Tommy Rowlands
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Personal information | |||||||||||||
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Nationality | American | ||||||||||||
Born | June 3, 1981 | ||||||||||||
Weight | 229 lb (104 kg) | ||||||||||||
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Sport | Freestyle wrestling | ||||||||||||
College team | Ohio State Buckeyes Wrestling | ||||||||||||
Medal record
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Tommy Rowlands (born June 3, 1981 in Columbus, Ohio) is a retired American wrestler.
Rowlands wrestled for The Ohio State University from 2001-2004. During his career at Ohio State, he was a 2x NCAA Champion, 3x NCAA Finalist, 4x NCAA All-American, and 2x Big Ten Champion. He is the career record holder at Ohio State for takedowns (705), wins (164), and team points (703). Rowlands graduated from Bishop Ready High School in Columbus Ohio 1999. He was a two-time Ohio state champion (1997-99) and the 1999 National High School champion with a career high school record of 167-10 with 98 pins. He was also 2001 Big Ten freshman of the year.
Following graduation from Ohio State in 2004, Rowlands had a successful international wrestling career. From 2004-2012, he was a University World Champion, Pan-Am Champion, 2x U.S. Open Champion, and 6x U.S. National Team Member. Rowlands was narrowly defeated in the finals of the Olympic Trials in 2008 & 2012 and became one of the few 2x Olympic Alternates in American wrestling history. He retired from competition following the 2012 Olympic Trials.
Tommy Rowlands is now the Vice President of Sales for RS Hanline. He recently visited The Ohio State University to give a talk on logistics in Thomas Goldsby's 12:40 Logistics 3380 class. It was a ravishing success. One student named Gretchen Erickson questioned Tommy's sales ability and Tommy responded, "You wanna wrestle bro?"
References
The Columbus Dispatch (Wed. 4/23/2008) Sports page article by Jim Massie
The Columbus Dispatch (4/15/2012) Sports page article by Rob Oller