After dropping their first two Mid-American Conference meets on the season, the Bobcats recorded their first conference victory at the Convo with a strong team performance against Northern Illinois.
Ohio (2-3, 1-2) dominated in its conference home opener by winning the match 27-6. The Bobcats won eight of the 10 matches on the evening, including a streak of five straight.
“We had a really good meet tonight,” coach Joel Greenlee said. “We had guys back in the lineup and everyone was healthy and were able to pick up a solid victory.”
The Bobcats began the evening by winning the first two matches in the 125-pound and 133-pound bouts. Northern Illinois (6-5, 0-2) then won its first points as Kevin fanta defeated Ohio’s Darrin Boing (141-pound) in an 8-2 duel.
After the loss set the score at 6-3, Ohio,went on a powerful run for the rest of the meet. The Bobcats won five straight matches and outscored the Huskies 24-7 in the individual matches to boost the team score to 20.
Ohio picked up points from Andrew Romanchik, Harrison Hightower, Miles Chapman, Nick Purdue and Ryan Garringer.
After another Northern Illinois victory, Ohio heavyweight wrestler Jeremy Johnson ended the meet with a pin to solidify the victory. The win was Johnson’s 22nd of the season.
“We have been preparing for the meet for a while now, but we thought it would be pretty even,” Greenlee said. “Coming into the night, on paper, it looked like we would be close to splitting. But our guys wrestled hard and we picked up a solid home victory.”
Further information on the meet will be available in Tuesday’s edition of The Post.
cl027410@ohiou.edu
