In their first meet of the New Year, the Bobcat grapplers were back on the mats yesterday and Sunday for the annual two-day Southern Scuffle tournament at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
After the end of the first day of matches, Ohio was ranked in 10th place of the 23 teams competing in the tournament. Despite still having active wrestlers heading into the second day, the Bobcats were not able to improve their positioning as they finished the tournament in 10th place with 42.5 points.
“We ran into some trouble the first day, but we still had a fair amount of guys dress the second day,” Ohio coach Joel Greenlee said. “We were able to have guys place and overall, I think we are improving each meet, which is the goal.”
Ohio finished behind teams including Penn State, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon State and Virginia.
Placing the highest for Ohio were its two heavyweight wrestlers, Jeremy Johnson and Andy Hartshorn, who finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively, in the 285-pound weight class.
Johnson and Hartshorn were matched up against each other in the fifth place match, but instead of sparring for the placing, Hartshorn forfeited the match against his teammate to allow Johnson to receive the win.
“We didn’t plan on a forfeit or anything, but that’s what we decided on,” Greenlee said. “We’ve been practicing really hard for the past few weeks. No sense in having your own guys battling each other.”
Ohio’s only other wrestler who placed was Nick Purdue, who finished in eighth place of the 174-pound weight class. Purdue also forfeited in his match to place, against Austin Gabel of Virginia Tech.
Although he did not place in his weight class, Ryan Garringer (184-pounds) was tied for the lead in total pins with three in the meet. Garringer won three of his five contests over the two-day meet.
The Southern Scuffle will be the last road meet for the Bobcats until Jan. 29, as they will host their next three meets against Northern Illinois, Kent State and Bloomsburg.
“It’s always fun to wrestle at home, and with two conference meets it will be nice for us to compete against them before the (Mid-American Conference) Championships in the coming months,” Greenlee said.
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