A Look Back at Franklin Gomez, NCAA Champion

Franklin Gomez's journey to become a national champion was one that he would have never envisioned. Raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gomez was like any other typical 12-year-old boy. He always found time to go outside and mess around with his friends, but it wasn't until one summer day that he found out about the sport of wrestling.

No one in his family was involved with wrestling, or any type of sport, so his story behind what made him the athlete he is today is a very unique one. Gomez remembers gathering with a group of friends at a playground about 30 minutes from the condominium he lived in with his mother and two younger brothers in San Juan. A friend brought out a twin-size air mattress to the basketball court. Gomez thought they were about to engage in a friendly match of WWE-style wrestling, until his friend explained to him about this type of wrestling.

"No, this is called Olympic wrestling," Gomez recalled this week via phone call from Puerto Rico, where he has been training, explaining what his friend told him about the sport. "You have to try and grab his legs and do this, I didn't know what he was saying. I tried to take down a friend of mine, he weighed like 50 pounds more than me, and I couldn't. So, I was thinking, 'This is wack.' I told my friends I don't even know what I'm doing, and they said you should come with us to the club tomorrow."

Gomez stuck with wrestling after enjoying his time at the wrestling club in his home city of San Juan. He learned that wrestling was something that he really wanted to do and fell in love with the sport, enjoying every moment of being around his friends and people that he looked up to.

"It was a good environment, I wasn't thinking of anything else," said Gomez. "The opportunity opened up and I just took it and embraced it. I didn't like when people took me down, and it kept me off the streets."

After moving to Brandon, Florida at the age of 17, Gomez continued to excel on the mat at Brandon High School. While there, Gomez was able to adapt to folkstyle wrestling, which was instrumental to his success before heading to college. A standout at 119 pounds, Gomez competed in every big tournament in the nation.

"I won all the tournaments you can think of," Gomez said. "The Beast of the East, Ironman - all those tournaments they had at that time. I was the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the nation at 119 pounds."

Gomez, who was a three-time high school All-American and compiled a 44-0 record on his way to a state title his senior year, to complete a feat that not many wrestlers have done. He achieved the 'triple crown' of high school wrestling in 2005, winning the high school national championship, the junior freestyle national championship and the junior Greco-Roman national championship.

A highly-touted recruit, Gomez chose to continue his wrestling career at Michigan State under head coach Tom Minkel. Upon his arrival at MSU, Gomez wanted to come in and complete the ultimate goal - win a national championship. He knew the road wasn't going to be an easy one, but he often looked at the opportunity he was given to compete at a Division I school like Michigan State in one of the best wrestling conferences in the country. He didn't let the hype of his national ranking or who he was wrestling against get to him. He just went out and competed every single day and let his work do the talking.

"I was the type that didn't need a lot of encouragement, because of my background coming from Puerto Rico," said Gomez. "Living on the island and coming to the United States, I already made up my mind that I was going to just embrace the incredible journey to study at a Division I school. I was all about being grateful for this opportunity."

Gomez used his faith to carry him during his time at Michigan State. He understood that if he gave it all he had; good results would follow. Winning and losing may define some people, but Gomez didn't take that approach when it came to having the right mindset competing at the highest level.

"I'm a believer in Christ," said Gomez. "I gave my life to Christ when I went to Michigan State, around my freshman or sophomore year. One of the things I learned is that I should fear no one or nothing because Christ is with me, who can be against me? I wasn't focusing on all the other wrestlers; I was focused on giving my best and let the rest take care of itself. I just had the mindset to take it one day at a time and do the best I can each day and not worry about winning or losing. "

Gomez redshirted his first year on campus (2005-06), and was named the team's most outstanding freshman after finishing 23-3 overall in open tournaments with three titles.

During his sophomore campaign, Gomez recorded an impressive 33-2 record at 133 pounds and finished a perfect 17-0 in duals. Along with an 8-0 Big Ten record, Gomez posted 18-straight victories from Jan. 4 to March 21. Gomez ranked as high as No. 1 in the country by InterMat and finished his second season in the Green and White with a Big Ten title and a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Leading up to his junior season, Gomez ranked No. 1 by InterMat and held that ranking for a majority of the season. After finishing the regular season 20-2, Gomez knew the Big Ten Championships were going to be a battle after claiming the title the previous year.

"I think when you wrestle in the Big Ten, it's kind of like wrestling a mini NCAA Tournament," said Gomez. "There's so many tough guys there, so many good guys. Even though you don't wrestle a lot of matches, like two or three matches, they are high caliber guys. It kind prepares you for the ultimate goal, which is the NCAA Tournament."

Gomez earned the No. 1-seed at the Big Ten Championships and took out No. 9-seed Jake Strayer of Penn State in the semifinals, 9-4, before securing his second Big Ten title with a 7-4 overtime win over two-seeded Reece Humphrey of Ohio State.

Preparation began for the NCAA Championships, which were held in St. Louis, Missouri, that year. Gomez knew that if he went in with the right mindset, being sure to execute the techniques and moves that he practiced in the wrestling room every single day, good things would happen. Gomez leaned towards then assistant coaches Roger Chandler and Chris Williams in preparing for the championships.

"I mean I learned a lot from them," Gomez said of Chandler and Williams. "They were crazy competitive, you know. Even when I got a chance to wrestle them at practice, I was like 'Man, these dudes are very, very competitive.' They work really hard. When you are in an environment like that, not everyone has to be a superstar."

Chandler, who coached Gomez during his time as a Spartan, remembers Gomez as a guy that always kept things in perspective and never let the big stage get to him.

"He always loved wrestling and always evolved to become a better wrestler every time he stepped on the mat," said Chandler, now in his fourth year as head coach of the Spartan wrestling team. "What made Franklin so special was that he was a balanced person. Wrestling didn't define him as a person, although wrestling is a big reason he has had personal success in life. He is a person of faith who understands that we have to fully enjoy every opportunity in life."

Once Gomez arrived at the NCAA Championships, he reminded himself to keep things simple and try not to worry about the outcome. Gomez started the championships with a 13-2 major decision over Missouri's Todd Schavrien in second round action. In the third round, Gomez escaped with an 8-3 decision over Filip Novachkov of Cal Poly to advance to the quarterfinals. There, Gomez found himself in a close battle with No. 8-seed Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra, but ultimately came away with a 6-4 decision to advance to his second-straight national semifinal. This time, Gomez faced fourth-seeded Andrew Hochstrasser of Boise State. Gomez took control early and won by decision, 6-4, en route to the national championship match. It was a familiar opponent in the finals for Gomez, as he took on Ohio State's Reece Humphrey. Gomez had faced Humphrey in the round of 16 of the 2008 NCAA Championships and the Big Ten title match in 2009. Gomez landed a takedown in the second period and took a 3-1 lead into the final frame. A late takedown sealed the 5-4 vicory for Gomez.

"I kind of just went with the flow," said Gomez after the match. "I tried to control his hands, because that's kind of what (Humphrey) does, he grabs my elbow. I tried to penalize that, and as you saw, he wasn't able to do that much."

Gomez, a three-time All-American, became the 19th wrestler in program history to win a national championship and the first since Kelvin Jackson grabbed the 118-pound title in 1995.

Long-time Michigan State wrestling head coach Tom Minkel knew that Gomez had the ability to win at the highest level, sensing his desire to win when we first stepped foot on campus.

"There is no better feeling than having one of your wrestlers win a national championship," said Minkel after Gomez's title. "He's had his sights set on an NCAA Championship since he walked into our wrestling room. He's a very focused young man and he has very high aspirations."

Winning a national title was something that Gomez envisioned they day he stepped foot on campus, and to be able to do it for Michigan State was a dream come true.

"When I went to the NCAA Tournament, I just felt special being there," said Gomez." I got to give it my best to represent Michigan State with honor and dignity."

Gomez has gone on to have success at the next level, where he has collected a gold medal at the 2011 Pan-American games in Guadalajara, Mexico, and silver medals at both the 2019 Pan Ams in Lima, Peru, and the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

Growing up, Gomez never watched the Olympics on television. He always thought that the World Championships had more value than the Olympics, so he figured that's what he wanted to reach when he got older. At his wrestling club in San Juan, Gomez continued to show development and his coach preached to him, 'Man, you can be a World Champion, you can be an Olympic Champion.'

Gomez has qualified for the Olympic games three times, most recently for the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan. Gomez knocked off Nestor Taffur of Colombia, 9-4, in the semifinals of the Olympic qualifier in Ottawa, Canada on March 15 to qualify for Puerto Rico. Gomez is the only Puerto Rican to qualify for the Olympic games three times.

In 2012, Gomez wasn't even aware that he had qualified, but once it sunk in, and then when arrived in London, England, he knew it was for real.

"Once I was there, I knew it was definitely a big deal," said Gomez. "All the media and everything, everyone was like making a big deal out of this. I was like who is this, LeBron James, what is he doing here. All these people you see like on TV, sports and famous people, they were all there. I even got to say hi to Manu Ginobli."

Gomez went from not knowing anything about the sport of wrestling at the age of 12, to having all of Puerto Rico behind him.

"Soon enough I found out, 3.5 million people from Puerto Rico were watching every little step," Gomez recalled.

Those little steps are continuing to be watched as his unfinished journey continues from Puerto Rico to Michigan State, on the path to his goal of being an Olympic Champion.

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