Ethan Smith may have saved the day.
Ohio State led by a single point after the first six matches of the team's first home meet of the season, splitting the matches evenly with the visiting Wisconsin Badgers. Smith, a redshirt freshman who had never previously defeated a Top-10 opponent, took the mats to face No. 9 Ryan Christensen in place of senior Te'Shan Campbell.
Head coach Tom Ryan confirmed Friday that Campbell is battling an injury, and that Smith might get the call. After Zander and Evan Wick won back-to-back matches at 157 and 165 pounds, respectively, the Badgers looked like they would take the lead with a win at 174.
Christensen went to work right out of the gate, taking Smith feet to back for a 4-point move. Smith didn't shrink away, however, earning a reversal to narrow the score. An escape for Christensen gave him a 5-2 lead at the end of the first three minutes.
Smith started the second period on top, and got the Badger on his back for a 4-point near-fall to take the lead, 6-5 at the end of the second period. The Buckeye took bottom to start the final frame of the match, and a quick reversal gave him an 8-6 edge heading into the final minute.
In a final flurry of activity, Smith tacked on another takedown, which Christensen parlayed into a reversal. The second stall warning on Smith gave the Badger another point, but it wasn't enough to recapture the lead, and Ethan Smith walked away with the 10-9 decision and his first win over a Top-10 opponent.
Ethan Smith post-match interview.
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) December 10, 2018
Watch full interviewhttps://t.co/JGggrR3l0C#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/BAWy2yYGvr
"The question to Ethan was, how bad do you want to wrestle? On a scale of 1-10, how bad do you want to be out there?" Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan said of the decision to put Smith into the lineup. "If I heard 8, 7, 6, 5, 9, you ain't going in. He said 10, I want out [there]...Tonight the door opened, he wanted it, and he went out and beat a really tough guy, and I'm really proud of him for that."
Smith's come-from-behind victory brought the crowd to its feet, and put the momentum squarely back in the Buckeyes' favor.
After that, Myles Martin and Kollin Moore tacked on a pair of bonus point victories, including Moore's first-period pin to put the comeback out of reach for the Badgers. Although the visiting team would win the heavyweight contest, the Buckeyes four bonus point wins and six total victories were enough to earn the 10-point team win.
| Wt | Result | OSU | WIS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | No. 20 Connor Brown, decision over Brakan Mead (7-2) | 0 | 3 |
| 133 | No. 7 Luke Pletcher, decision over Jens Lantz (4-0) | 3 | 3 |
| 141 | No. 2 Joey McKenna, major decision over No. 12 Tristan Moran (14-2) | 7 | 3 |
| 149 | No. 3 Micah Jordan, major decision over No. 18 Cole Martin (14-4) | 11 | 3 |
| 157 | Zander Wick, decision over Elijah Cleary (7-3) | 11 | 6 |
| 165 | No. 2 Evan Wick, major decision over Ryan Ferro (13-1) | 11 | 10 |
| 174 |
Ethan Smith, decision over No. 9 Ryan Christensen (10-9) *Ohio State bench penalized 1 point for unsportsmanlike conduct |
13 | 10 |
| 184 | No. 1 Myles Martin, major decision over Mason Reinhardt (17-10) | 17 | 10 |
| 197 | No. 3 Kollin Moore, victory by FALL over Andrew Salemme (2:04) | 23 | 10 |
| HWT | No. 9 Trend Hillger, decision over No. 14 Chase Singletary (6-1) | 23 | 13 |
"I don't think we had our best performance tonight," said Wisconsin head coach Chris Bono. "...and when you wrestle a team that is as good as Ohio State you need to have your best performance to be able to compete and win."
Bono, in his first year as head coach of the Badgers, had his team on a 6-0 streak rolling into Columbus. His team is ranked in the Top 20, and featured six ranked wrestlers.
Fortunately for Ohio State, the Buckeye lineup featured six ranked wrestlers, too, and five of them won their matches Sunday night in St. John Arena.
The Fab Five
Ohio State returned five All Americans from its 2018 national runner-up roster, and that group is the nucleus of the team. All five men, each ranked in the Top 10 in their respective weight classes, won their matches versus Wisconsin – four of them with bonus points attached.
Luke Pletcher, at 133 pounds, put the first points on the board for Ohio State. After Brakan Mead dropped a decision at 125 to a Top-10 Badger opponent, Pletcher faced a game opponent in Jens Lantz.
Lantz put up a strong effort in the first period, holding Pletcher to a stalemate with solid defense and some good shot attempts that he simply couldn't finish agains the stronger and savvier Buckeye. Known for his stifling defense and ability to grind out low-scoring decisions, Pletcher put on a clinic in the second and third periods, riding Lantz for nearly three minutes and winning 4-0.
Joey McKenna, at 141, was simply too talented a technician for No. 14 Tristan Moran. McKenna was a hair's breadth away from a tech fall, but ran out of time before he could put another takedown on the board.
He remains undefeated on the season.
Micah Jordan slipped in the rankings a spot after failing to win a title at the Cliff Keen, but he had no trouble putting a major decision on No. 18 Cole Martin. Jordan's only loss on the season is to then-No. 3 Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers; he now has five victories over ranked opponents.
As mentioned earlier, Martin and Moore did what they do; Martin nearly recorded another tech fall of his own, and Moore ended his match late in the first period. They both improved to a perfect 7-0 on the season.
Battle of the Heavyweights
Chase Singletary, who earned his way into the Top 20 after a solid heavyweight performance at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, was the only ranked Buckeye to drop a match Sunday night. He faced No. 9 Trent Hillger, one of the fastest-rising stars in this year's freshman class.
Hillger picked up his third win over a ranked opponent on the season, while Singletary is now 2-2 versus opponents in the Top 20, and 12-3 overall on the season. Buckeye head coach Tom Ryan said Friday that Singletary has to continue to grow – literally – into the heavyweight class, and that if he continues to add good weight throughout the season, the sky is the limit for the young Buck.
It was something of a relief to see Singletary in the lineup after he was an injury default late in the Cliff Keen tournament last weekend. In a match late in the weekend, he appeared to suffer a serious ankle injury; after examination back in Columbus and a solid week of practice, it was clear that he was fine, medically, and returned to the lineup for another shot at establishing himself as a potential contender in the class.
Thor, as Hillger is known, was just too much Sunday night.
Ups and Downs
Ohio State knows it can count on its five returning All Americans to get the job done. Singletary is coming along, and has shown that he can beat ranked opponents, even if he isn't the guaranteed-victory machine the Buckeyes enjoyed in Kyle Snyder.
B1G banner drop!#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/bpA8s6Evmg
— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) December 9, 2018
While last season the roster featured 10 guys who seemed capable of finishing as All Americans, this team still has some questions in the lineup. Elijah Cleary and Ryan Ferro started at 157 and 165, respectively, filling in for Ke-Shawn Hayes and Kaleb Romero.
Ryan said Friday that Romero has been banged up over the past couple of weeks and would be a match-time decision, but the university did not immediately confirm why No. 9 Ke-Shawn Hayes didn't wrestle at 157.
Although Ferro is a promising young talent, Hayes definitely has the tools to put points on the board for the Buckeyes come tournament time. He has performed well at 157, his third weight class in as many years.
Romero, at 165, is 6-2 on the season but has dropped decisions to both Top-10 opponents he's faced. The Buckeyes aren't in action again until early January, so the time off should give the Ohio native a chance to heal up and regroup for what can be a brutal Big Ten season.
Mead isn't Ohio State's long-term solution at 125, but true freshman Malik Heinselman isn't pulling off his redshirt yet. Heinselman is 11-1 this year wrestling unattached in open tournaments, but is still probably a little smaller than the staff would like him to be as a prospective postseason starter.
Holiday Break
The Buckeyes close 2018 a perfect 4-0 in dual meet action, and with a team title at the toughest regular-season tournament in the country to their credit.
With Romero and Campbell both battling injuries, and Hayes sidelined versus Wisconsin, the team will use the next four weeks to rest and recuperate. Once the calendar turns to 2019, the team dives right back into action against a ranked opponent, hosting No. 8 North Carolina State Jan. 6 at St. John Arena.
January action also includes home meets versus Michigan State and Michigan, the latter in The Schottenstein Center. The team also hits the road to face Indiana in Bloomington.
