Jarid Downey said his family loves to snowboard in Colorado and likes to tell the story of how he introduced the winter activity to his boys — Ryder and Bowen Downey — who both currently wrestle for the University of Northern Iowa.

“They started to learn how to snowboard, which is difficult,” recalled Jarid. “Growing up, Ryder was not as good of an athlete as his brother. Bowen picked it up right out of the gates. Ryder watched his brother go up and down and Ryder couldn’t figure it out. But we could not leave that hill until he could do it. An hour or two into it, I said, ‘What have I got myself into?’

“I told him I’d help him all day long, but if I saw any tears, we were done. Ryder was biting his lip and biting his lip so that he wasn’t crying.”

Eventually, Ryder, now a redshirt junior from Indianola, Iowa, learned to snowboard and has also used his “no quit” attitude on the wrestling mat for the Panthers. But while he has earned a starting spot for UNI the past two years, in which he qualified for the nationals at 157 pounds each March, he is far from reaching his goals.

In fact, if you ask Ryder what he has done the best, when wrestling his best, he says, “I don’t know,” including the moment he won a Big 12 title — a 5-3 tiebreaker over Iowa State’s Cody Chittum — as a redshirt freshman in 2024.

“I don’t know if I was at my best that day,” Ryder said. “I’ve had better matches against even better competition. I’ve also wrestled worse against worse competition. It’s a long season and makes for a tough sport.”

And he has not wrestled his best at the NCAA Championships, going a combined 5-4 and coming up short in earning All-American honors. He lost in the second round in both trips to the national tournament and was eliminated in the bloodround in 2024 as a #5 seed.

At the same time, he has shown that he can beat the best, including last winter when he defeated Nebraska’s eventual national champ Antrell Taylor in an early-January dual and Purdue’s Joey Blaze, the eventual NCAA runner-up, at the 2024 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

“In his defense, he blew the bursa sac in his knee at the (2025) Big 12s and could not recover,” said Jarid. “He did not get on the mat again until the NCAA tournament. He couldn’t touch his knee with his hand. I asked him, ‘How are you going to wrestle?’ He said everybody out there is hurt.”

Ryder does not believe in excuses and Jarid believes Ryder has the “oldest child” syndrome — where “he is always trying to please” — to keep Ryder moving in the right direction.

“He was always tough to break and was always motivated,” recalled Jarid, a two-time Iowa state champ for Indianola, who coached his boys when they were kids. “He was one of those kids who did the right thing, which made it easy on his mother (Jacy) and me.”

This year, Ryder wants to change those postseason projections in 2025-26, as he has moved up to 165 pounds, where he was 7-1 and ranked seventh by Flo after winning the SIU Edwardsville’s Cougar Clash on Dec. 7, when he majored Illinois’ #9-ranked Braeden Scoles, 11-2 in the final.

For someone who placed at the state of Iowa postseason tournament at four different weights — seventh at 106 pounds as freshman; second at 113 as a sophomore; fifth at 132 as a junior and state champ at 145 as a senior — Ryder has no issues moving up a weight class.

“I think it’s important to let your body grow and focus on your technique,” he said. “If you get better at wrestling, you are going to be a better wrestler.”

The self-effacing Panther credits multiple people for his success, including Bowen, a 125-pound sophomore reserve, who is Ryder’s roommate in Cedar Falls.

“He’s my best friend,” Ryder said. “We spend a lot of time together and he’s on the same school path as me, too. He keeps me on task and accountable.”

Ryder actually credits the whole Cedar Falls community for inspiring him on the mat.

 “I think there are a lot of people who go into reaching their potential,” he said. “Coaches, teammates, friends, professors, community people. There are a lot of things that go into (reaching one’s potential).”

Ryder also believes Northern Iowa provides a unique experience for its athletes.

“We are trying to develop people to be great wrestlers and people,” he said., “We are really into developing deep relationships, loving each other and creating better wrestlers.”

Ryder said he gets motivated by the speeches — many of which can be found in social media — from his head coach Doug Schwab.

“He is unreal,” Ryder said. “I don’t know how he does it. Every day he’s done speaking, I’m ready to do what is needed. I’m really lucky this is the place I went to because I’ve learned so much from him. I’ve learned how to lead and how to follow. There are so many things that I’m going to take with me for the rest of my life and hopefully pass down to my kids. Hopefully, one day, I can speak as well as he does.”

Working on a biology, bio-chem and public health major, Ryder has twice earned academic All-American honors and wants to attend medical school in the future. He is not sure what he wants to practice. But he wants to help less fortunate people.

“The greatest form of love is trying to heal people and help them have a better life,” Ryder said.

There’s no telling what Ryder will do on and off the wrestling mat the next two years. Just don’t tell this Panther that he cannot succeed. He’s proven that already.

Watch Ryder Downey and the Northern Iowa Panthers compete in home duals live this season on Flowrestling.