A lot of things can change in a year.
At the 2022 OHSAA Division II state wrestling tournament, Keystone’s Tristin Greene won his first two matches at 138 pounds before going 1-2 in his next three and finishing fourth on the podium.
Over the offseason and going into 2022-23 with Keystone competing in Division III, Greene, now wrestling in the 157-pound weight class, won a Fargo national title, his second straight district championship and blitzed to a 43-2 record as the projected state champion by InterMat’s Josh Lowe. The improvement for Greene starts from the base on up.
“I’ve definitely tightened up a lot of my positions,” Greene, a junior, said. “Just looking back at some of the basics, making sure that my positioning is tight and improving what I know I’m good at. Over the summer I got better with my upper body, making sure I can use that when necessary. And just making sure I know what my opponents do and I can counter them whenever necessary.”
Seeing Greene every day in the practice room and what he brings to the team is something Coach Chris Vondruska has had the pleasure of witnessing for the past few years. He’s set a high bar for his Keystone teammates.
“The biggest thing I think our team can learn from Tristin is consistency,” Vondruska said. “Having consistent effort every single day. He’s consistently coming into extra workouts, lifting and challenging himself in practice and asking questions. He’s consistent in his preparation in warmups and just being ready for each match and stuff, that’s the big thing I think I’ve seen this year.”
When asked if he feels any pressure from outside expectations, there’s definitely a target on his back.
“There’s a little pressure from others,” Greene acknowledged. “But most of it is coming from my competition. They all know who I am and they can all find what I’m good at. It’s going to be mostly them countering what I’m good at rather than teams and coaches. It’s just going to be about how everyone’s targeting me and there’s a target on my back. Everyone’s trying to get at me.”
From all the way back as a freshman after losing his first-ever high school match to his disdain of being taken down, Vondruska doesn’t see that out of his national champion as much. It’s the same cool and collected confidence that Greene’s exhibited over the years.
“I think he’s grown a lot in the sense he doesn’t let getting taken down really bother him,” Vondruska explained. “He was taken down in at least two of the matches this past weekend and was behind in a couple of matches. It doesn’t matter, he wears guys down a lot. He’s going to keep doing what he does and wrestle until the last whistle, and it’s really tough to handle six minutes on the mat with this guy.”
To be successful in Columbus, Greene knows what he has to do to win his first state title and has the tools to get it done.
“It’s just knowing that there’s a lot I can do and a lot of options I can do,” he said. “If I can utilize everything in my tool kit to take down my opponent, that’ll be a pretty successful weekend being able to use everything I have.”
