Cody Walters’ pin and 5 straight wins propels Ohio a 21-16 victory over the Huskies.
Ohio found itself in a scary situation Friday night against Northern Illinois.
Trailing 7-3, 165-pound redshirt senior Harrison Hightower came to the mat and earned an important three points with a 7-2 decision over freshman Shaun’Que McMurty. Then, 174-pound redshirt junior Cody Walters came in and pinned redshirt sophomore Trace Engelkes. The six points gave the Bobcats a 12-7 lead, Ohio did not look back as they won the next three consecutive matches en route to a 21-16 victory.
Despite Hightower’s victory being the start of five straight victories, head coach Joel Greenlee thought it was Walter’s pin that was the true turning point in the match.
“Hightower had a good win,” Greenlee said, “But we were expecting more. We were expecting a major decision. It was still a good win, but we just expected a little more than that.”
Besides the big wins by Hightower and Walters, other notable wins included a 7-3 decision from redshirt junior Phil Wellington, which extended his winning streak to five and his undefeated conference record to 5-0, and a 2-0 decision by redshirt junior Andrew Romanchik, which improved his overall record to 21-0.
Ohio led 21-7 with two matches left, but the Huskies earned a decision over 125-pound redshirt freshman Zak Hassan and a pin over 133-pound freshman Josh Parrett to lessen the blow of their loss to 21-16.
Before the match, Greenlee expected a large margin of victory for the Bobcats, but he is still satisfied with the five-point victory.
“When it boils down to it,” Greenlee said, “We probably lost just one match that we should have won. It could have went either way.”
The Bobcats will return to The Convo on Sunday as they take on Buffalo at 1 pm. They’ll have a chance to move to .500 in conference play as they take on the worst-ranked team in the conference.
With Ohio trending upwards and returning to Athens on Sunday, Greenlee has optimism as the Bobcats are in the home stretch of their schedule before the conference tournament.
“I think we’re gaining confidence every day,” Greenlee said. “I’m gaining confidence, they’re gaining confidence, and they’re gaining confidence in each other, the coaches are gaining confidence in the kids.”
@efelderstein14
