Wrestling: Ohio States Falls to No. 1 Penn State, 24-14

The Buckeye wrestling team took a tough loss on Friday night in a hostile environment as it fell to No. 1 Penn State 24-14.

Ohio State was led by the usual suspects as Nathan Tomasello, Bo and Micah Jordan, and Kyle Snyder were the only Buckeyes to put a tally in the win column. Johnni DiJulius and Myles Martin were involved in tight matches, but they weren’t able to get their hands raised at the end of their matches.

Nathan Tomasello gave the Buckeyes a lead out of the gate with a big win over the experienced Nico Megaludis by the score of 3-1. The pair exchanged escapes, but the Buckeye sophomore scored a takedown late in the match and nearly put Megaludis to his back. The Buckeyes took a 3-0 lead and Tomasello likely simplified his Big Ten tournament by sealing up the No. 1 seed, so he’ll avoid Megaludis and Thomas Gilman until the finals.

In what was a huge swing match on paper, Johnni DiJulius scored early, but not often in a decision loss to Jordan Conaway. JDJ scored first with a fireman’s carry, which is usually a sign that he’ll pull out a win, but it wasn’t to be. DiJulius even earned a pair of backpoints, but gave up eight straight points to Conaway. Conaway put the Nittany Lions on the board with an 8-4 decision to tie the match at 3-3.

No. 4 Micah Jordan gave the Buckeyes a temporary lead with a tough 6-3 decision over No. 14 Jimmy Gulibon. The match was actually closer than the score indicates as Mick scored a takedown just before the final buzzer. Gulibon actually rode Micah for the duration of the second period, but Jordan managed to earn the tough win to put the Buckeyes ahead 6-3.

Sal Marandino drew the short straw and took on undefeated wrecking machine Zain Retherford. Top-ranked Retherford dominated Marandino from the opening whistle before pinning the Buckeye 2:31 into the match. The pin gave Penn State a 9-3 lead, which they’d hang onto for the remainder of the match.

In the second straight weight class, Penn State sent out an undefeated No. 1 ranked wrestler in Jason Nolf at 157. Nolf pushed the pace against No. 11 Jake Ryan, who was unable to prevent bonus points. Nolf earned a 19-6 major decision, good for 4 points for Penn State, giving them a 13-6 advantage.

The 15,983 in attendance were incredibly loud during the 157 match, showing their skepticism when Ryan was injured by a shoulder to the head in a scramble, which forced the necessary concussion protocol. Ultimately, Ryan was able to continue, but lost a one-sided affair.

Penn State is loaded from top to bottom and they feature a number of quality wrestlers at 165. Instead of Shakur Rasheed at 165, Bo Jordan faced off against Geno Morelli. While the Penn State crowd was critical of Jake Ryan for looking to negate his opponent’s offense at 157, they changed their tune when Morelli utilized the same tactics and applauded his defense.

Jordan was held to just his fourth win of the season that didn’t earn bonus points, taking a 3-2 decision. Ohio State drew as close as they would get with a score of 13-9 in favor of Penn State.

In a rematch from earlier in the season, No. 14 Myles Martin was unable to reverse the score against No. 1 Bo Nickal, although Martin put up quite an effort in the loss. Martin scored a 2nd period reversal and a set of backpoints in the 3rd period, but Nickal was relentless in his scoring attempts and wound up with an 11-5 victory. Aside from 125, this was probably the most entertaining and competitive bout of the evening with both guys looking to score. The Nittany Lions led 16-9 after 174.

Last season, Kenny Courts beat Penn State’s Matt McCutcheon on a pair of occasions, but McCutcheon got his revenge. Courts was active early, but gave up a takedown, an escape, and a riding point to lose 4-0 to the Penn State sophomore. The score stood at 19-9 with just two matches to go.

Things were not looking good for the Buckeyes as undefeated and No. 1 ranked Morgan McIntosh stepped onto the mat for Penn State. McIntosh took on backup Josh Fox and put on a takedown demonstration. McIntosh gave the Nittany Lions five points with his 24-9 tech fall, which sealed the win for Penn State.

Penn State’s lone glaring hole in the lineup is at heavyweight as their blue-chip heavyweight was injured before the season started. Cael Sanderson was able to talk Jan Johnson into leaving the football team to wrestle for Penn State (Johnson was a state champion wrestler in high school).

Johnson took his lumps against Kyle Snyder, who is fresh off of the plane from a bronze medal performance in a tournament in Siberia. Snyder rolled to a tech fall over Johnson to stop the bleeding in the dual. The Nittany Lions stayed undefeated with a 24-14 victory.

The Buckeyes will close out their Big Ten schedule next Friday when they host Wisconsin at St. John Arena.