Logan Storley has accomplished several rare feats in his wrestling career, but his ultimate goal remains in front of him
By Rachel Timmerman
Senior wrestler Logan Storley has come a long way from his small town roots in Roslyn, S.D., and he is ready to put his state on the wrestling map while winning a national title in the process.
Storley is the first person in his family to wrestle, first hitting the mat when he was five. Not having a wrestling tradition in the family makes him somewhat of an oddity among Division I wrestlers. It was the first of several points in Storley’s wrestling life where he stood out as different from his peers.
It didn’t take long for him to see success as a wrestler, winning his first state title at the club level when he was just eight years old.
“I won four or five state titles from first grade to sixth grade,” Storley recalled.
Although he participated in other sports, wrestling was Storley’s passion growing up.
“The one-on-one combat sport was what I really loved about it,” Storley said. “Just the fact that if you won, then it was your glory, but if you lost then everything was put on you. I really liked that part of it.”
In sixth grade, Storley transferred to a school that offered wrestling, and his career took off. He started wrestling at the high school level as a seventh-grader and promptly won a state title, the first of six straight for Storley. That rare feat – six high school state championships – has only been accomplished a few times in U.S. wrestling history.
“Just because they were older than me didn’t mean they were better,” Storley said when asked about his mindset in those early years of high school wrestling. “That’s how I looked at it.”
Living in a town with less than 200 people, there weren’t many distractions for Storley while he was chasing his dream of wrestling at a Division I university and he took advantage of that opportunity to focus on his goals. During his sophomore and junior years of high school, Storley practiced with Division II wrestlers at a college where a friend of his wrestled.
“I was 16 years old and wrestling guys who were qualifying for the Division II national tournament, and I could stay with them,” he said. “By junior year, I was beating them. I knew I could [wrestle] Division I.”
After his incredible success at the high school level, Storley had to decide where he was going to continue his wrestling career in college.
“I wanted to be in the Big Ten with one of the best teams,” Storley said. “I looked into Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. Ultimately, it came down to Minnesota and Nebraska.”
It was the state of Minnesota’s passion for wrestling, from the youth level through college, that persuaded Storley to become a Gopher.
“Minnesota is just a different level in terms of All-Americans and national titles, and just the wrestling in general here in Minnesota,” he said.
Storley started his career at Minnesota in 2011 as a true freshman. He has not taken a redshirt during his Gopher career, a rarity not only within Minnesota’s wrestling program, but throughout Division I wrestling. But for Storley, doing things differently had become habit by the time he reached Dinkytown.
More than just starting in his very first year on campus, Storley became an All-American, an honor he’s earned every season he’s wrestled for the Gophers. With one more All-American accolade this year as a senior, he has the chance to join an exclusive club of four-time All-Americans at Minnesota. As of today, that group includes eight wrestlers.
Now in his fourth and final season wearing Maroon and Gold, Storley understands there’s no option other than leaving everything he has on the mat.
“I was so afraid of losing [freshman year] and now it’s like, I’ve got to go out and compete. This is my last year and there is nothing to hold back,” Storley said. “That’s what really makes me look at it differently.”
After being in the NCAA semifinals three years in a row and falling short each year, Storley has his eyes on one final goal.
“When the season is over, I want to have an individual national title and a team title,” Storley said. “The reality is, we are good enough to be a national championship team, and we have proven that in the past. It’s not a matter of [if] we can do it, it’s just that we have to put three good days together at the national tournament.”
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