Kyle Snyder (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Kyle Snyder has pinned down yet another wrestling honor.
The Ohio State heavyweight has been named the 2018 Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year, the second straight time the Buckeye big man earned this honor also known as the Jesse Owens Athlete of the Year in 2017.
Snyder is the first male athlete in the 36-year history of the Big Ten award to have won the annual honor two times.
Snyder's Big Ten award came the same week that the Maryland native had been selected as 2018 Ohio State Male Athlete of the Year.
Honorees selected as male and female athlete of the year from each of the fourteen Big Ten member schools were automatically in the running for the Big Ten Athlete of the Year awards. Snyder was the only wrestler in the running for the 2018 Jesse Owens Athlete of the Year honor.
Snyder is widely considered one of the most accomplished collegiate wrestlers of all time. He is the only American to ever finish college as a three-time NCAA Division I champion (2016, 2017, 2018), Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion. Snyder's individual performance helped propel the Buckeyes to Big Ten titles in three of his four seasons (including 2018) as well as energize Ohio State to the team title at the 2015 NCAAs.
Snyder's on-the-mat performance was nearly matched by academic success. He was a Second-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2017 and has been named Academic All-Big Ten in each of the last four years.
In addition to the Ohio State and Big Ten honors already mentioned, Snyder won the 2018 AAU Sullivan Award as well, presented to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States. He became just the fourth wrestler to seize the prestigious honor, joining fellow Olympic gold medalists John Smith (1990), Bruce Baumgartner (1995) and Rulon Gardner (2000).
Snyder is the tenth individual wrestler from any Big Ten school to receive the conference's Male Athlete of the Year, and the second Ohio State mat champ to win the honor, joining Logan Stieber, 2015 winner.
Other wrestlers to win the Jesse Owens award include Ed Banach (1983), Barry Davis (1985), and Brent Metcalf (2008) for Iowa; Matt Lackey of Illinois (2003); Damion Hahn (2004) and Cole Konrad (2007) for Minnesota; Jake Herbert of Northwestern (2008); and David Taylor of Penn State in 2014.
Ohio State owns nine total Big Ten Athlete of the Year awards (six male, three female) since the honor's launch (1982 for men, '83 for women), ranking second all-time. Michigan leads the way with 10 recognitions overall, though the Wolverines' last award came in 2006.
Indiana University women's swimmer Lilly King was named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year for the second straight year.
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