Tywan Claxton earns three wins, remains undefeated on the season after pair of team wins at EMU duals
Coach Joel Greenlee will be the first to admit that Saturday’s schedule for the Eastern Michigan Duals was a little odd.
Ohio took on Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Lock Haven and Michigan — the eighth-ranked team in the NCAA. Despite the discrepancy between the teams’ talent levels, Greenlee noted they are still Division I teams.
Ohio defeated Lock Haven 28-12, and SIUE 28-9, but fell to Michigan 28-3. The Bobcats only picked up one win in their match against Michigan, as redshirt junior Tywan Claxton defeated Alec Pantaleo 4-3 in the 149-pound weight class. Claxton also picked up victories against SIUE and Lock Haven, and he remains undefeated this season.
“(Claxton) went out there, got taken down a couple of times and had three pretty tough matchups,” Greenlee said. “He went out there and got the job done.”
Although the Bobcats only picked up one victory against Michigan, Greenlee was irate about the officiating in the matchup between Ohio redshirt junior Cody Walters and Michigan’s Davonte Mahomes.
“[Walters] won the match, but the referee took it away from him,” Greenlee said. “There’s no other way to put it. It was unbelievable. He scored the only points in the match and lost. I guess you’re just going to have to take it out of the referees hands and score more points. That can’t happen. It was a good lesson for us. I’m sure he’ll bounce back and wrestle that much tougher.”
Greenlee had a tough decision to make about who to start in the 285-pound class, where he had to choose between two true freshmen, Jesse Webb and Zack Parker. He opted for Parker against SIUE and Lock Haven, and Webb against Michigan. Parker defeated SIUE’s Chris Johnson 6-4, but fell to Lock Haven’s Brad Emerick 11-1. Webb fell 8-3 to Michigan’s Adam Coon, who is ranked fourth in the nation in the 285-pound weight class.
“I’ve said all along that both bring different things to the table,” Greenlee said. “I just thought in that situation against Michigan, Webb’s style fits Coon’s style better than Parker’s did.”
Overall, Greenlee was satisfied with Saturday’s results in the tournament, despite not earning the sweep. He was most satisfied with the team’s conditioning, even noting that Ohio was the best conditioned team that he saw at the Duals.
He noted his team was a little eager against Michigan, a trait that may have led to their downfall.
“We took more shots than we wanted,” Greenlee said. “We were getting scored on and we were trying to force things too much. I think we have to learn a bit of patience.”
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