Any way you slice it, Ohio is considered a "power state" when it comes to wrestling, and the Buckeyes have reaped the benefits of the high school talent available to them.

For five straight years, Ohio State has brought a team trophy back to Columbus. That's the longest current streak in the NCAA, including the program's first national title in 2015. Looking back a few extra seasons, how much has tOSU relied on Ohio natives vs out-of-staters?

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While a Division 1 team is much more than just those three days in March, for comparison's sake we are only going to be analyzing points scored at the NCAA Tournament. We're looking at the total points scored by Ohio natives, and the percent of points scored by those from the Buckeye state, at the national tournament.

The goal of this series is to look at the numbers as a whole and the numbers as they compare just within your team. We started with Penn State and will examine several other schools who have done well the past few years.

First, we'll tally up the total team points of Ohio State scored at every NCAA tournament since 2012, which is the first year we have accurate data for across every team.

These numbers make it abundantly clear that Tom Ryan and his coaching staff have leaned heavily upon athletes from Ohio. They're averaging nearly 26 more points from in-state talent per year than out-of-state recruits.

As we mentioned in the PSU analysis, the Nittany Lions score more points from in-state talent than any other squad. They scored 532 points at NCAAs from Pennsylvania natives in this time frame, as compared to 460.5 from Ohio natives for the Buckeyes.

In the first three years of our breakdown, they tallied just 10 points from guys who went to high school outside of Ohio. During that same time, they were getting big points from the likes of Logan and Hunter Stieber, Nick Heflin, and Cam Tessari.

Now let's break these down into percentages, and see how the point differences have evolved over time.

There was a noticeable uptick in 2015 of points scored by non-Ohio natives, and it has shifted to predominantly out-of-state the past two years.

Leading the way in 2015 were Kyle Snyder (Maryland) and Kenny Courts (Pennsylvania). Snyder would contribute three national titles and massive team points over the next three years, during which time the Buckeyes also added Myles Martin (Maryland), Joey McKenna (New Jersey), and Luke Pletcher (Pennsylvania).

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Three of the past four years — a run in which they finished third, second, second, and second — the non-Ohio natives outscored their Ohio counterparts. That likely won't change this coming season, as they have just one returning starter who was an in-state recruit (Kollin Moore), though they could wind up with half their lineup being homegrown.

It's not as though they're letting a ton of top talent leave. They had two of the six AAs from Ohio this year in Moore and Micah Jordan, who were the two highest scorers from Ohio. Alex Marinelli was previously committed to the Buckeyes and Dom Demas went to Oklahoma to be with former tOSU assistant and Ohio RTC coach Lou Rosselli.

There were 11 AAs from Ohio in 2018, and four of them were Buckeyes. There were 10 placers each in both 2016 and 2017, so again it's abundantly obvious the talent that lies within their borders.

With only 9.9 scholarships, even schools like Penn State and Ohio State have to let a few kids leave to go elsewhere, and some, of course, develop in ways unforeseen. Then there are instances where they just went out and tried to get the best guy. For example, Dom Abounader was an AA in 2018 from Ohio, but they had Myles Martin instead.

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With a national recruiting footprint comes these types of good problems for the Buckeyes. There are going to be peaks and valleys when it comes to the natural cycle of talent available for them within their own state. Just this past year they landed Carson Kharchla, Jordan Decatur, and Dylan D'Emilio.

The pipeline could continue with future classes as well. Seth Shumate, a rising sophomore, just committed to Ohio State the other day, and the staff is after guys who you'll soon see in Who's #1 like Victor Voinovich and Paddy Gallagher.

For as long as Ohio State is a trophy-winning team, I doubt we see them shift back to the 2012-14 years when over 90 percent of their team points came from homegrown talent. That doesn't mean they'll lose much production, as from 2017-19 they had almost the same number of total points from Ohio natives, just a much lower percentage of their overall team score.

What remains to be seen is if Jordan Decatur can have a career like Nathan Tomasello, or who the next Bo Jordan-type guy is. Because if the Buckeyes are recruiting you from within their own state, they're expecting to get a multiple-time, highly placing All-American.