It’s safe to say that Cohlton Schultz wrestles with style. Which one is another matter entirely.

The Arizona State redshirt junior is the nation’s fifth-ranked collegiate folkstyle heavyweight but doubles as the country’s #1 Greco-Roman wrestler at 130 kilograms with the 2024 Paris Olympic Games looming. Literally and figuratively, that’s a lot of weight to carry.

He’s had an affinity for the upper-body Greco style since his early teenage years and he enjoys being an anchor for the Sun Devils’ lineup after winning four Colorado scholastic titles, earning 188 victories in 190 matches with 152 falls.

But last year, the back-and-forth between the two caught up with him. 

“I had a few nagging injuries that I just couldn't get over for one reason or another,” Schultz said. “I felt like I was fighting against my body for a good while last year. There's a lot of stuff I wanted to do that my body was telling me I just couldn't because I was pretty beat up.”

Schultz did make his third Senior World team and earned another U.S. Senior Open crown. He tumbled to seventh in the NCAAs after a silver medal finish in 2022 to Olympic freestyle champion Gable Steveson.

This year, he hopes he’s fixed the problem(s). He and Arizona State coach Zeke Jones and the ASU training staff adjusted his schedule. 

“A lot of college guys get a break after March … after the NCAA Tournament, they get a little break, or they're not training 100% … they're not training to keep competing March through November,” Schultz explained. 

“It puts me in an interesting spot where I don't ever get those long breaks to really heal up and re-adjust. So instead of giving me long breaks, we're just kind of mixing them in where we can … sprinkle them in as it fits.”

He has yet to compete for ASU this season but is expected to be in the lineup on Jan. 5 when the Sun Devils host Iowa State at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona. 

“Oh, yeah, I’ve still been mixing in a little folkstyle in my training; I’m not too far gone from it. I'm excited. It’ll be fun,” he said.

A key matter Schultz must contend with outside of folkstyle and prior to the Olympic Trials in April is qualifying the 130kg spot for the United States Olympic team. He’ll most likely compete at the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier Feb. 20-24 in Acapulco, Mexico. 

“I think after that there's maybe one more international tournament to try to steal a spot for the Olympics. So best-case scenario would just be to get the job done at Pan Am Games for sure, though,” he said, adding that simply by making the finals the spot would be qualified.

That all takes a lot of training and training is a vital factor for any wrestler, but especially for 280-pound behemoths like Schultz. 

“Cardio is always a big factor. It doesn't matter how good you wrestle if you can't go six minutes hard,” he said. 

“And you're wrestling heavyweights, you’re wrestling almost 300-pound dudes, so you’ve got to be able to move some big weights. If you're not moving big weights, then you’re getting left behind these days. So lifting is definitely huge … getting all my lifts in — at least four a week. And Zeke always talks about putting us under the gun, so he always makes sure we get some high-pressure live situations in, too.”

That paid off in December when Schultz won the U.S. Senior Nationals with a 4-1 victory over longtime nemesis Adam Coon. Schultz has had the upper hand over Coon lately, even though the rivalry didn’t start out that way. 

“He was great,” ASU’s Jones said about Schultz and his recent title. “Obviously, when he’s Senior National champion again, he’s a favorite to make the Olympic team. He has to go down (to Mexico) to get the weight qualified, but I think he's in a good spot. We're really proud of him. 

“And we're excited about seeing him turn his attention to folkstyle here for the next couple of months, but we realize that he has another goal besides an NCAA champ and that's being a World Cup and Olympic champion. So, yeah, exciting times for Cohlton.”

Top international competitors are world medalists Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran); Riza Kayaalp (Turkey); Oscar Pino (Cuba), and Addellatif Mohamed (Egypt). 

“I haven't wrestled the Iranian or the Turk in competition. I've been able to train with them, push with them and I know I’m capable of hanging with all those guys,” Schultz said.

When he’s not training for one style or another, he puts his time into his sustainable ecosystems major at ASU. 

“I take a lot of a lot of fun classes,” he said. “Some different ones about natural resources last semester … like global change. That one was kind of in the realm of climate change type of science. 

“Then this semester coming up, I have to take this class where we work with a professional. It's gonna be about water systems challenges and solutions, I believe. So it's interesting stuff, learning about natural resources and all the best systems we currently have, and how we can make them more sustainable for the long term and for the future. It's really interesting to me,” he said.

And interest in a team trophy at the Kansas City NCAAs remains at the forefront in the ASU wrestling room. With Schultz and Richie Figueroa and Kyle Parco and Jacori Teemer and, when healthy, Jesse Vasquez, the Sun Devils are a high-level tournament team. 

“As long as I've been at ASU, that's been the goal — making that one big run for a national tournament title,” said Schultz, who has another year of eligibility and as of now is planning on using it.

“We've got the talent, I believe, but it takes more than just talent. We have to be firing on all cylinders and have our head in the right spot. We're definitely capable of it, we just have to have a lot of a lot of things fall in the right place.”