Inside the Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Kaleb and Kyler Larkin sat next to each other in silence, covered by darkness. Both absence of light and presence of hurt. Both kept their heads down as they took off their shoes and knee sleeves for the last time this season.
Their shared despondency reverberated in the quiet process. They had just lost in the consolation round four at the NCAA tournament on March 20. Subsequently, the two brothers, who came in ranked 4th and 5th, respectively, missed out on All-American honors. It was a disheartening end to a promising start for the redshirt freshman and freshman's Sun Devil careers.
But within their silence, the sounds of bags shuffling and laces being untied, a shared fire burned. The two came in expecting to finish in the top eight and to compete for national titles. But dejection offers perspective.
"All great champions get better when they lose," ASU wrestling head coach Zeke Jones said. "They have to manifest that was the greatest thing that ever happened … it's going to propel them upward."
Kaleb and Kyler's campaigns have already established them as leaders of ASU wrestling. Kaleb finished the regular season with a 24-2 record — 11-1 at 157-pounds and 13-1 at 149-pounds. Kyler posted a 15-1 record at 133 pounds. The two Valiant College Preparatory graduates, a school their dad helped create, made the finals of their respective weight classes at the Big 12 Championships, with Kaleb becoming the first Big 12 Champion in program history.
However, the most important moment for the brothers wouldn't come from their many successes. Instead, it stemmed from defeat. Through their father's journey, they know what it takes to reach the mountain top, and this is part of it.
Enduring heartbreak. Surpassing adversity. Digging deeper. It's all part of being the best. Disappointment is fuel.
"They love this sport," Jones said. "They're driven, and they want to be successful, and they care and they're committed. So that's going to drive them."
Larkin family vacations are different from most. No matter what they were doing – lounging on the beach to work on their tan, or exploring the night views of an unfamiliar town – their insatiable desire to find a mat would arise. Or anything that might serve as a mat.
The result — a family wrestling scrimmage, wherever and whenever.
"I feel like it is the lifeblood of our family," said Eric Larkin, Kaleb and Kyler's dad. "It's very important. I feel like it structures our discipline in every aspect of our life ... consistency and being strong and healthy."
Eric's wrestling days are behind him, but during them, he manufactured one of the most prestigious careers in ASU history.
He is one of four Sun Devil wrestlers to be a four-time All-American. One of 10 to win a national championship. The school's only wrestler ever to win the Dan Hodge Award, given to the year's most outstanding college wrestler.
All five of his sons inherited his love for wrestling. For Kaleb and Kyler, their father's passion brought them to where the story began, and now they forge their own legacies.
"It's something that we're conscious of, and we recognize," Kaleb said. "But there's been no pressure from my dad to go on and continue on his legacy ... He's always preached that we've got to be our own people and make names for ourselves."
When Eric's sons started to follow in his footsteps, he wanted to create an environment where their storylines centered around them, not him.
"I wanted my kids to enjoy it, and I didn't want to be hard on them," Eric said. "I wanted them to find their own love for (wrestling) and passion."
Throughout the season, the brothers proved capable of beating anyone. Kyler's lone loss came from a medical forfeit against No. 1-seeded Ethan Frost from Iowa State in the championship round of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
But he won his next six matches en route to the Big 12 Championship. His run would end with a 15-2 loss in the 133-pound division final to Oklahoma State's Jax Forrest, who went on to win the national championship.
In the NCAA tournament, Kyler wrestled his way to the quarterfinal before losing to No. 4 Aaron Seidel of Virginia Tech, who pushed Kyler to the consolation round four, where the winner earns All-American honors, and the loser sees their season come to a close.
His brother made it, too. Kaleb highlighted his freshman campaign when he beat Oklahoma State's Landon Robideau in the 157-pound division to claim the Big 12 Championship. Kaleb earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and won his way to a rematch with No. 5-seeded Robideau in the quarterfinals.
Just 13 days after the Big 12 title match, Robideau — who went on to win the national championship — stunned Kaleb with a sudden victory in overtime for a 9-6 win. Kaleb found himself in the consolation round four.
That's where the brothers saw their season come to a close. Kaleb lost to Michigan's No. 15 Cam Catrabone by a 7-3 decision. Kyler lost to No. 15 Tyler Knox of Stanford by a 5-4 decision.
"It's a game of inches," Jones said. "It could go either way. Now it's up to Kaleb and Kyler to not only close that gap, (but) to be consistent, to consistently beat them."
With consistency comes repetition; they've been in so many positions over and over again, they've felt every weight and pressure, and their wrestling wit is driven by their love of the sport.
And now they have gut-wrenching losses to add to the algorithm.
"I think when somebody loves something, they're willing to do anything to get it and to learn it and to be good at it," Jones said. "They were in an environment that created and fostered that love, and once they grabbed it and fell in love with it, then it was over."
It's the reason that, as they sat in the darkness and faced their dissatisfaction with how their NCAA tournament debut ended, their mission remains undeterred. To get back to the national stage. To earn another chance to cement their own names into the history books.
Edited by Alan Deutschendorf, Henry Smardo and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at jakobarnarsson@gmail.com.
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