Through the first two weekends of competition, there’s evidence of how strong Ohio’s high-weight classes are, but that doesn’t mean they’re not willing to show off a bit anyway.
The Bobcats saw five wrestlers post undefeated records to help the team sweep Drexel, Utah Valley and Indiana Tech Saturday at the Eastern Michigan Duals. During the first two dual meets, Ohio came back to win from early deficits.
“The back half of the lineup wrestled really well,” coach Joel Greenlee said. “I thought the 125, 133, and 141 wrestled hard. They’re just young and we don’t have much experience at those three weights. We had a couple of matches from those guys that we not necessarily should have won, but could have won.”
Senior Jeremy Johnson, junior Tywan Claxton, redshirt junior Harrison Hightower and redshirt sophomore Marshal Willet each finished with perfect 3-0 days on the mat and were key contributors to the Bobcats’ comeback wins.
Also giving the Bobcats a strong showing was redshirt sophomore Phil Wellington, who finished the day with a 2-1 record, as his only loss came against Drexel’s 12
th
-ranked Brandon Palik.
“Drexel does an unbelievably good job at not making any mistakes,” Greenlee said. “I think they kind of waited back for us to fall asleep on them, and once we went to sleep they attacked and put us down. That’s what happened to Phil and also what happened to a couple of our 125, 133 and 141 guys.”
Redshirt sophomore Cody Walters also went undefeated in his two matches on Saturday, which was his first live action of the season. Walters posted a 5-0 decision of Drexel’s Alex DiCiantis and a 2-1 decision over Utah Valley’s Ethan Smith.
“Cody wrestled pretty well in both matches,” Greenlee said. “He was a little bit tentative today since it was his first time out on the mat, and in both cases we put him in a spot where he really needed to win. I don’t think we saw the best Cody Walters we’ll see this season, but the most important thing for him was that he went out and got a win.”
After falling behind in the first two matches, Ohio didn’t waste any time going after Indiana Tech in its final competitions of the day. The Bobcats took nine out of ten matches from Indiana Tech, with their one loss coming by forfeit in the 157-pound division.
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