It’s not how you start, but rather how you finish.
It’s not over until the fat lady sings.
Both of these overused sports clichés are applicable to No. 7 Missouri’s victory over visiting No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday night.
The host Tigers trailed the Buckeyes early in the dual, but came storming back to claim the match by the score of 26-17. The Buckeyes won four of the 10 matches, racking up bonus points in three of the wins, but the Tigers scored a pair of upsets and scored bonus points in five of their six wins to outscore Ohio State.
The action got started at heavyweight, where No. 18 Nick Tavanello started the meet’s trend of starting slow and coming back to win. Tavanello was the aggressor from the opening whistle against James Romero, but Romero countered an outside trip attempt of Tavanello’s, putting Tav to his back and nearly earning a pin. Tavanello fought off of his back and the first period ended in a 7-7 tie, usually an unheard of score for a single period in a heavyweight bout. Tavanello proved to be the better wrestler on Saturday night, utilizing a turk to earn four back points in the second period before adjusting and scoring a his team-leading fifth pin of the season. With Tavanello’s pin, the Buckeyes took a 6-0 lead heading into the start of the lineup.
At 125, No. 1 Nathan Tomasello took on upstart No. 8 Barlow McGhee and dominated throughout on his way to a 10-1 major decision. Tomasello’s aggression turned out to be too much for McGhee, who seemed to want to rely on counter attacks from a distance to attack. Tomasello forced a number of stalling calls on McGhee, earning several stalling points due to McGhee’s passivity. Tomasello’s win was one of the few throughout the match that didn’t adhere to the aforementioned clichés as he dominated the match from beginning to end. With the major decision, the Buckeyes held a 10-0 lead after two matches.
Johnni DiJulius, ranked No. 5 in the latest InterMat rankings, used his world-famous fireman’s carry to take an early lead over No. 14 Zach Synon, but the lead didn’t hold throughout. Synon cinched up a tight bodylock and pinned DiJulius with just a minute remaining in the match for a nine point swing in the team score and a huge win for the Tigers. The Buckeyes maintained a 10-6 lead after three matches.
Micah Jordan, whose star was on the rise after a tournament title at the CKLV last weekend, suffered his first defeat of the season against No. 13 Matt Manley. Jordan, who is usually known for a bottomless gas tank and non-stop offense, looked to be tired late in the match. The assumed exhaustion came back to bite Jordan as he held a 3-2 lead late in the match, but surrendered a takedown in the last five seconds to lose 4-3. Despite the loss, the Buckeyes maintained a 10-9 lead after four bouts.
The Tigers took their first lead of the night when No. 5 Lavion Mayes dispatched Cody Burcher 12-3. Burcher was unable to get anything going offensively and Mayes demonstrated why he was an All-American a season ago. Missouri took a 13-10 lead heading into the intermission.
Jake Ryan, ranked No. 14 in the latest InterMat rankings, once again put his offense on display against Missouri’s Luke Fortuna. Ryan scored takedowns at will, rolling to a 10-2 decision, which put the Buckeyes back on top 14-13 after 6 matches.
No. 2 Bo Jordan took the mat at 165 and edged No. 9 Daniel Lewis 6-4 in a surprising effort. Bo, like his younger brother, is usually an offensive machine, but was held to just six points by a tough Lewis. Bo remained undefeated on the season, but his victory was the last time the Buckeyes would put any points on the board.
While it was highly speculated that Coach Tom Ryan would put true freshman Myles Martin in action and put an end to his potential redshirt season, the head Buckeye opted to send Dominic Prezzia out against No. 9 Blaise Butler. While Martin may or may not have defeated Butler, Prezzia was on the losing end of the contest, falling 13-3 to the experienced Butler. The Tigers tied the match at 17 apiece with two matches remaining.
In the marquee match of the evening, a pair of returning All-Americans locked horns at 184 with Missouri’s Willie Miklus dominating Kenny Courts. Miklus scored an early takedown and locked up a cradle to take an early 6-0 lead over Courts. The backpoints appeared to take all of the wind out of Courts’ sails and he never really appeared to challenge Miklus throughout the match.
In an uninspiring effort, Courts (who finished fifth compared to Miklus’ seventh at last season’s NCAA tournament) fell by 15-0 technical fall. Courts gave up a pair of takedowns to go with two stalling points and another set of nearfall points to cap off the match for Miklus. While Courts has proven he is capable of scoring points at the NCAA tournament, the Buckeyes will need more effort out of him if they intend to make a run at a repeat as NCAA (or Big Ten) champions. The Tigers held a five point advantage heading into the final match of the night.
With Mark Martin needing a pin to win the match for the Buckeyes, he was in the unenviable position of facing former NCAA champ and No. 2 ranked J’Den Cox. Cox dominated the ties with Martin and dictated the pace against the Buckeye senior, winning a major decision by the score of 11-2. After three consecutive bonus point victories to close out the match, the Tigers extended their winning streak to 31 straight dual meets with a 26-17 victory over the Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes started out hot with bonus points from Tav and Tomasello, but were unable to hang on to the momentum. Johnni DiJulius and Micah Jordan both gave up late points in matches that they were winning and lost to their Tiger counterparts. In the last two matches, perfectly capable Buckeye seniors were completely outclassed by younger (albeit outstanding) wrestlers. The Missouri Tigers are the defending NWCA National Dual Meet champions and they had a rowdy (at times) home crowd cheering them on, but Tom Ryan and Co. will have to do some soul-searching to prevent similar losses in the future.
The Buckeyes will next take the mat on Friday night when they travel to take on Northwestern. The Wildcats are a young team in turmoil, so the Buckeyes will be glad to see them to get back on track.
Check back with Eleven Warriors later this week for a look at how the Buckeyes will stack up against the Wildcats and any other Buckeye wrestling news as it happens.
Results
HWT: No. 18 Nick Tavanello (Ohio State) pins James Romero (Missouri) / 6-0, OSU.
125: No. 1 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State) major decision over No. 8 Barlow McGhee (Missouri) / 10-0, OSU.
133: No. 14 Zach Synon (Missouri) pins No. 5 Johnni DiJulius (Ohio State) / 10-6, OSU.
141: No. 13 Matt Manley (Missouri) decision over No. 8 Micah Jordan (Ohio State) 4-3 / 10-9, OSU.
149: No. 5 Lavion Mayes (Missouri) major decision over Cody Burcher (Ohio State) 12-3 / 13-10, Mizzou
157: No. 14 Jake Ryan (Ohio State) major decision over Luke Fortuna (Missouri) 10-2 / 14-13, OSU
165: No. 2 Bo Jordan (Ohio State) decision over No. 9 Daniel Lewis (Missouri) 6-4 / 17-13, OSU
174: No. 9 Blaise Butler (Missouri) major decision over Dominic Prezzia (Ohio State) 13-3 / 17 All
184: No. 6 Willie Miklus (Missouri) technical fall over No. 11 Kenny Courts (Ohio State) 15-0 / 22-17, Mizzou
197: No. 2 J’Den Cox (Missouri) major decision over Mark Martin (Ohio State) 11-2 / 26-17, Mizzou
