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