A Collegian Unafraid to Go to the Mat

Name: Dylan Geick

Age: 19

Hometown: Chicago

Now Lives: As a freshman at Columbia University, Geick lives in an on-campus dormitory. But he also shares a nearby brownstone with his 19-year-old boyfriend, Jackson Krecioch, who has a popular YouTube channel.

Claim to Fame: A two-time All-American wrestler in high school, Geick is his college’s star mat man, as well as being an aspiring poet and fiction writer. “Wrestling is a lot like chess in that there is nearly an infinite amount of ways to react to everything your opponent does,” he said. His penchant for abs-baring selfies and transparency about being gay have made him a much double-tapped heartthrob. (Fan-made odes to “Jylan,” a portmanteau of Geick and Krecioch’s names, attract millions of views on YouTube.)

Big Break: Last year, Outsports, a website that showcases LGBT athletes, wrote a glowing profile on Geick with the headline “This elite Illinois high school wrestler is proudly gay.” After the piece was published, his Instagram gained thousands of new fans. “Being out is very uncommon in wrestling, and I wasn’t really sure how people would react,” he said.

Latest Project: In December, he was featured in Equinox Fitness’ advertising campaign, “8 Humans Who Committed to Something in 2017.” He is planning to major in English and creative writing, and self-published a collection of his poetry, “Early Works,” in August. (Sample lines: “When you left I downed a glass of milk/It didn’t wash the taste away.”) “It was a project for my own enjoyment,” he said.

Next Thing: He is working on his first novel, a horror Western set in Mexican Texas that takes place in the 1800s. “I was reading a lot of H.P. Lovecraft and Cormac McCarthy, and I thought those two genres would mesh really well together,” he said.

Just Deserts: Geick has grappled with homophobia on and off the mat. “People might say things behind my back, but I don’t try to worry about it,” he said. “One wrestler provoked me by leaving a comment on my Instagram, but when I later wrestled him in a state tournament I ended up beating him pretty badly.”