Tag: Luke Pletcher

WATCH: Kollin Moore records first Buckeye pin in Covelli Center

Kollin Moore pins Matt Wroblewski in the Big Ten dual match on Monday. Watch video of Kollin Moore’s pin.

It took a few months and half a dozen dual matches, but Kollin Moore became the first Buckeye to record a pin in the brand-new Covelli Center during Ohio State’s dominant win over Illinois on Sunday.

The Buckeyes have recorded plenty of wins in the Covelli Center this year. Wrestlers have won plenty of tight matches and earned plenty of bonus points, but no Buckeye had yet to record a pin. There were other pins, though, most notably Sammy Sasso’s upset loss to Brent Moore in the dual match against Virginia Tech.

The Buckeyes look very solid, with national contenders at multiple weight classes–led by Moore and Luke Pletcher. The Buckeyes definitely need work in some weight classes, like 125 pounds and 184 pounds, before they can really be considered national title contenders, especially with the deep lineups that Iowa and Penn State have. The Buckeyes will travel to Iowa City to face the dominant Hawkeyes this Friday evening. We’ll get a good gauge of how close Ohio State is to the national elite during that dual.

Watch Moore’s full match against Matt Wroblewski of Illinois and the pin(pin starts at about 5:30):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYCKRoLeFzg&w=560&h=315]

Ohio State wrestling takes down No. 8 Wisconsin on the road

The Ohio State wrestling team took care of No. 8 Wisconsin on the road for a key Big Ten dual-meet victory.

The Ohio State wrestling team kept to its winning ways Friday night, getting another dual-meet win on the road against No. 8 Wisconsin 24-13. The Buckeyes took just six of ten matches, but piled up the bonus points to secure a top ten victory going away.

The Badgers got out of the gate quickly, taking the first two matches at the 125 and 133 lb. weight classes, but that changed quickly. Both Luke Pletcher and Sammy Sasso got major decisions at 141 and 149 lbs to quickly give Ohio State the dual-match lead.

From there, Elijah Cleary (157 lbs.), Kaleb Romero (174 lbs.), Rocky Jordan (184 lbs.), and Kollin Moore (197 lbs.) all scored victories. Jordan and Moore both wracked up bonus points with technical falls.

With the victory, Ohio State improves to 6-1 overall, and 2-0 in the conference. It’ll next take on Illinois Sunday at the Covelli Center.

Ohio State wrestling takes down No. 24 Rutgers

The Ohio State wrestling team stayed hot by taking care of a nationally ranked Rutgers team in the Covelli Center.

The Ohio State wrestling team appears to be hitting its stride as the season continues on. It still has some things to work out because of injuries and competition, but things are beginning to become more solidified at each weight class. That continued tonight with a hard-fought 22-13 dual-meet team win over No. 24 Rutgers Friday night.

As you would expect, both No. 1s got it done tonight with Luke Pletcher taking down JoJo Aragona at 141 lbs., and Kollin Moore disposing of Jordan Pagano with a major decision at 187 lbs. With the victories, both men remained undefeated on the year.

Other Ohio State winners were Sammy Sosa at 149 lbs., Ethan Smith at 165 lbs., Kaleb Romero at 174 lbs., and Gary Traub at heavyweight. All told, the wrestling Bucks took six of the ten matches with four major decisions and ran their dual-meet team record to 5-1.

OSU is next in action next Friday against Wisconsin on the road.

Ohio State Wrestling impresses in upset of Arizona State

The Ohio State wrestling team upset No. 4 Arizona State on Monday behind strong performances from Luke Pletcher, Kollin Moore, and others.

The Ohio State Buckeyes had a strong opening half to the wrestling season, though a tough dual loss against Virginia Tech marred it a bit. The Buckeyes, as they have been all year, are clearly competitive in most weight classes, though a few still need work. How did the Buckeyes spend the month gap since their last dual?

Well, we were about to find out, as the Buckeyes hosted Arizona State in the Covelli Center. The Sun Devils are a top dual team, and they shockingly upset Penn State earlier in the year. Arizona State actually came into this match as the higher-ranked dual, team, at No. 4 to Ohio State’s No. 7 ranking. Would the top Buckeyes be able to take care of business to give the team a chance? And could the other guys step up and get the win?

Match Day: Ohio State vs Virginia Tech

The match went in order, from 125 pounds up to heavyweight. Ohio State’s Malik Heinselman fought hard against the nationally-ranked Brandon Courtney, but couldn’t quite get the win. At 133 pounds, though, the Buckeyes look like they finally have a new contender. True freshman Jordan Decatur burned his redshirt to compete in this match, and he wasn’t disappointed. In his first-ever college dual match, he pulled out an upset of No. 15 Josh Kramer. Decatur got an early takedown, and he managed to hold off his opponent and fatigue to gut out a 5-3 win. He’ll need to work on conditioning a bit as he adjusts to the full seven minutes of college wrestling, but he is clearly an incredible young talent.

Unlike his usual tight matches, Luke Pletcher went straight for the pin from the start against Navonte Demison. He got four near-fall points in the first minute, and added four more towards the end of the first period. Pletcher couldn’t get the full six team points for a pin, but a very quick 19-4 win gave him five team points for a Tech Fall. Sammy Sasso followed that up at 149 pounds with a good win over Josh Maruca, but Sasso couldn’t quite hold on to his eight-point lead for a bonus point.

157 pounds is one of the weight classes where Ohio State doesn’t quite have an elite contender yet, and Elijah Cleary couldn’t get a win. He fell by decision to Jacori Teemer, so the Buckeyes took an 11-6 lead into the halfway mark. Arizona State’s biggest names were yet to come, though, so this was still anybody’s dual.

Second half

Ethan Smith fought hard against No. 4 Josh Shields, but he couldn’t pull off an upset. After two straight wins, Arizona State had cut the Buckeyes’ team lead to 11-9. At 174 pounds, ninth-ranked Buckeye Kaleb Romero took on No. 8 Anthony Valencia. Romero had a tough time at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, but he came out firing in this match. After a tight first period, he got a quick escape and takedown in the second, followed by a long and impressive ride out to end the period. Romero went for the Major Decision late and couldn’t quite get it, but he still picked up the win and three team points.

Of course, Arizona State’s Zahid Valencia was up next, and against Ohio State’s weakest weight class. Buckeye freshman Gavin Hoffman did an amazing job not only to avoid getting pinned, but to keep the final score to 19-5. Valencia only earned one bonus point, so the Buckeye’s carried a 14-13 lead into the final two matches. At 197 pounds, No. 1 Kollin Moore gave up a quick takedown to No. 14 Kordell Norfleet. A wild first period ended with a 5-5 score. Moore earned the only three points in the second period, and held on for the 11-9 win at the end.

So the stage was set for the heavyweights. Ohio State carried a 17-13 win into the final bout. If Ohio State’s Gary Traub won the match or lost by Decision or Major Decision, then the Buckeyes would take the dual. If No. 6 Tanner Hall could earn a Tech Fall or Fall, then the Sun Devils would win. Hall rode Traub out for the entire second period and earned a quick escape in the third. Traub gave up another takedown, but kept the final score to 4-2, so a Decision gave Arizona State only three points, and a very good dual win for the Buckeyes.

Next up for the Buckeyes is a home dual against Rutgers on Friday. The Buckeyes still have some holes to fill, but this is very clearly one of the top overall teams in the country.

Ohio State Wrestling bounces back with win over Cornell

The Ohio State Buckeyes wrestling team picked up a much-needed bounce-back win after losing to Virginia Tech last week.

The Ohio State Buckeyes wrestling team needed a good performance, coming off a surprising and disappointing loss against Virginia Tech two weeks ago. The team got exactly that this weekend, beating Cornell 23-9, though there is still work to be done if it wants to contend for a national title.

The Buckeyes still have two No. 1 wrestlers in their weight classes, with Luke Pletcher at 141 pounds and Kollin Moore at 197 pounds. Neither has lost yet this year, and both pulled out strong wins on Sunday, with Moore’s coming as a Major Decision. Pletcher, as he is wont to do, kept the score tight, but he was never in danger of losing to Cornell’s Noah Baughman.

Sammy Sasso bounced back from his shocking pin against Virginia Tech to dominate Hunter Richard. The final score was a very close 12-9 as it seemed like Sasso just ran out of gas in the final minutes of his match. He will likely have to work on conditioning as the season goes on, or maybe it was just a bad day. We will find out more at the Cliff Keen Invitational this coming weekend, when Sasso will likely have to face multiple talented wrestlers on the same day.

Kaleb Romero looks to have the Buckeyes established at 174 pounds, and he silenced the doubters with a big win over Top 15 foe Brandon Womach. Romero pulled out a late takedown to break a 4-4 tie and win the match. Malik Heinselman (125 pounds) and Ethan Smith (165) were both pretty impressive in wins, and used matches against weaker opponents to work on getting bonus points.

The Buckeyes still have some real holes that need to be filled, though. No one has yet stepped up at 157 or 184 pounds. There are decent options at the first, but unless Gavin Hoffman or Zach Steiner improves, 184 pounds will be a real weakness in Ohio State’s lineup this year. The Buckeyes haven’t quite had enough individuals in the National Championship hunt to take the team competition from Penn State the past few years, but have been the most competitive top-to-bottom in all ten weight classes. Unless there’s a fix at 184 pounds soon, though, that streak may come to an end.

Ohio State wrestling needs work after tough weekend

What should the Ohio State Buckeyes learn from losing a tough wrestling dual against Virginia Tech?

The Ohio State Buckeyes fell to the Virginia Tech Hokies in their third wrestling dual of the season. It was Ohio State’s first loss of the season, and the first nonconference loss since losing to Cornell in February 2017.

You could see that Ohio State’s wrestling team was not quite up to its expected elite level in its dual on Friday, when four out of ten Buckeyes lost their matches against Pittsburgh. Heavyweight Chase Singletary did upset No. 9 Demterius Thomas on Friday, and Quinn Kinner (141 lbs) looked strong in a close loss against No. 4 Mickey Phillipi, but Ohio State’s holes at 157 and 184 lbs were clear.

That was evident on Sunday, when six of the ten Buckeyes lost. Neither Gavin Hoffman nor Zach Steiner seems elite at 184 lbs, and Elijah Cleary (157 lbs) is talented but not able to compete with the top athletes. Ke-Shawn Hayes is probably the best bet for the Buckeyes at that weight class when he returns from injury.

Luke Pletcher and Kollin Moore, ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes (141 and 197 lbs) were strong as always. Still, the two of them couldn’t cover for a lineup that just wasn’t at its best on Sunday.

Quinn Kinner never could get things going against Collin Gerardi. And, of course, the match that turned the dual was at 149 lbs. Freshman sensation Sammy Sasso–who had not yet lost this year–made one wrong attack early in his match, which was quickly countered into a pin by Virginia Tech’s Brent Moore.

Sunday’s dual was not all bad, though. Ethan Smith–who is highly-touted and hugely talented but has somehow never produced on the big stage–pulled off an incredible upset over No. 4 David McFadden at 165 lbs.

Ohio State’s roster is still stacked with talent, and coach Tom Ryan always has his team ready come tournament time in March. If Quinner and Sasso can use matches like this to build themselves into elite competitors, the Buckeyes will definitely be in the thick of things in a few months.

For now, though, Ohio State clearly has a lot of work to do. The Buckeyes next take the mat a week from Sunday against Cornell. We’ll see what changes and improvements have been made by then.

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.