were without a coach a2er Troy Sunderland le2, there was an outside possibility that Ruth could back out of his declaration. Then a cosmic shi2 occurred that would alter the entire landscape of college wrestling. Taylor's idea of he and Ruth teaming up came to fruition, but it wasn't in Ames. Less than a month a2er the future national champs met as members of the USA Dream Team in Oklahoma, Sanderson took the head coaching job with the Nittany Lions. Ruth didn't have to leave his home state to suit up with Taylor, who was grant- ed release from his Iowa State scholarship. Five years later – almost how Taylor had forecasted in 2009 – they are set to go down as two of the most decorated stu- dent-athletes in university history, and perhaps two of the most talented college wrestlers ever. That much was evident before their 1nal matches in Rec Hall, and Taylor was the very last wrestler to be introduced on senior day, Feb. 23. Prior to the opening whistle, Dean DeVore calmly announced Taylor's career accomplishments to the crowd: "53-0 all-time against Big Ten D ESPN EXPANDS COVERAGE OF NCAA TOURNAMENT ESPN will provide unprecedented television coverage of the 2014 NCAA Championships March 20-22. Both the semifinal and final rounds will air live on ESPN. All other sessions will air live on ESPNU. |

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