Tag: Covelli Center

Ohio State wrestling impresses again with domination of Stanford

The Ohio State Buckeyes wrestling team dominated the Stanford Cardinal in the team’s first dual matches of the season.

Ohio State wrestling opened its brand new Covelli Center with a dominant win over unranked Stanford.

The final score of the dual match, 29-6 in favor of the Buckeyes, doesn’t show how close this match actually was. Ohio State lost only one of the nine weight classes, when Ethan Smith (165 lbs) was pinned by Shane Griffith. Of Ohio State’s wins in the other nine eight classes, none came via Fall (a pin) and only two were Major Decisions (wins by 8-14 points). The other seven wins were all by less then eight points, including two matches that required Sudden Victory.

Sammy Sasso, who absolutely ran roughshod over all of his competition at the Michigan State Open, found himself in the first tight battle of his collegiate career. He fought his way to a tight 3-1 win against No. 19 Requir van der Merwe.

Luke Pletcher, the newly-minted No. 1 at 141 lbs, needed some incredible moments in Sudden Victory just to eke out the win.

I’m certainly not complaining about a blowout win. But if coach Tom Ryan wants to show his team that it still has a lot it can improve on, most of these matches showed some definite room to grow. And it was great to see wins from Quinn Kinner 133 lbs and Zach Steiner at 184 lbs.

Ohio Intercollegiate Open

Several Buckeyes also competed at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open this weekend, instead of in the dual against Stanford. There was no official team competition, so every Buckeye at the OIO was representing themselves.

Three Buckeyes won their Gold Division brackets, including an impressive performance from freshman Carson Kharchla at 165 lbs. The competition level at the OIO wasn’t near the level that Ohio State will see in Big Ten play, but it was good to see such a strong performance. Rocky Jordan won the bracket at 174 lbs, while Gavin Hoffman did the same at 184. It’s hard to read too much into Hoffman’s victory, as two of his four wins came via injuries to opponents (one before the match, one mid-match). Still, 184 lbs is definitely the current weak spot in Ohio State’s lineup, and it will be great if the Buckeyes can get some confidence and victories in that weight class as the season progresses.