Ohio (6-3, 4-1 Mid-American Conference) won its dual matchup against Central Michigan (4-9, 2-1 MAC) Sunday afternoon. The teams were evenly matched, and the score continuously flipped in favor of both teams, but Ohio pulled away in the end with a score of 18-16.
The Bobcats started down 10-0 after the first three matches to the Chippewas, struggling with their lower weight classes.
In the 125-pound division, Ohio sophomore Ryan Meek was defeated by Central Michigan’s redshirt freshman Grant Stahl, 3-1. In the 133-pound division, Ohio freshman Kolten Barker was defeated by redshirt junior Sean Spidle 12-1. In the 141-pound division, Ohio dropped its third match in a row with redshirt freshman Kaden Jett’s defeat to redshirt sophomore Andrew Austin, 5-1.
Ohio scored its first points of the afternoon in the 149-pound division when redshirt sophomore Derek Raike defeated redshirt freshman Kellan Aure. Raike came out aggressive, going up 3-0 at the start of the first period. He eventually won his match 21-4, cutting CMU’s lead to just 5 points. Raike went into his matchup focused on securing bonus points.
“(Ohio coach) Greenlee tells me every day, ‘I don’t care if you win or lose, but if you go out there and wrestle as hard as you can and score points, good things are going to happen,'” Raike said.
In the 157-pound division, Ohio’s redshirt sophomore Logan Cravatas dropped his match to sixth-year Johnny Lovett, who is currently ranked No. 16 in the NCAA. Cravatas was able to keep the match fairly close until the third period, where he eventually fell 8-2. Central Michigan extended its lead to 13-5.
In the 165-pound division, Ohio redshirt sophomore Jack Lledo shaved some points off Central Michigan’s lead with a 4-1 win over Chandler Amaker. Then, in a highly anticipated matchup in the 174-pound division, Ohio redshirt junior Garrett Thompson, currently ranked No. 11 in the NCAA, completed a dominating win over CMU’s sixth-year Alex Cramer, ranked ninth. Thompson quickly started 7-0 and went on to win the match 13-1, cutting the lead to 1 point.
In the 184-pound division, Ohio won its third match in a row. Ohio redshirt freshman Jeremy Olszko defeated Adrien Cramer by a score of 5-1. Olszko’s performance helped the Bobcats take the lead 15-13 going into the final two matches.
In the 197-pound division, Ohio’s redshirt sophomore Austin Starr fell to redshirt freshman Luke Cochran by a score of 4-2. With Starr’s loss, CMU retook control at 16-15 heading into the final match.
In the 285-pound division, Ohio redshirt senior Jordan Greer, ranked No. 21, sealed the win for the Bobcats with a 4-1 score over CMU’s redshirt junior Bryan Caves.
“I think our guys have put in a few good weeks of hard work,” Ohio coach Joel Greenlee said. “We talk a lot about believing that we’re going to be great and believing that we’re going to be a team that contends for a MAC title, and I think (today) we started believing a little bit.”
Ohio strives to continue winning going into its next match Friday against Kent State at The Convo.
