Quentin Wright won two NCAA titles at Penn State, where he was one of college wrestling’s most electrifying performers. 

That’s worth mentioning, even though this story isn’t about Wright. It’s about Ed Ruth. 

And few are more qualified to talk about Ruth’s greatness than Wright, who competed against him in high school, trained alongside him with the Nittany Lions and still remains awestruck by his superhuman feats on the mat. 

“It was unbelievable the things he could do,” Wright said Wednesday during a 16-minute phone interview when he shared stories and insights about Ruth’s freakish strength, lightning speed, bottomless gas tank and uncommon approach to the sport. 

All of those traits rolled together made opponents — and training partners — feel helpless at times against Ruth.

“You kinda knew what he was doing, but you couldn’t stop it,” Wright said. “He would kick the crap out of me in practice at times and there would be times where he’d ride me for 20 minutes and I knew I wasn’t getting out. Ed would put it in his mind where it was like, ‘I’m not going to let you do this. Period.’ And that was his goal — to not let you do something and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Wright remembers the relief he felt when Ruth committed to the Nittany Lions. They wrestled twice in the Pennsylvania state semifinals in high school and Wright won a pair of close decisions, but he felt Ruth’s upside in those matches. 

“Really, the reason I beat him in high school was I knew more wrestling,” he said. “When you learn that technique and you combine it with pure athleticism and talent, that’s when he started taking off. So when he confirmed that he was going to come to Penn State, I was like, ‘Thank God I don’t have to compete against him.’”

Ruth is the newest member of the Flowrestling All-Quarter Century Team presented by Defense Soap. He narrowly finished ahead of two other former Penn State greats to claim the 184-pound first-team spot in one of the tightest votes in the All-Quarter Century series. 

“Ed was so unique, such a unique kid,” Wright said. “When he came to Penn State, his goal wasn’t to be the national champion. You hear most kids say, ‘I want to a four-time national champ’ or things like that. That wasn’t his motivation. His motivation was to do what he wanted. He just wanted to do what he wanted out there. A lot of times in college he was really successful because if you’d beat him or you’d do something to make him look bad, that gave him the motivation to crush you the next time.”

Wright recalled a few of those instances. 

There was a time when Ruth held off Lehigh’s Robert Hamlin 11-9 in a December dual. Ruth vowed it wouldn’t be close the next time they met and posted a 12-4 major decision against Hamlin later that season in the NCAA finals. 

There was the time Ruth lost by injury default in the 2011 NCAA quarterfinals to Stanford’s Nick Amuchastegui. 

“He couldn’t bend his leg,” Wright said.” Even before the Big Ten tournament, he had a fully torn meniscus, but he didn’t tell our trainers, he didn’t tell our coaches, he didn’t tell anybody. He didn’t want anybody to know he was hurt. He just wrestled. 

“What happened at the NCAAs when he lost that match, it locked up and he couldn’t get it unlocked in the match. He had to (default). After losing that match, he made it his mission the next year to embarrass Amuchastegui the next time they wrestled. I still have the picture on my phone where he’s in the NCAA finals the next year, he’s wrestling Amuchastegui and he’s sitting on Amuchastegui with his hand on the back of his head looking into this picture. That was his motivation for the whole year.” 

Ruth won the rematch with Amuchastegui 13-2 in the 2012 NCAA finals.  

There was another time when Wright said Ruth intentionally kept a match close. 

“He had his own little motivations,” Wright said. “I remember him going into a match and saying, ‘He’s not going to score a point on me and I’m not overworking to beat him.’ He won the match 3-0. He made that decision.”

That was a rarity for Ruth. Most of his matches were one-sided in his favor. He compiled a 136-3 record at Penn State and 104 of those were bonus-point victories, including 13 at the NCAA Championships. 

In three trips to the national finals, he outscored his by a combined 32-8 margin — an illustration of Ruth’s ability to make a tough sport look easy.  

None of this was by accident, though. 

Ruth thrived on demanding workouts and regularly piled on extra work after practice, devoting time to calisthenics, push-ups and pull-ups, according to Wright. 

“I remember one time in practice just for fun he grabbed both of my wrists and I could not put my hands together, I couldn’t pull them apart,” Wright said. “He just held them there and started laughing. It was funny that he could control you in that way.

“He was freakishly strong. His grip strength was unbelievable. That’s what surprised people on the mat. When he got ahold of your leg, he didn’t let it go. That’s why he made things look easy because normally a guy grabs your leg, you can kinda kick out. But with him, he’d grab your ankle and it was like his hand wrapped around your ankle three times and there was no getting out. 

“When his finger touched your foot, it was his. His hand was so strong he would pull that in and you couldn’t stop it, where a normal guy would touch your leg and you’d pull your leg away. Not with Ed. If he touched it, you were done.” 

The Results Are In 

The Flowrestling team started with every NCAA champion from the last 25 years and pared the list down to four at every weight after tabulating the results of a staff vote. We let wrestling fans weigh in with a social media vote. Here are the final results: 

1. Penn State’s Ed Ruth

2. Penn State’s Aaron Brooks

3. Penn State’s Bo Nickal

4. West Virginia’s Greg Jones 

The First-Teamers

125 — Iowa’s Spencer Lee

133 — Ohio State’s Logan Stieber

141 — Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis 

149 — Penn State’s Zain Retherford 

157 — Penn State’s Jason Nolf 

165 — Cornell’s Kyle Dake

174 — Penn State’s Carter Starocci 

184 — Penn State’s Ed Ruth 

Facts, Figures And Those Who Missed The Final Cut At 184

— The last quarter century has produced 17 different NCAA champions at 184 pounds. 

— There were six multi-time champs at the weight during that 25-year stretch — Greg Jones, Jake Herbert, Ed Ruth, Gabe Dean, Bo Nickal and Aaron Brooks. 

— Earlier this week we broke down how the top-tier established itself at 184 pounds since 2001. 

— Cael Sanderson (2001) and Jake Herbert (2009) were the lone Hodge Trophy winners at 184 during the past 25 years. 

— Eleven different schools won a 184-pound title during the past 25 years, led by Penn State’s nine. Cornell is second with three, followed by Northern Iowa, Northwestern and West Virginia with two each.  

— Penn State led the field with 10 NCAA finals appearances at 184 during the last 25 years. Cornell was second with six. 

— Juniors collected nine of the 24 NCAA titles at 184 pounds since 2001. Seniors were second with eight.