While Ed Ruth was the top-ranked recruit in his weight class nationally coming out of high school, no one could have predicted he would go on to put together the dominant collegiate career that he did. Along with David Taylor, Ruth was among the first elite high school recruits that Cael Sanderson would morph into a transcendent talent in a Penn State singlet.

Let's take a look back at Ruth's legendary career each stop along the way.

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High School

The Pennsylvania native found the podium in Hershey his sophomore and junior seasons placing fifth and fourth, respectively. While Pennsylvania is one of the toughest high school state tournaments in the country year in and year out, you would expect better placements from an eventual three-time NCAA champion. 

Before transferring to Blair Academy for his senior season, Ruth would win the 2008 NHSCA Junior Nationals. It was a sign of things to come as during the final year of his prep career, Ruth would jump levels winning Ironman, taking third at Beast Of The East, and winning a National Prep Championship.

Watch Ruth beat future Iowa All-American Ethen Lofthouse in the Ironman finals.

Ruth was actually signed with the Nittany Lions before Penn State hired Cael Sanderson on April 17, 2009. After a meeting with Sanderson shortly after he landed the job, both parties decided it would be a good fit and as they say the rest is history.

College

Ed Ruth is not only one of the greatest Penn State wrestlers of all time, but one of the best NCAA wrestlers of all time. Much like his high school career, though, it wasn't an immediate success. During his redshirt season, Ruth would lose as many matches, three, as he would all four years in the varsity lineup. Ruth finished 14-3 with just three pins and the only tournament he won was the Hitchcock Memorial Open.

Ruth would take the college wrestling world by storm his redshirt freshman season. After losing early in December to Mike Letts at the Nittany Lion Open, Ruth wouldn't lose again until the NCAA Championships. His most memorable performance came at the Southern Scuffle when he knocked off #1 Mack Lewnes and #2 Chris Henrich in back-to-back matches to win the title. 

However, his NCAA Tournament would not go as planned. Ruth led Nick Amuchastegui 2-1 halfway through the first period in the quarterfinals before taking injury time. Ruth was clearly not 100% percent and would be down 9-2 before defaulting the match late in the third period. At the time, it looked like he wouldn't be able to finish the tournament, but Ruth dug deep and won four matches in a row on the backside to finish third. It would be the only time Ruth would lose at the NCAA Championships. 

Watch Ruth take out then #1 Mack Lewnes. 

Ruth would jump another level his sophomore year going undefeated on his way to an NCAA title. Of Ruth's 31 matches, 26 of them ended in bonus points. Ruth was known for his deadly cradle and he had only gotten better at it as his bonus percentage jumped from 55% to 83%. Ruth would finish second in the Hodge Trophy voting to teammate David Taylor. Ruth was also able to get revenge on Amuchastegui as he dominated him in the finals, 13-2. 

Ruth's junior year went similarly to his sophomore year as he once again put together a perfect season, won another NCAA title, and finished second in the Hodge Trophy voting again coming up just short to Kyle Dake. Perhaps Ruth's most impressive performance that season came in the NCAA finals when the Nittany Lions needed a bonus point victory from Ruth to help secure another team title. Leading Robert Hamlin 5-2 with under 40 seconds to go, Ruth would score three takedowns and with the help of his riding time point win 12-4 to help Penn State keep Oklahoma State at bay to win another team national championship.

Watch Ruth beat Hamlin in the NCAA finals. 

While Ruth's senior year was just as dominant, there was one big difference. He took a loss. At the same tournament, Ruth had shocked the world at three years previously, the Southern Scuffle, a freshman Gabe Dean would stun the college wrestling world by taking out the two-time NCAA champion in the finals. However, Ruth would bounce back and like he had against Amuchastegui, Ruth would get revenge taking out Dean in the NCAA finals on his way to his third NCAA title. 

Watch Ruth get revenge on Dean in the NCAA semifinals.

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When it was all said and done, Ruth was 136-3, had 104 bonus point wins including 46 falls, a bonus percentage of 74.82%, and currently sits in 10th place on the all-time individual point scorers at the NCAA Championships. Also, the list of All-Americans that he beat is absurd.

NCAA hit list

Gabe Dean (Cornell)

Steve Bosak (Cornell) 

Nick Amuchastegui (Stanford)

Robert Hamlin (Lehigh)

Nick Heflin (Ohio State)

Mack Lewnes (Cornell)

Jimmy Sheptock (Maryland)

Logan Storley (Minnesota) 

Ben Bennett (Central Michigan)

Kevin Steinhaus (Minnesota)

Chris Henrich (Virginia)

Jordan Blanton (Illinois)

Ethan Lofthouse (Iowa)

Domenic Abounader (Michigan)

Nolan Boyd (Oklahoma State)

Grant Gambrall (Iowa)

Cody Walters (Ohio)

Vic Avery (Edinboro)

Kenny Courts (Ohio State)

Lorenzo Thomas (Penn)

Ben Jordan (Wisconsin)

Mike Larson (Missouri)

Ryan Wolfe (Rider) 

Josh Ihnen (Nebraska) 

Senior Level

While his senior level career wasn't very long, Ruth still had great success very quickly. Less than two months after finishing his NCAA career, Ruth beat former world team member Keith Gavin in three matches to make the world team. Ruth would go on to finish 1-1 at the 2014 World Championships.

Watch Ruth beat Gavin to make the 2014 world team. 

Despite really only competing on the Senior level for three years, Ruth picked up some big-time wins including three-time world medalist Reineris Salas Perez of Cuba and world silver medalist Jake Herbert.  

Watch Ruth pin Herbet at FPL V.

After falling to Gavin in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympic Trials, Ruth called it a wrestling career and decided to make the transition to MMA.

MMA

Ruth signed with Bellator in 2015 and almost exactly seven months after finishing his wrestling career earned his first win in the cage. Known as Ed "Easy" Ruth, the transition to fighting has gone easy for lack of a better word, relatively easy for Ruth. He won his first five fights and currently sits at an impressive 8-2. 

Watch highlights from Ruth's MMA career so far.