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Ohio State blows out Indiana, 38-15. Now, it's time to do the same to That Team Up North.
Fresh off a 45-3 drubbing of the Maryland Terrapins, Ohio State's wrestling team wraps up its weekend on the East Coast with a Sunday showdown at Rutgers, squaring off against the team's second top-20 opponent of the season.
Rutgers is officially the midpoint of the season: Ohio State is now 7-0 overall, and after Sunday's tilt, the Buckeyes have another seven duals ahead of them in a 15-meet schedule. Consider it a midterm exam, of sorts, for a team with the loftiest expectations come finals week in Cleveland.
"We're going to compete with Ohio State and there will be some great individual matchups," Rutgers coach Scott Goodale told NJ.com, "but it's a tall order. It's a top-10 kid in every single weight class. There is no breathing room."
The Scarlet Knights are a team in a talent-rich part of the country making noise in the wrestling conference. With five ranked competitors taking the mat Sunday, it will be a good test for an Ohio State roster that has steamrolled lesser competition since its only real test of the season, hosting No. 11 Arizona State in the season opener.
Buckeye Breakdown
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| RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS |
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3-2, 1-1 Big Ten Conference ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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NOON – SUNDAY, JAN. 7 RUTGERS ATHLETIC CENTER PISCATAWAY, N.J. |
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BIG TEN NETWORK BTN2Go |
Ohio State is the No. 2 team in the country for a reason: fully-weaponized, as one reader SaltyD0gg so aptly put it, there is no better lineup in the country from top to bottom. There is a very real possibility that Ohio State finishes with 10 All-Americans at the NCAA tournament in March, something that has happened just once in history: the 2001 Minnesota Golden Gophers.
At Maryland on Friday night, things went exactly as expected for the eight Buckeye starters who took to the mat: Utter domination. Eight of nine victories were decided by bonus points, and Fritz Schierl garnered his first win of the season in relief of Bo Jordan, though the freshman's victory came via injury default (as was Micah Jordan's win at 157).
Ohio State has outscored its dual-meet opponents by a combined score of 261-39 in seven duals, an average tally of 37.3-5.6. Six starters are undefeated, and eight have at least one pin fall on the season.
No. 1 Nathan Tomasello appeared in his first match of the season at Maryland, returning from a 13-week layoff after an October knee surgery. He will not wrestle at Rutgers, however, keeping a promise to stand in his best friend's wedding.
Rutgers fans have been chirping about this over the past few days via social media, accusing the former NCAA champion of "ducking" Rutgers' talented sophomore Nick Suriano, the No. 2 wrestler in the country at 125 pounds. Suriano was somewhat less than magnanimous about the situation.
"I've been here all season long," he told NJ.com. "Honestly, I have no idea what he has been up to. I'm expecting to wrestle him Sunday. A lot of people have been pulling tricks with me, I've been noticing. I've got to be ready for him. If it's not him, whatever. If it is, I'll be there. It's really that simple."
Suriano, and salty Scarlet Knights fans on social media as well, would do well to remember that their own Anthony Ashnault has been on the shelf all season due to an injury-predicated surgery, and like Tomasello will not be wrestling Sunday. His absence will deny fans another battle of NCAA contenders, as he would face No. 6 Joey McKenna.
Even so, fans at the Rutgers Athletic Center and watching on the Big Ten Network will see four bouts featuring ranked competitors duking it out. Oh, and the reigning Olympic, World and NCAA champion Kyle Snyder returns to collegiate action as well.
The No. 17 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Head Coach: Scott Goodale
| Wt | Ohio State | Rutgers |
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| 125 | Brakan Mead (7-9) | No. 2 Nick Suriano (14-0) |
| 133 | No. 3 Luke Pletcher (17-0) | No. 14 Scott DelVecchio (11-1) |
| 141 | No. 6 Joey McKenna (5-0) | Michael Van Brill (9-5) |
| 149 | No. 5 Ke-Shawn Hayes (18-1) | No. 14 Eleazar DeLuca (6-4) |
| 157 | No. 6 Micah Jordan (15-2) | John Van Brill (9-3) |
| 165 | No. 11 Te'Shan Campbell (14-2) | No. 15 Richie Lewis (6-2) |
| 174 | No. 3 Bo Jordan (14-2) |
Jordan Pagano (9-6) -OR- Joe Grello (5-3) |
| 184 | No. 2 Myles Martin (17-0) | No. 9 Nicholas Gravina (8-3) |
| 197 | No. 1 Kollin Moore (13-0) | Kevin Mulligan (9-6) |
| HWT | No. 1 Kyle Snyder (3-0) | Razohn Gross (8-6) |
The Scarlet Knights battled OSU to a 24-24 tie in the teams' inaugural clash back in 1984, but the Buckeyes are undefeated since, taking the victory in each of the four subsequent contests. However, the two most recent have been tightly-contested duals with scores of 23-17 (2015) and 23-18 (2017).
Goodale, now in his eleventh season "on the banks," tallied a 153-55-1 record during his first 10 years at the tiller, and over the past four years he's coached six All-Americans including Ashnault, the school's first three-time All-American. Since 2009, Rutgers has earned two top-10 finishes and six top-25 finishes in the USA Today/ NWCA Division I Coaches Poll.
After opening the season on a three-meet win streak, with victories over Maryland, Virginia and No. 19 Oklahoma, the Knights dropped a surprising loss to Lock Haven on the first day of December. Rutgers won five individual matches, but a pin by Lock Haven's ranked heavyweight Thomas Haines secured the upset, with a final score of 22-16.
"Honestly, we got our butt kicked," said head coach Scott Goodale. "Other than our first two guys, who we expect those performances from, they out-wrestled us in every single position. We did a lot of laying on our belly. We couldn't get off the bottom, so that was disappointing from that standpoint. Their game plan was great, they were in better shape than us, they were tougher than us and they out-hustled us."
It was a similar result a week later, though a much different story, as the then-No. 7 Iowa Hawkeyes held off the Knights in front of a record crowd in New Brunswick, 22-15.
Iowa came out on top again last weekend, winning the Midlands Championships just ahead of Rutgers. Suriano won his class, while three other Knights finished in third.
Notable Rutgers Wrestlers
No. 2 Nick Suriano - 125 Pounds
The offseason transfer from Penn State was the talk of the offseason, and was the subject of speculation both as to his eventual destination and if he would be permitted to compete this year, or would have to sit out a season under Big Ten and NCAA transfer rules.
Ultimately, Rutgers won the sweepstakes and an appeal of the transfer rules, much to the Nittany Lions' chagrin. After granting Suriano his release in August, Penn State refused a request to allow him to compete immediately, necessitating a ruling on a waiver from the Big Ten Academics and Eligibility subcommittee, which they granted.
Suriano has made the most of his new environs since, going 14-0 with a 64% bonus rate leading up to his Midlands championship.
"I'm not satisfied with myself, but I got the job done," Suriano said after winning the tournament. "I came here to win, and that means bringing Rutgers with me."
No. 14 Scott DelVecchio - 133 pounds
Suriano and DelVecchio "give us a 1-2 punch, maybe the best in the country," Goodale said of his lightweights after the Iowa dual. "We just have to keep riding them."
DelVecchio, a redshirt senior, is 11-1 on the season with his lone loss coming in the semifinal round of the Midlands tournament. He rebounded nicely, finishing the tournament in third place.
No. 15 Richie Lewis - 165 pounds
Lewis will be Te'Shan Campbell's biggest test of the season thus far. Though Campbell is ahead of Lewis in the standings, Lewis is the reigning U23 Freestyle World Gold Medalist, and his only two losses of the season are to Iowa's Alex Marinelli, himself a top-10 contender.
The Rutgers middleweight finished third at the Midlands. He dropped his second match of the season to Marinelli in the tournament semifinals, but rebounded in the third-place match with a win over Arizona State's Anthony Valencia, a 5-2 decision.
Campbell defeated Valencia in St. John Arena in the Buckeyes' home opener, a 14-0 major decision that earned him Big Ten Wrestler of the Week honors.
No. 9 Nicholas Gravina - 184 pounds
Gravina was a preseason No. 10 pick, and opened the season undefeated. Things got off track at the Midlands, however, when he sustained an injury in the final period of the semifinal match, dropping the 2-1 decision to Illinois' Emery Parker. Gravina forfeited the consolation semifinals and the fifth-place bout to finish the tournament in sixth, and with a record of 8-3 on the year.
Match Outlook
Tomasello is out, but Snyder is back, so the Buckeyes should once again field nine of their 10 projected postseason starters, presuming Bo Jordan takes the mat. He was held out Friday night as a precaution given that he wasn't needed to secure the team victory.
With the exception of 125, Ohio State fields the favorite in every single class, though 133 and 165 should be strong tests for Luke Pletcher and Te'Shan Campbell. The Buckeyes will be heavily favored in most matches, and should walk away with a comfortable victory along the lines of their 31-12 win over Arizona State early in the season (though Rutgers scoring 12 points would be a surprise, even allowing for a Suriano pin over freshman Brakan Mead).
Expect Ohio State's undefeated title contenders to remain undefeated, expect Kyle Snyder to get his fourth pin of the season, and expect Ohio State to come back to Columbus with another Big Ten victory.
