Ethan Smith is one of the more enigmatic Ohio State wrestlers this year. Smith is a Top 15 wrestler with a 15-11 record. He has faced numerous top wrestlers and has come close far too often, but rarely pulled off the upsets. Still, Smith is talented, a leader in the locker room, and he can beat anyone on any given day. Just because he hasn’t sprung many of the big wins yet doesn’t mean he can’t.
Big Ten Wrestling Championships: 165 pounds
Basic Info:
Buckeye Wrestler: Ethan Smith
Seed:No. 5
Place needed to qualify: 8th
Smith is the first Buckeye wrestler in this series (which excluded Luke Pletcher and Sammy Sasso, since they’re basically already qualified) that has a seed at the Big Ten Championships which is better than what he needs to qualify for the NCAAs. Malik Heinselman, Jordan Decatur, and Elijah Cleary will all have to pull off at least one upset to qualify. All Smith has to do to earn a berth is wrestle to his seed.
Paths to the NCAAs
Smith needs to win two matches to guarantee himself a spot in the NCAA Championships. It doesn’t matter if those two come in the main bracket or the “wrestleback” consolation bracket. He just needs two wins.
In the opening round, Smith will face Michigan’s Tyler Meisinger. The pair have never met before, though Meisinger is ranked far lower than Smith. If Smith wins that match, he will almost certainly face Nebraska’s Isaiah White. Smith and White have met twice this season, with both matches coming to the final seconds. White won both, though. (White’s first-round opponent is Purdue’s Nate Limmex.) If Smith loses to White, then he will need to defeat the winner of the consolation match from the other side of the bracket–the losers of No. 3 Evan Wick vs No. 14 Diego Lemley and No. 6 Shayne Oster vs No. 11 Brett Donner.
If Smith loses his first match, he will first have to face the loser of White vs Limmex. To qualify for the NCAA Championships, Smith would have to win that match and then defeat the loser of the second-round match involving the Wick-Lemley and Oster-Donner winners. Smith is 2-1 on the season against Oster and 1-0 against Donner. If he is forced to face Wick in the consolation bracket (not an ideal situation at all), Smith did wrestle well in a close loss against the Wisconsin Badger in January.
Other Buckeyes in this series:
125 pounds: Malik Heinselman
133 pounds: Jordan Decatur
157 pounds: Elijah Cleary
174 pounds: Kaleb Romero
184 pounds: Rocky Jordan
Heavyweight: Gary Traub