Tag: Elijah Cleary

Big Ten Wrestling Tournament: Elijah Cleary at 157 pounds

What does Ohio State’s 157 pound wrestler Elijah Cleary have to do to qualify for the NCAA Championships?

Elijah Clearly will be wrestling for the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. With the way the season ended, it looked like Quinn Kinner would be the starter at this weight class, but Cleary beat Kinner in a wrestle-off for the postseason spot.

Well, if Cleary wants to qualify for the NCAA Championships, he certainly has his work cut out for him. Cleary has improved as the season has gone on, and all of his matches have been very close this season (except for an 11-2 loss to Northwestern’s Ryan Deakin), but it will still be a tall order for the junior to find his way to the NCAAs in Minneapolis. Let’s look at his path and what he needs.

Big Ten Wrestling Championships: 157 pounds

Basic Info:

Buckeye Wrestler: Elijah Cleary
Seed:No. 11
Place needed to qualify: 6th

This is the Big Ten’s weakest weight class, with only six wrestlers.

Paths to the NCAAs

Winner’s Bracket

The simplest way to guarantee a spot in the top six is to reach the semifinals. That means winning your first two matches. Unfortunately, like Jordan Decatur at 133 pounds, winning the first two matches doesn’t seem like the best bet for the Buckeye.

Cleary will open his tournament against Michigan State’s Jacob Tucker. Tucker is a much higher-ranked wrestler, but Cleary should have a chance to make a match of it. If the Buckeye wins that match, he will face the winner of No. 3 seed Kendall Coleman of Purdue vs No. 14 seed Fernie Silva of Indiana. It’s not impossible for Cleary to beat Tucker or Coleman (or Silva), and if he can keep his matches close, anything can happen late. Still, it’s not the easiest of paths.

Consolation Bracket

If Cleary beats Tucker but loses in the second round, he will then have to win two straight matches to qualify for the NCAA Championships. The first will be against the winner of the consolation match from the other side of the bracket. That match features the losers of Ryan Thomas vs Garrett Model and Will Lewan vs Bo Pipher. If Cleary can win that, he would then need to win one more match–most likely against the winner of the first-round match between Eric Barone and Michael VanBrill. Cleary lost to Van Brill earlier this year, though he did beat Thomas in a match last year.

What if Cleary loses his first match? Then he would need to face the loser of Silva-Coleman in his first “wrestleback” match. If he wins that, he would face the loser of the second-round match from the Thomas-Model-Lewan-Pipher group. Winning that match would mean Cleary needs one more win to guarantee sixth place, and that match would likely be either Peyton Robb or Jahi Jones.

Other Buckeyes in this series:

125 pounds: Malik Heinselman
133 pounds: Jordan Decatur
165 pounds: Ethan Smith
174 pounds: Kaleb Romero
184 pounds: Rocky Jordan
Heavyweight: Gary Traub

Can Ohio State qualify ten wrestlers for the NCAA Championships again?

Last year, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the only team in the country to place ten wrestlers in the NCAA Championships. Can they repeat that?

Last year, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the only wrestling team in the country to place ten wrestlers in the NCAA Championships.

That record seems very unlikely to repeat this year, as the Iowa Hawkeyes will almost certainly qualify a full squad for the NCAAs. Additionally, Campbell might be able to pull off that by sweeping the SoCon, and Oklahoma State looks to be competitive in the Big 12 at every weight class, except maybe heavyweight.

However, the big question for the Buckeyes is whether Ohio State can put a full lineup in the NCAAs. And, if they can’t, just how many spots can the Buckeyes earn? Let’s go through the lineup and break it down.

The Locks

141, 149, and 197 pounds

There’s no need to get too into the weeds of the bracket and number of bids at these three weight classes. Luke Pletcher, Sammy Sasso, and Kollin Moore are going to get in the NCAA Championships. Even if all three lose early in the Big Ten Championships, they’re still getting in to the NCAAs. And while Pletcher would obviously like to avenge his loss to Penn State’s Nick Lee in the process, for our purposes right now, we know he’s done enough this season to reach the postseason.

What about the rest of the Buckeyes? Some of them, like Kaleb Romero and Rocky Jordan should have pretty easy paths to the NCAA tournament. Some–like No. 14 seed Jordan Decatur–will have a very challenging path indeed. In a series of articles over the next few days, we will break down the paths and brackets for the other seven Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championships. We will look at how many spots are available for Big Ten wrestlers, and how tough each Buckeye’s path to those spots will be.

For now, let’s just give a quick overview of where the rest of the Buckeyes stand.

Near-Locks

174 pounds: Kaleb Romero
184 pounds: Rocky Jordan

Should make it

165 pounds: Ethan Smith
Heavyweight: Gary Traub

Very difficult path

125 pounds: Malik Heinselman
133 pounds: Jordan Decatur
157 pounds: Elijah Cleary