But Jantzen has taken more than just Meltzer under his wing. His work with some of the freshmen on the team, such as Robbie Preston (125 lbs.), Jonathan Spiker (165 lbs.) and especially heavyweight Bode Ogunwole have helped them to improve dramatically.

“Bode being that close to Jesse, I think he wrestled above and beyond what his expectations were and what our expectations as a coaching staff were,” Frayer said.

Ogunwole ended up rising from second place on the depth charts at Harvard, to the third-place finisher at the EIWAs and upsetter of two ranked wrestlers at the NCAAs.

“All these guys that have been around Jesse throughout the year, almost everybody has gotten better,” Weiss said.

Even Jantzen’s little brother, Cory, has been able to feed off of Jantzen’s never-ending work regimen.

“I think that being around this, it’s just something that he feels that he should set his goals high as well,” said Don Jantzen, Jesse and Cory’s father, after Jesse won the national title.

And while wrestling remains an individualist sport and Jantzen continues to downplay his impact, it has been his never-ending drive which has made Harvard wrestling the ultimate team sport, where the accomplishments of one can elevate all of his teammates to greater efforts.

“Jesse couldn’t have finished on more of a storybook ending,” Meltzer said of Jantzen’s championship. “It was perfect, it was a perfect ending.”

But it seems that the real perfect ending isn’t what Jantzen has accomplished: It’s the legacy he has left behind, and the example he has set which makes others want to accomplish what he has done.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.