Aaron Seidel hits the ground running at Virginia Tech, with lofty goals ahead

Put aside, for a moment, the fact that Aaron Seidel was the winningest wrestler in PIAA history while at Northern Lebanon High School, going 206-4 over the course of his career.

And put aside the fact that Seidel has won his first 12 matches as a Virginia Tech freshman, all in dominating fashion.

Any understanding of Seidel’s uniqueness as an athlete begins with something Rusty Wallace Jr., his coach at Northern Lebanon, said recently.

Wallace was talking about how Seidel displayed “a different vision” from a very young age. How he was mature beyond his years and more than willing to meet the demands of a very demanding sport. And Wallace wrapped up by saying the following: “He loved competing far more than he loved winning.”

Obviously one has led to the other, the overwhelming majority of the time. But Wallace’s point was that Seidel relishes every opportunity on the mat – that he puts a great deal into each outing, and gains even more.

In another time and another sport, the Philadelphia 76ers talked about trusting the process. In their case, it meant taking a step back before taking a huge leap forward, something they have yet to do. Seidel, for his part, embraces the process. Headlocks it, hammerlocks it and wrings everything he can from it, really. And far from ever taking a step back, he looks only to power forward, no matter the result.

“Obviously winning’s good,” he said over the phone recently. “Winning comes with (competition), too. But if you take a loss, you learn so much from it, so it’s like those losses are always good to have. … No matter what happens, I’m going to learn from it and figure out some things.”

The obvious case in point is his last high school match, against Bishop McCort’s Jax Forrest in the 133-pound final at the PIAA Meet, last March in Hershey. Seidel was seeking his fourth straight state championship, but in Forrest was facing not only a defending champ but a guy who had earned a silver medal at the 2022 Under-17 World Championships in Rome and was destined to win gold at last year’s National Championships, Pan American Championships and World Championships.

Forrest, now at Oklahoma State, had handed Seidel one of his few high school losses early last season. But heading into the state meet, Seidel had an escape hatch. He could cut weight and wrestle at 126, where he would be favored to become just the 15th wrestler in the history of the commonwealth to win four titles.

He declined. He would remain in the same weight class as Forrest. And he would lose the championship match, 7-1.

No regrets, though. None.

“I’d be stupid not to take that match,” Seidel said. “He’s really good, and I’m really good. There’s not a better way to end up my high school career than trying to beat him. … It would be cool to win four, but it’s not what I’m striving for.”

He was then asked what it is he is striving for.

“Trying to win NCAAs and world titles and Olympic titles – that’s my goal,” he said.

There was not a hint of arrogance in his voice. If those would appear to be lofty goals, understand that he is all about building ladders, all about the climb. And as luck would have it, there are a great many people willing to push him ever upward.

Take Virginia Tech associate head coach Jared Frayer. A two-time All-American when he competed at Oklahoma, he did in fact wrestle in the Olympics, specifically the 2012 Games in London. Made it to the Round of 16, in fact. And he has seen something special in Seidel, ever since the Hokies first became aware of him, early in his high school career.

It surprised Frayer not a bit that Seidel wanted to square off with Forrest. And now, he sees Seidel always seeking out “the best guys in the room,” every day in practice.

“He’s a guy,” Frayer said, “that we have to say, ‘Hey, you’ve gone (against) three studs, right in a row. Let’s go with a lesser guy today, just because you can’t go with the guys you’re going with and stay healthy.’”

Frayer didn’t say whether he and the rest of the coaching staff (headed by Tony Robie) manage to get through to Seidel. But Frayer did say that he fully appreciates the newcomer’s desire to learn and improve.

“Those are guys we love,” Frayer said. “And the guys we have to pull back are the guys that are typically going to be pretty darn successful.”

Seidel committed to VT his junior year at Northern Lebanon, primarily over Pitt, Missouri and Lehigh. As a result he has been working out in Blacksburg the last two summers, which has enabled him to acclimate to college competition more easily than he might have otherwise – to, as Frayer put it, navigate “that true-freshman hump.”

“He tends to find a way to jump levels,” Frayer said, “and I think he was already doing it as a high school senior.”

The only thing that has slowed him down, albeit temporarily, was the injury bug. He broke a bone in his left hand while grappling with a teammate in August or September, as he remembers it, and had to work his way back. First his workouts were confined to the stationary bike, then the treadmill. Then he was able to incorporate some weightlifting before returning to the mat while at first wearing a soft cast.

“It’s not the funnest,” he said, “but everything happens for a reason.”

He finally made his collegiate debut at the Midlands Championships in Evanston, Illinois, Dec. 29-30. And he stormed through the 133-pound bracket, recording two pins and three technical falls. That includes a tech fall over Rutgers’ Dylan Shawver, the 2024 Big Ten champ, in the quarterfinals, and a pin of two-time Under-23 world champ Reineri Ortega in the title match.

Seidel was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler as a result.

“I kind of just went out there like it was any other tournament,” he said. “Obviously I get nervous before every match. I just went there and wrestled. I was just so excited to compete, since I didn’t compete for like seven months (since the World Trials in Las Vegas in the spring). … I don’t think I was surprised at the results, because I know how good I am, so I went out there and got it done, which is nice.”

At the F&M Open on Jan. 9-10, it was much the same thing. Seidel registered five straight tech falls, the last of 2024 U23 national champ Matt Gallagher from the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center.

So far Seidel’s closest match during his 12-0 start – his closest match – was a 13-0 major decision against Stanford’s Tyler Knox, a 2025 All-American, on Jan. 23.

“If you know him, you’re not shocked at what he’s doing,” Wallace said. “If you don’t know him, you don’t realize that as good of a wrestler as he is, he’s a better human being. He’s one of the nicest, most humble human beings that you’ve ever met. When you talk about it happening to the right person, it did.”

Seidel took up the sport at age 6, and took to it immediately.

“I like the working-hard ethic of it,” he said.

Also the discipline. The fact that you’ve got to be all in, all the time. 

“So,” he said, “it correlates a lot to life and how you do everything.”

And continues to. Frayer said he and his coaching comrades have long known that Seidel could be something special, but there are always questions about a freshman adjusting to college life, as well as the ramped-up competition. Obviously those concerns have been put to rest. Obviously, Frayer said, Seidel has “hit the ground running.”

The results are proof positive of that. But it’s also because he trusts the process, because he’s always competing, no matter the setting. As Frayer put it, Seidel quickly “understood that the wrestling room never locks in college.” Now he’s always in there, always making the best of each opportunity that awaits him. Always learning, always striving. Because he truly believes the sky’s the limit. And at this point, who’s to say he’s wrong?