The Buckeyes closed 2017 wrestling action in style, silencing the Mockingbirds of the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, 39-3. The rout came on the strength of nine wins, including seven bonus point victories - two by fall.
Kyle Snyder returned to the lineup Sunday, and fans were in for a treat as he demonstrated why he is the pound-for-pound best wrestler on the planet in a lopsided win. He and Micah Jordan earned the right to wear the #PinChain again, cementing their places as the most prolific pinners on the team.
The victory capped a weekend on the road for the WrestleBucks, who dismantling a pair of non-conference opponents in impressive fashion. Sunday's action was preceded by a 39-0 shelling of Princeton.
Buckeye Breakdown
There is good reason why Ohio State is now ranked No. 1 in the country by at least three major media outlets: they score points in buckets. Advancing to 6-0 on the season (1-0 in Big Ten action), the Buckeyes have outscored their opponents 216-36; five starters remain undefeated thus far in the season.
While Chattanooga featured two ranked wrestlers and won the opening match of the afternoon, it was clear very quickly that the Buckeyes were the far better team in the building.
125 pounds - Brakan Mead
Brakan Mead is a good wrestler. The former Ohio high school state champ wasn't supposed to be wrestling this season at all, but burned his redshirt when Nathan Tomasello went down with a knee injury in October.
Through 16 matches, he is 7-9, having dropped a decision to Chattanooga's Alonzo Allen to open action Sunday. Allen got the drop on Mead early in the match with a strong double-leg takedown, and though Mead escape within seconds, he was playing catch-up from then on out.
The second period gave some hope that Mead could turn the tide, as he got a great ride after starting on top. He got both boots in at one point and looked to get the tilt started, but Allen was able to stand up and get the escape.
The third period started again in Mead's favor, as he narrowed the lead to a point with a quick escape, but a second stall call put him back at a two-point deficit, and Allen tacked on another takedown. Mead's escape led to the final 6-3 decision.
133 pounds - No. 4 Luke Pletcher
Buckeye head coach Tom Ryan has been after his undefeated sophomore to score more points, and it's clear that Pletcher is listening. While seven of his matches this season have been decided by a takedown or less - with two wins coming in Sudden Victory and one by Tie-Breaker - his weekend saw him outscore his foes 21-7.
"I started off pretty slow; I've started to get in a groove a little, and I'm feeling pretty good," Pletcher said ahead of his weekend matches. "[My] offense is coming along... I'm feeling good on my feet, getting a lot more fakes and movement."
Those fakes, hand-fighting and movement showed through Friday night, when he earned a 9-3 decision, and especially Sunday with a 12-4 Major Decision, Pletcher's second bonus point win of the season.
Things started off slow, with both men working well from their feet and Chattanooga's Jake Huffine dialed in on Pletcher's shot attempts. The No. 4-ranked Buckeye got a takedown in the waning seconds of the opening period, and from there he went to work.
A quick escape from bottom to open the second period extended Pletcher's lead, and he quickly turned a duck-under into a high-crotch for the second takedown. He choose the optional start to give up the escape point - something fans are used to seeing Kyle Snyder do consistently in lieu of riding his opponent - and then worked into a third takedown as time expired.
Pletcher added another takedown and the riding time bonus for the 12-4 Major Decision. He didn't give up a single takedown over the weekend, and extended his undefeated record to 16-0.
141 pounds - No. 6 Joey McKenna
McKenna, the reigning U23 World Bronze medalist, is another wrestler Tom Ryan would like to see taking more shots. Unfortunately for him Sunday, he was facing perhaps the longest-limbed wrestler he'll see all season, and spent much of the match on the wrong side of a ride.
McKenna was clearly the more talented wrestler, but Chattanooga's Mike Pongracz used his length to keep McKenna tied up for most of the second and third periods. McKenna opened strong, with a takedown midway through the first and a second as time expired to build a 4-1 lead with moer than a minute of riding time.
Pongracz deferred his choice, and in what appears to have been a tactical error, McKenna choose bottom. Pongracz got his boots in quickly, and rode McKenna for the entire period.
Choosing top to start the third, Pongracz looked to follow the same script again, but to McKenna's credit he worked to his feet, earned the reversal and a two near-fall points to extend his lead. Pongracz's riding-time point prevented McKenna from earning bonus points, instead finishing with an 8-2 decision.
149 pounds - No. 5 Ke-Shawn Hayes
Ke-Shawn Hayes may be the most underrated Buckeye on the team. Overshadowed by NCAA champions and top-ranked teammates, Hayes has quietly accumulated nearly as many tech falls as anyone on the team.
With Sunday's win, he now has six techs to his credit, while Myles Martin has seven and no one else on the team has more than four.
"When you have so many superstars on our team, you have to do a lot to be someone who stands out," Hayes said earlier in the week. "I haven't done anything to prove myself like they have...yet."
Hayes showed that he has what it takes to prove himself as a title contender Sunday, booking the tech fall 5:22 into the match. He opened with a nice double-leg takedown and immediately tacked on four near-fall points; he worked toward backpoints throughout the latter minute of the period, but Chattanooga's Chris Debien was able to roll through to prevent any further damage.
Opening the second on bottom, Hayes escaped fairly quickly and added another takedown. Another four-point nearfall extended his lead to 13-0 at the close of two periods.
Just 22 seconds into the final period, Hayes scored the final takedown of the match; the riding-time bonus gave him his fourth 16-0 victory of the season (his other techs were 15-0 and 17-0).
With a 56% bonus rate, including the six techs and a pin, he's definitely getting more attention nationally, having earned his way into the Top 5 at 149 pounds, with wins over four ranked opponents, including two in the Top 10. His only loss on the season was to the current No. 4 wrestler in the class, in a narrow decision at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
157 pounds - No. 5 Micah Jordan
Only one man on the team has a higher pin rate than the younger of the two Jordan brothers; more on him momentarily. Jordan earned his seventh dance with the #PinChain less than 90 seconds into the match, when he turned his third takedown of the match to roll Dylan Forzani into a compromising position and ended the match.
Jordan closes 2017 with a 69% bonus rate, including a team-high seven pins, a tech fall and three major decisions. His two losses to ranked opponents are the only reasons he's not ranked higher in his weight class.
165 pounds - No. 11 Te'Shan Campbell
Campbell is another bonus-point machine for the Buckeyes, though he seemed to lose a little steam toward the end of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, dropping two of his last three matches of the tournament and then missing the Indiana dual (head coach Tom Ryan said it was more important for Campbell to focus on finals week than to wrestle versus the Hoosiers).
He went back to work this weekend, true to form, earning two major decisions. His bout Sunday showcased his ability to score backpoints, as he picked up a four-point nearfall in the second, but also showed that he continues to work on improving from his feet - a scoreless first period saw Campbell with only one strong shot at a takedown, though the official ruled he failed to gain control before going out of bounds; the call was upheld after Tom Ryan's challenge.
An escape and a second takedown in the third, along with the riding time bonus, gave Campbell the 9-1 Major Decision, his 11th bonus point win of the season.
174 pounds - No. 3 Bo Jordan
BoJo is one of the strongest wrestlers in the country at any weight, and especially at 174. On more than one occasion during his match Sunday, Jordan appeared to be in trouble but his raw strength allowed him to ward off a takedown, often countering into one of his own.
A first period takedown and two near-fall points gave Jordan the early lead; he added three points in the second with an escape and another takedown. A pair of takedowns and the riding time point extended his lead to a final score of 12-2 and the Major Decision.
184 pounds - No. 2 Myles Martin
It's quite possible that Myles Martin is the fastest man in the sport; he's certainly one of the quickest on Ohio State's roster, possessing what Coach Ryan calls a "silky smooth" athleticism that allows him to get out of what might otherwise be vulnerable positions and tricky situations.
No. 15 Bryce Carr was plenty athletic himself, getting off plenty of shots in the match against the former NCAA champ, but Martin was always a half-step ahead, and never yielded the takedown. Carr was good enough on his feet, however, that he never let things get completely out of hand, holding Martin to only his second decision of his 15-0 season.
Martin scored four takedowns, an escape and the riding time bonus to finish the match with a 10-5 decision. He has now defeated four ranked opponents thus far in the season.
197 pounds - No. 1 Kollin Moore
Tom Ryan's upperweights show relatively little interest in riding their opponents, more often than not choosing the optional start when on top, and cutting guys loose fairly quickly to go back to work on their feet. Kyle Snyder is well known for this, and it appears that Kollin Moore is getting in on the act, too.
Moore put on a takedown clinic, showing flashes of his training partner's well-worn script of winning by getting the opponent on the ground, letting him up, and knocking him right back down. The sophomore scored four takedowns in the first, two in the second, and three more in the third - an escape and riding time added to the total, for a 20-8 Major Decision over No. 15 Scottie Boykin.
With the win, Moore now has victories over ranked opponents in five of his last six matches, all but one of which came with bonus points attached. He finishes 2017 with a record of 12-0, with a 58% bonus rate.
285 pounds - No. 1 Kyle Snyder
WWE superstar and former NCAA heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has a mantra: "Eat. Sleep. Suplex. Repeat." Kyle Snyder's may as well be, "Eat. Sleep. Takedown. Repeat," because it's doubtful anyone in college wrestling scores more takedowns per period than the reigning, defending, undisputed Olympic, World and NCAA champion.
In Sunday's match against an unranked foe, Snyder scored eight consecutive takedowns, more or less allowing his opponent up each time only to immediately return him to the mat for another pair of points. He finished the period up 16-7.
Just seconds into the second period, Snyder decided Ben Stacey had had enough, and he pinned him seemingly at will. Snyder has now won 100% of his matches this season by fall, and a betting person might just put money on World No. 1 doing so in every single contest on his NCAA schedule.
| Wt | Result | OSU | UTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | Alonzo Allen decision over Brakan Mead, 6-3 | 0 | 3 |
| 133 | No. 4 Luke Pletcher Major Decision over Jake Huffine, 12-4 | 4 | 3 |
| 141 | No. 6 Joey McKenna decision over Mike Pongracz, 8-2 | 7 | 3 |
| 149 | No. 5 Ke-Shawn Hayes victory by Tech Fall over Chris Debien, 16-0 | 12 | 3 |
| 157 | No. 5 Micah Jordan victory by FALL over Dylan Forzani, 1:25 | 18 | 3 |
| 165 | No. 11 Te'Shan Campbell Major Decision over Chad Pyke, 9-1 | 22 | 3 |
| 174 | No. 3 Bo Jordan Major Decision over Justin Lampe, 12-2 | 26 | 3 |
| 184 | No. 2 Myles Martin decision over No. 15 Bryce Carr, 10-5 | 29 | 3 |
| 197 | No. 1 Kollin Moore Major Decision over No. 15 Scottie Boykin, 20-8 | 33 | 3 |
| HWT | No. 1 Kyle Snyder victory by FALL over Ben Stacey, 3:17 | 39 | 3 |
Ohio State will next wrestle in the first weekend of the new year, with a Friday night fight at Maryland Jan. 5, 2018, followed by a Sunday showdown Jan. 7 versus a resurgent Rutgers team at high noon in Piscataway.
