Four-time wrestling state champ Keegan O’Toole has lofty goals going forward
HARTLAND, Wis. (BVM) — Keegan O’Toole is going to enter college this fall at the University of Missouri in similar fashion to how he entered Arrowhead High School four years ago — with an almost unattainable goal.
“That is something that is a no-brainer for me,” O’Toole said. “I want to be a four-time national champ.”
Considering that only four other people in the history of NCAA Division I wrestling have ever won four national championships during their collegiate careers, O’Toole has his work cut out for him. However, he has always had the mentality of going after the unattainable.
“I never really wanted to just be someone who did something just one time,” O’Toole said. “I wanted to do it multiple times and set records.”
Which is why he entered high school with a goal that inspired the one he has set for himself in college.
“I would always watch the high school state tournament with my dad when I was younger,” O’Toole said. “The state tournament is so fun to watch and I never really wanted to be just a state champ. I never wanted to be just one of the 84 kids that gets a state title each year. I wanted to be a four-timer so I can assert myself as one of the best ever to come out of the state of Wisconsin.”
“That was his goal,” Arrowhead wrestling coach Jeremy Miller said. “I mean honestly he had that laid from day one that wasn’t something anyone laid out for him. He knew very well what he wanted to do and what he was going to do in order to get it.”
O’Toole became the 18th wrestler to win four straight WIAA state championships. He finished his senior season undefeated at 49-0 and won his final 111 matches for Arrowhead.
“I had lofty goals and it took a lot of hard work to achieve them, but I’m starting to grasp them a little bit which is awesome,” O’Toole said.
O’Toole set some new goals for himself at the beginning of his senior year on top of winning his fourth straight state championship.
“From the start I was training to be the No. 1 wrestler in the nation right off the bat,” O’Toole said.
Last October, O’Toole won the “Who’s Number 1” showcase. This spring, he was awarded the Junior Dan Hodge Trophy, which is given to the best high school wrestler in the nation.
O’Toole has been able to accomplish so much of what he set out to do and it’s not just because of his goal setting.
“You have to live your life according to what you want to do,” O’Toole said. “So for me that was never going out and making bad decisions. If you keep your life aligned — I call it living with alignment — it definitely pays dividends and you notice it. Setting goals is one thing, but you have to live in alignment with what you want to do and I think that has helped me so much and guided me.”
It has allowed O’Toole to approach life in a way that some adults struggle to do.
“He has the maturity to make sure that he doesn’t lose sight of that overall goal,” Miller said. “That’s what makes what he’s done all the more special. You can’t fall off the rails at any time and have something like that happen.”
Considering his track record, any goal that O’Toole sets for himself at the college level could be attainable. Including the ones for after college that involve Olympic gold medals.
“Wrestling for me is something that I love to do,” O’Toole said, “and I want to do it with my best friends; enjoy it, grow from it and be the best that I can be but also use wrestling to be the best person I can be.”
