Tag: Ohio State Wrestling

Watch Ohio State wrestling coach Tom Ryan talk about big meet vs. Arizona State

Ohio State head wrestling coach Tom Ryan spoke to members of the media to preview the big dual-meet with Arizona State.

The Ohio State wrestling team is still trying to figure itself out. There have been injuries and guys still fighting and competing for spots that will ultimately determine what kind of season this team will have.

But in some ways, head coach Tom Ryan has to work on the car while driving it because there’s still competitive meets to make it through in order to position the team in a place for the postseason.

On that note, Ohio State has a big one Monday night at home against No. 4 ranked Arizona State at the posh Covelli Center. It’s a dual meet that’s nationally televised and extremely important for the confidence of this Buckeye squad.

Ryan took some time to meet with a few members of the media to discuss where his team is, where it’s going, and to preview the matchup with the Sun Devils.

You can watch thanks to the official Twitter feed and website of Ohio State wrestling. Just click on the below and have a watch. And if you want to catch the dual meet on television, tune into FS1 at 7:00 PM.

 

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 currently has four of its athletic teams in the top 10 rankings nationally

Ohio State has a large and highly successful athletic department. It’s flexing its muscle with four teams currently ranked in the top ten.

It’s good to be great at one sport, especially when that sport brings in revenue to support some of the other non-traditional money generating ones. It’s even better to have an athletic program that can compete at a high level across multiple sports.

And that’s just what we’ve seen from Ohio State over the years. It is historically good in football and basketball, but it’s one of the best all-around athletic departments out there for its ability to be a national player in multiple sports.

That takes us to today. As it stands right now, the Buckeyes are a top ten squad in four different sports. You of course know about football where they are currently ranked as the College Football Playoff Committee’s No. 2 team.. You also likely know that the men’s basketball team has just entered the top ten in both the Associated Press and USA TODAY Polls.

However, that’s not all. The wrestling team checks in at No. 6, and the women’s hockey team is off to a great start and currently ranked No. 7. See the graphic below shared by the official Twitter feed of the Ohio State Buckeyes and feel free to beat your chest a little and rub it in to other programs not so fortunate.

Wouldn’t it be great if this trend continued and Ohio State ends up competing for some pretty special things nationally in all four?

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 downs No. 15 Pitt on the road

The Ohio State wrestling team went on the road and took care of business against No. 15 Pitt Friday night, winning 23-12.

The No. 3 ranked Ohio State wrestling team traveled to No. 15 Pitt Friday night and came away with a 23-12 team victory to improve to 2-0 on the season in dual meets.

The Buckeyes won six of the ten bouts, with three of them scoring bonus points. No. 1 ranked Kolin Moore (197 lbs.), No. 1 ranked Luke Pletcher (141 lbs.) got major decisions, and No. 6 Sammy Sasso (149 lbs.) pinned his opponent.

Heavyweight Chase Singletary also impressed in his season debut, defeating the higher ranked No. 9 Demetrius Thomas of Pitt 8-3. Malik Heinselman at 125 lbs. and Kaleb Romero at 174 lbs. also scored decisions to give Ohio State the win.

The outcome was never really in doubt, with Ohio State winning five of the first six matches, but the Panthers did battle back to take four of the matches to keep things respectable and showed plenty of grit.

In the end it was a nice victory for the Buckeyes and they next take on No. 11 Virginia Tech (2-0) on Sunday back at home in the 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.