Ohio State came back from its loss to No. 1 Penn State with another Big Ten win over No. 14 Rutgers with some individual upsets along the way, improving to 13-2 and 5-1 in the conference.
With a 22-12 final team score, three straight upsets from Luke Geog, Nick Feldman and Brendan McCrone was the turning point of the dual.
The Buckeyes came back to Columbus winning seven of the 10 individual bouts against the Scarlet Knights hoping to build some major momentum with just two more duals until the Big Ten Championships in March.
Here’s how it went at each weight:
157 pounds: Isaac Wilcox started the day off for the Buckeyes against Jacob Butler with six takedowns in the match and a point for riding time, earning a bonus point for Ohio State right out of the gates by beating Butler 19-6.
165 pounds: No. 20 Bryce Hepner had a takedown in the first period on Anthony White, and added an escape in the second period, but that was all of the scoring in the match other than an extra point awarded to Hepner for riding time. He beat White 5-0 to take a 7-0 team lead.
174 pounds: No. 11 Rocco Welsh has wrestled a tough schedule so far in his freshman season and that continued against No. 13 Jackson Turley. Welsh had a takedown in the first period and the match was almost tied in the second period when Turley took Welsh to the mat, but it was ruled not to be a takedown after review. Welsh won the dual 4-3 to make it 10-0 Buckeyes.
184 pounds: Ryder Rogotzke held an 8-6 lead over No. 21 Brian Soldano in the second period, but was stuck 4:24 into the bout giving Soldano the win and Rutgers three bonus points to make the dual score 10-6.
197 pounds: No. 22 Geog didn’t let that momentum last long for the Knights, taking down No. 12 John Poznanski in a 4-3 upset, scoring early with a takedown in the first period.
Heavyweight: No. 12 Nick Feldman kept the scoring going for the Buckeyes with a 4-3 decision over No. 7 Yaraslau Slavikouski, getting his takedown about 40 seconds into the third period and gave Ohio State a 16-6 lead.
125 pounds: No. 24 Brendan McCrone had two takedowns in his match against No. 13 Dean Peterson, one of them coming in the final seconds of the match, to win 7-1 and extend Ohio State’s lead to 19-6.
133 pounds: No. 12 Nic Bouzakis and No. 13 Dylan Shawver were tied 4-4 towards the end of the third period, but Shawver scored an escape very late giving Bouzakis a 5-4 loss and keeping Rutgers’ hopes alive, even though winning would have been a longshot at that point.
141 pounds: No. 3 Jesse Mendez ended Rutgers’ chances, coming back from a very close loss at Penn State with a 5-0 decision over No. 20 Mitch Moore, riding him the entire second period and scoring a takedown in the third to give Ohio State a 22-9.
149 pounds: No. 9 Dylan D’Emilio and Michael Cetta were tied 9-9 at the end of regulation, but in the sudden victory period, Cetta scored a takedown on D’Emilio to end the match on a high note for Rutgers despite Ohio State winning the dual 22-12.
