In 52 days, the top wrestlers in the country will kick off the NCAA tournament at The Q in Cleveland. Ohio State has plans to field 10 competitors, with a goal of finishing a record-tying 10 All Americans en route to the program's second national title.
To get there, the team has plenty of work to do, as a fully-weaponized Buckeye lineup showed would-be opponents - namely, defending champion Penn State - the vulnerabilities in its star-studded armor. Over the team's last three Big Ten victories, at No. 17 Rutgers and home versus No. 14 Minnesota and No. 4 Iowa, Ohio State's ranked wrestlers dropped nine of 30 matches, including four true upsets and six from its middleweights.
Sunday versus Iowa, the night started with a stunning upset of No. 1 Nathan Tomasello by the Hawkeyes' talented true freshman, No. 6 Spencer Lee. Lee won after a dominant second period on top that gave him an effective 2-0 lead heading into the final frame. A single escape in the third sealed the 3-2 decision.
"There's always a chance to improve," Coach Ryan said after the match, referring to the four matches his team dropped to his alma mater. Ke-Shawn Hayes (149), Micah Jordan (157) and Te'Shan Campbell (165) each fell to higher-ranked foes in the dual; for Campbell, it was his third loss in as many outings.
Looking ahead, it's hard to imagine Tomasello dropping that match a second or third time, presuming the two combatants face off again at the Big Ten and/or NCAA tournament. Rutgers' own talented lighweight, No. 2 Nick Suriano, was likely licking his chops watching his would-be nemesis falter in this third match of the season.
Tomasello hasn't dropped more than one match a season since his freshman year, the year when he also won the NCAA title at 125. In each of the past two years, his loss was also to a Hawkeye, and each time in the NCAA semifinals en route to a third-place finish at 133.
For the middleweights, on the other hand, losses to higher-ranked foes present significant learning opportunities.
Ke-Shawn Hayes faced senior Brandon Sorenson, a wrestler who has consistently found himself wrestling on the final day of the NCAA tournament.
"I'm not sure that Ke-Shawn believed he could beat him, but I think he does now," Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan said after the match. "There's a mental growth process, you've got to feel what you're competing against."
Ryan said that with a few more angles and a few more leg attacks, Hayes likely could have stolen the upset. While Sorenson was expected to win the match, the result provided some evidence that Hayes has what it takes to wrestle with the best in the class, outside of perhaps Zain Retherford.
For Micah Jordan, the issue in his loss to No. 2 Michael Kemerer was something that has frustrated Buckeye fans in recent years: an inability to escape from the bottom position. Kemerer came out shooting from the opening whistle, getting the first takedown literally in the first seconds of the match, and from there did what Iowa wrestlers do: piled on the riding time.
Five matches down, five matches to go.@Kem_Daughg65 just tallied the win to give @Hawks_Wrestling the 9-7 lead at intermission. pic.twitter.com/2rrA55a4HY
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) January 21, 2018
Tomasello, Jordan and Campbell each gave up seemingly interminable minutes of riding time Sunday, certainly costing Tomasello his match and eating up valuable time Jordan and Campbell needed to complete nascent comebacks. For both middleweights, the script seems for opponents seems to be that if you can get the Buckeye on the mat, you can ride him out.
When it comes to Campbell, he simply has to get better on his feet. His offense was sorely lacking in the match with No. 8 Alex Marinelli, a one-time Buckeye commit who ultimately opted to head to Iowa City after graduating from the famed St. Paris Graham wresting program in west-central Ohio.
Campbell picked up his first stalling warning just two minutes into the match, and while Campbell was a hammer on top during the second period, he failed to score a single takedown, something that was also true of three of his previous four losses.
When Campbell scores points, he wins, and usually wins via bonus points. But too often against ranked opponents, he fails to take enough shots, fails to finish the shots he does take, and ends up on the wrong side of winnable decisions.
Here's what is known: Ohio State has the horses to win a national title. To do so, they need to place as many on the podium as possible in Cleveland, and need to get some bonus points on the way there, because Penn State returns five national champions who score them in buckets.
Against the toughest opponents to date, Ohio State's middleweights looked vulnerable. Tom Ryan needs them to step up over the next 52 days for the team to reach its ultimate goal.
