OSU solid on fi rst day, but it could’ve been better
ST. LOUIS — Five of nine Ohio State wrestlers won two rounds to advance to the quarterfinals, so it’d be overstating it to say it was a disappointing first day of the NCAA championships for the Buckeyes on Thursday.
Defending champions Kyle Snyder and Nathan Tomasello were dominating as usual, and they were joined in the quarterfinals by Kollin Moore and brothers Micah and Bo Jordan.
But coach Tom Ryan couldn’t help but lament that a good day at the Scottrade Center could have been much better. Ohio State is in second place with 26 points, trailing Penn State, which has 30.5. The Buckeyes are trying to win their second national team title in three years.
Their deficit is not insurmountable. Matches to come are weighted more heavily. But Ohio State’s margin for error isn’t huge.
“We left points out there,” Ryan said. “It’s far from over, but we’ve got to have a better round in the morning.”
Two matches in particular Thursday night stung.
Freshman Luke Pletcher, the 12th seed, was in position to pull an upset on Rutgers’ fifth-seeded Anthony Ashnault. He led late in his 141-pound match but couldn’t hold on and lost 8-7.
“You’re up by two with 30 (seconds) to go,” Ryan said. “He got low-singled. First of all, he wrestled his heart out. That is a great wrestler he just wrestled. But he was in position to beat him and you have to seal the deal. He outwrestled (Ashnault) the whole match.”
Pletcher was supposed to redshirt this season. An injury to KeShawn Hayes prompted his insertion into the lineup at 141 pounds instead of the 133 that’s probably more his natural weight class.
“He definitely got thrown into the deep end and had to start swimming,” Ryan said. “He’s been paddling like a son of a gun. He’s done a fantastic job.”
Later, 2016 national champion Myles Martin, the sixth seed at 184, fell behind big early and couldn’t complete a comeback, falling 14-9 to 11th-seed Emery Parker of Illinois.
Martin took an early lead, but had a bad sequence in the second period.
“We got caught out of position,” Ryan said. “You can’t go to your back off a single-leg, and we did. That blew the match open. Myles did the best he could to come back.”
Martin rallied from a 10-4 deficit to make it 11-8. But that was as close as he would get.
The other two defending champions had no trouble advancing. Tomasello, at 133, won both of his matches by major decision with a combined score of 34-11.
Snyder won both of his heavyweight matches by technical fall. In his second match, he won 22-7 over Garrett Ryan of Columbia.
“Garrett is a good friend of mine,” Snyder said. “We wrestled in high school and we were roommates senior year. He’s a good opponent, and a good opponent is fun to wrestle.”
Both Jordan brothers won impressively. Bo defeated Lelund Weatherspoon of Iowa State 10-4 in the round of 16.
Micah won by major decision, 10-2, over Alfred Bannister of Maryland in his secondround match.
“He’s really tough to take down,” Micah Jordan said. “I just tried to keep moving and I tried to get to my attacks.”
Moore continues to impress as a redshirt freshman at 197. He won twice by major decision, rolling past Corey Griego of Oregon State 16-4 in the round of 16.
“Kollin looked great,” Ryan said. “You never know how a freshman is going to deal with this environment. Even though you see him week after week wrestle to his potential, it’s still a different environment that he’s never been in.”
Jose Rodriguez (125) and Cody Burcher (165) were the only Buckeyes to lose their first-round matches. Rodriguez won his consolation match. Burcher lost 2-1.