The Ohio wrestling team and wrestler Luke Moore shared something in common Sunday -- they both won close matches in their final matches in The Convo this season, snapping four-match losing streaks for both.
Moore (174-pound weight class) defeated Buffalo wrestler Tom Paladino 2-1 to help Ohio (9-8 overall, 2-2 Mid-American Conference) beat the Bulls (9-5, 1-3 MAC) by tiebreaker criteria with a 16-16 final score.
"(The win) means a lot because the past couple weeks have been rough," Moore said. "It was pretty special. It's the last time I'm going to get to do this."
The criteria came to near-falls, and Ohio's No. 4 Jake Percival (149) had the meet's only near-fall in a 12-3 major decision against Ryan Bentley.
The Bobcats blew an early 10-4 lead after the first four matches, including a 10-6 Jon Spires (141) win -- his first conference victory.
"I've really seen (Spires) come a long way in the past four weeks," Greenlee said.
That lead disappeared, however, and Ohio entered the last match behind 16-13, needing heavyweight Erik Jones to win by at least decision to stay in the contest. Jones beat Tom Curl 4-0.
"(Winning by criteria) was huge," Jones said. "I didn't get (the major decision) so I felt kind of bad because I didn't know if we'd get the win.'
Many of the individual matches were close. Two matches were decided by major decision, and Ohio lost three of the competition's last four matches by three or less points.
Ohio wrestler Ed Willis (174) dropped his first conference match in overtime to Gary Cooper. Willis earned a late takedown, but he could not keep Cooper from escaping near the end of regulation.
"I think it's a match we can win come conference tournament time," Ohio coach Joel Greenlee said. "I thought (Willis) looked a little bit tired, and Ed doesn"t get tired."
Willis had missed the past three matches with a flu-like illness.
The Bobcats compete next in the MAC Championships March 8 at Mt. Pleasant, Mich. Times are to be determined.
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Eric Pfahler
