With fifteen seconds remaining in the 184-pound Big Ten Final, the clock was running on the dreams of both graduate student Miles Amin and the Michigan wrestling team.
After the first day when five wrestlers qualified for the championship bout in their respective weight categories and the second day which saw four others qualify for the third place bout, the Wolverines were doing the unthinkable - they were on their way to winning the Big Ten. .
Then came the backslide. With a three-straight championship round loss, Penn State was right on the heels of Michigan, preparing to leapfrog it and claim the conference crown.
At 184 lbs, the two teams clashed in first place for the last time as last year's national champions and current No. 1 Aaron Brooks looked to secure the title for the Nittany Lions.
It all came down to Amin.
And with little time left, down 3-2, he came to life thundering.
Amin fired a late shot and caught Brooks flat-footed, took him to the mat and scored two points. But Brooks responded quickly, sprinting right back up to run for six seconds. Just like that, the bout progressed to overtime.
Just 13 seconds into the period of the sudden victory, Amin lunged to Brooks' ankle, bent his knee, and took him to the mat. With this, he became Michigan's second champion of the night and guaranteed his first Big Ten title since 1973.
"I could see Miles, I could see his body language, and I could see his eyes when he suddenly won," said Michigan coach Sean Bormet. "And I really believed that mentally he was in a good place, and he was off in the moment."
Amin's performance is best described with one word: guts. In the thirteen-and-a-half minutes that Brooks wrestled by this point in the season, Amin had made no takedowns. But with everything on the line for his team, he showed up by this time. He was dominant when it counted, and because of that, Wolverine is the Big Ten champion.
Michigan not only broke expectations in this tournament – it shattered them. Each wrestler placed above or equal to their tournament seeding, and nine wrestlers finished fourth or better.
At 125 lbs, graduate student Nick Suriano dominated the competition on his way to a second Big Ten title. No other wrestler could match him. Also in the championship, he steamrolled Eric Barnett of Wisconsin in a big decision victory 12–4.
"Nick Suriano is just a stud," Amin said. “His mindset, his dedication to the sport and his lifestyle are unmatched. And when I say unmatched, I mean there is no one quite like Nick Suriano when it comes to the sport of wrestling. It shows when he goes out."
At 133 and 141 pounds, redshirt freshman Dylan Ragusin and graduate student Steven Michick came back from losses to earn points for their teams in third and fourth places, respectively. Ragsin won an overtime thriller against Lucas Bird of Illinois, continuing his midseason peak. Miki, who stood atop the podium at this tournament four years earlier, suffered a bit of regression—he dropped his first bout, won the next three, and then dropped in a third-place matchup.
Neither wrestler was flashy, but they did exactly what Michigan needed—they kept points on the board throughout the weekend.
"Every point and every half point counts in the results," Bormet said. "All 10 of our guys contributed to finding points and ways to win tough matches, and we needed all those points to win it."
At 157 and 165 lbs, redshirt junior Will Levan and redshirt sophomore Cam Amin pulled off the overtime thrillers in the semifinals to advance themselves to the championship round. No wrestler will win, but their performance cannot be undermined. His performance is the kind of depth that won Michigan this championship.
Michigan won just two out of five championship matches, while Penn State won four out of five. However, in the end, it didn't matter. The Wolverines were the better overall team by only 1.5 points.
Every single wrestler contributed. Logan Massa finished second, Pat Brooke third and Mason Paris fourth.
So while Amin's win is the fascinating moment that closed the win, the tournament was won cumulatively.
"My match was front and center, and I got to steal the show," Amin said. "But I know how important those battle points were ... Up and down the weight classes, with every single point that every boy scored, it was a 10-man effort to win the Big Ten title."
Michigan has a lot of preparation ahead of the NCAA Championships in Detroit in two weeks. But ending the 49-year Big Ten title drought in the program's centennial season is poetic, and it's not lost on the wrestlers.
"This victory means the world," said Amin. "It's a little bitter that our main goal is still ahead of us. But I've learned during my long career at Michigan that it's important to smell the roses. Moments like these can propel you to your next goal, if you make it through." behave properly."