California Baptist University made the move to Division I competition this season, and the Lancers dominated their first dual meet, a 28-10 victory over Cal Poly. Ohio State's second-ranked wrestling squad, missing national title contenders Myles Martin and Kollin Moore, presented a much different challenge, however.
The Buckeyes won the meet handily, banking 10 straight matches en route to a 42-0 victory and improving to 2-0 on the season. Tom Ryan's squad was simply too talented for the Lancers, flexing their muscles in the first of a pair of dual meets in the scenic Southwest this weekend.
Buckeye Breakdown
Even without Martin and Moore, both of whom are wrestling this weekend at the U23 World Freestyle Championships in Romania, Ohio State overpowered the Lancers from the outset.
Brakan Mead opened the dual with a solid decision at 125, racing out to a 7-1 lead over the first two periods, and finishing 8-4. That was the narrowest victory by the Buckeyes over a five-match span, as a quartet of Top-5 wrestlers poured on the points.
No. 5 Luke Pletcher, who made it his mission this season to open up his offense and put more points on the board, did just that in his match at 133 pounds. He looked well on his way to a tech fall with a series of takedowns and tilts in the first two periods, when midway through the second he forced Adam Velasquez's shoulders to the mat for the pin.
Joey McKenna, No. 2 in the country at 141, decided four-and-a-half minutes was simply too long to wrestle: he pinned his opponent in less than 90 seconds.
Micah Jordan, ranked No. 2 at 149, faced probably the toughest test of the night in Daxton Gordon, the reigning NCAA Division II Champion. Gordon put up a good fight, putting some points on the board, but ultimately didn't have enough horsepower to overcome Jordan's combination of brute strength and shifty quickness; Jordan took home a 13-6 decision.
At 157 pounds, Ke-Shawn Hayes put up one of the most impressive technical performances of the night, earning a 16-0 first-period tech fall with devastating work on top. Moving up to 157 this season after falling to Jordan in the team's wrestle-offs, Hayes appears to have put on quality weight and turned his opponent with ease, piling up the back points.
In the 165-pound match, Elijah Cleary, listed on the roster at 157, stepped in the lineup in place of Kaleb Romero, who opened the season as the presumed starter and wrestled as such versus Navy. Romero was listed as the probable starter for both duals this weekend as of Thursday afternoon, but Cleary took to the mat in Riverside.
The match was in essence a seven-minute stalemate, with each wrestler pocketing a single escape point. Riding time was the difference, as Cleary controlled his opponent long enough to earn the go-ahead point for the 2-1 decision.
Like Hayes at 157, Te'Shan Campbell was much too strong for his opponent at 174 pounds. Campbell, who moved up this season from 165, showed why he is considered one of the team's best on top, turning his man at will for near-fall after near-fall, finishing with an 18-0 tech fall.
Ethan Smith and Kevin Snyder each looked solid in relief for Martin and Moore, turning in strong offensive efforts and by and large defending well, too. Smith earned a 12-4 major decision and Snyder was a point off a major of his own, winning a 7-1 decision.
After starting Gary Traub versus Navy, Tom Ryan decided he saw enough from Chase Singletary at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open last weekend to give the redshirt freshman the start versus Cal Baptist. It proved to be a wise decision, as Singletary put forth a strong performance in his first start, earning a 10-0 major decision in the heavyweight match.
Congrats to Elijah Cleary, Ethan Smith and Chase Singletary for picking up wins in their first career starts.#GoBucks
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) November 17, 2018
After a scoreless first period, he took complete control from the top position, earning back points and a truckload of riding time – more than 2:30 in all – while giving up nothing on defense. It remains to be seen how he'll perform against stronger competition, but he did what he was supposed to do in this type of match early in the season.
| Wt | Result | OSU | CBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | Brakan Mead, decision over Antonio Saldate (8-4) | 3 | 0 |
| 133 | No. 5 Luke Pletcher, victory by FALL over Adam Velasquez (4:28) | 9 | 0 |
| 141 | No. 2 Joey McKenna, victory by FALL over Zander Silva (1:17) | 15 | 0 |
| 149 | No. 2 Micah Jordan, decision over Daxton Gordon (13-6) | 18 | 0 |
| 157 | No. 5 Ke-Shawn Hayes, victory by TECH FALL over Cole Drescher (16-0) | 23 | 0 |
| 165 | Elijah Cleary, decision over Bryce Buckley (2-1) | 26 | 0 |
| 174 | No. 11 Te'Shan Campbell, victory by TECH FALL over Jacob Cooper (18-0) | 31 | 0 |
| 184 | Ethan Smith, major decision over Garrett Strang (12-4) | 35 | 0 |
| 197 | Kevin Snyder, decision over Frank Wyshinkski (7-1) | 38 | 0 |
| HWT | Chase Singletary, major decision over Zach Schrader (10-0) | 42 | 0 |
While the Buckeyes had their way with the Lancers, their second dual of the weekend will present a much stiffer challenge in No. 10 Arizona State. The Sun Devils will field four ranked wrestlers of their own, including No. 1 Zahid Valencia at 174 pounds.
Sunday’s clash in the desert will be the eighth match in the all-time series between the two schools. The Sun Devils came out on top in 1985 and 1990, but Ohio State won the last five showdowns, including wins in each of the past four seasons.
Action starts at 2 p.m. from Wells Fargo Arena, and will air live on the Pac-12 Network (streaming available for a fee).
Freestyle World Finalist
As mentioned previously, Kollin Moore and Myles Martin are halfway around the world from their teammates, representing Team USA at the U23 Freestyle World Championships in Bucharest, Romania.
Moore, wrestling at 97 kg in his third world-team appearance, had quite the day Friday, winning four straight matches to earn his bid for a gold medal in Saturday's finals.
He defeated Russian Igor Alekseevitch Ovsiannikov in the first match of the tournament via a 6-5 decision, dispatching one of the toughest contenders in the field right off the bat. From there he reeled off a pair of tech falls over competitors from Canada and Turkey, before he erased a six-point deficit in a span of 10 seconds, rallying for a 10-8 win against Ukraine's Magamed Zakariiev in the semifinals.
He'll face Givi Matcharashvili from Georgia in the title bout on Saturday (Nov. 17) at 11 a.m. After a first round bye, Matcharashvili rattled off three straight 10-0 tech falls to set up the meeting with Moore.
In the 84 kg weight class, Martin gets his tournament started early Saturday, with matches commencing around 3:30 a.m. EST. He'll have a first-round bye, and will face Javrail Shapiev of Uzbekistan in the tournament's second round.
Streaming of the World Championships is available via TrackWrestling ($).
