Kent State’s dominance in the Mid-American Conference continued against the Bobcats on Friday evening during their 23-9 victory in a dual meet at The Convo.
Ohio (2-4, 1-3 MAC) struggled the entire evening and only won three of the 10 matches.
“I’ve got mixed feelings about tonight,” coach Joel Greenlee said. “We wrestled pretty darn hard, but we still have yet to find the killer instinct that Kent State has and finish out matches.”
Highlighting the meet for the Bobcats was heavyweight Jeremy Johnson’s 2-0 victory against Brendan Barlow in the second match of the evening. Johnson —who is ranked seventh in the nation —was the projected favorite, but had lost both of his previous matches against Barlow.
Johnson tied the team score at three, but the Bobcats were not able to take the lead the entire dual.
Nick Purdue (174-pound weight class) was also victorious in his bout but was not much of a factor in the big picture for the Bobcats. Purdue wrestled in a close battle and was able to finish victorious in the 3-1 decision.
Darrin Boing (141-pound) was the only other Ohio wrestler to win a match. Boing had the biggest victory for the Bobcats at 7-5 against Kent State’s Tyler Small.
Ohio will be back in action on Sunday evening against the Bloomsburg Huskies. The meet will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Convo.
“We need to be ready for Bloomsburg on Sunday,” Greenlee said. “If we go out and turn the page and not dwell on what happened tonight, I think we will be able to wrestle hard.”
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