Tag: Malik Heinselman

Big Ten Wrestling Tournament: Malik Heinselman at 125 pounds

What does Ohio State’s 125 pound wrestler Malik Heinselman have to do to qualify for the NCAA Championships?

Last season, freshman Malik Heinselman found a way to fight through talented competition at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships and earn the final bid to the NCAA Championships. If he wants to repeat that feat, though, it will be a lot tougher this year.

Big Ten Wrestling Championships: 125 pounds

Basic Info:

Buckeye Wrestler: Malik Heinselman
Seed:No. 11
Place needed to qualify: 8th

That’s right. The Big Ten will have eight wrestlers in the NCAA Championships at 125 pounds. Last year that number was nine, but the conference is a drop weaker at that weight class in 2020. That means one fewer spot, which means it’s a tiny bit tougher for Heinselman to reach the NCAAs.

Paths to the NCAAs

Winner’s Bracket

The simplest path for Heinselman to guarantee himself a spot in the NCAA Championships would be to win his first two matches at the Big Ten Championships. As the No. 11 seed, Heinselman will face No. 6 seed Michael DeAugustino in the opening round. The two have faced off once in their career, a match that Heinselman won last year. However, DeAugustino has been much better in 2020 than he was in 2019, and unfortunately Heinselman has not quite been as good this year as last year.

If Heinselman wins that match, he will face either No. 3 seed Patrick McKee of Minnesota or No. 14 seed Brandon Meredith of Penn State. Heinselman is 1-1 vs McKee in his career, but the win also came last season, while he lost a 5-1 decision to McKee back in January. Heinselman is 1-0 against Meredith in his career, winning a 5-3 decision at last month’s dual match against Penn State.

Consolation Bracket

What’s Heinselman’s path if he can’t win his first two matches? Well, there are two possibilities.

First, let’s start with what happens if Heinselman upsets DeAugustino, but he then falls to McKee. In that case, he would most likely face Michigan State’s Logan Griffin or Maryland’s Brandon Cray in his first consolation match. Heinselman has never faced Griffin and is 1-0 against Cray (last month), and a win in that match would lock Heinselman into the top eight and NCAA qualifying position. (If, however, Griffin and/or Cray pulls off a first-round upset, Heinselman could meet either No. 5 seed Jack Medley of Michigan or No. 4 seed Justin Cardini of Illinois. Heinselman is actually 4-0 in his career against Medley and 1-1 against Cardini, though the win over Cardini came last year.) All in all, Heinselman should be confident in his shot to reach the NCAAs if he can upset DeAugustino.

But what if Heinselman can’t? If he falls to DeAugustino in his opening match, the path is much tougher. Heinselman would immediately fall to the consolation bracket, where he would face the loser of the McKee-Meredith match. If he wins that match, the sophomore would then have to face the loser of the second-round match involving the Cardini-Cray and Griffin-Medley group. Based on history, Heinselman should have a real shot if Medley is the opponent there, but it’s not a very comfortable path towards qualification. Then again, Heinselman got through tougher last year, so there’s some definite hope if he finds his 2019 form again. And, all in all, he’s avoiding some of his even tougher potential matchups.

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

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.