After suffering its worst loss of the season this past weekend against West Virginia, Ohio is hoping to bounce back in its final weekend of the season in North Carolina.
The Mountaineers dominated the Bobcats the entire meet in the 36-3 final in The Convo, where Harrison Hightower (157-pound weight class) recorded the only win for the Bobcats in the 10 total matches.
Ohio (3-6, 2-3 Mid-American Conference) coach Joel Greenlee said he is ready for his grapplers to return to the level at which they are capable of performing this weekend in a tri-meet with Duke and N.C. State and in another dual meet at Gardner-Webb.
“I felt like last weekend we just weren’t competing at our best. We seemed tired,” Greenlee said. “So, this week in practice we practiced a lot easier. It was at a higher intensity, but much shorter in duration to keep everyone fresh for the weekend.”
In the first of the two road meets, the Bobcats will travel to Duke University to take on the Blue Devils (3-7) and the Wolfpack (5-9).
Duke is coming off a 22-12 loss to No. 17 Maryland and N.C. State split its tri-meet last weekend against Indiana and VMI.
Neither team has a nationally ranked wrestler, but each team is driven by veteran leadership.
“We have an opportunity to pick up some solid wins this weekend,” Greenlee said. “We really want to use them as a measuring stick to see how far we have progressed this season and give all that we can.”
On Saturday evening in the second meet of the weekend, Ohio will battle against Gardner-Webb. This season, Gardner-Webb (5-11) has lost dual meets against Appalachian State and Buffalo, both teams the Bobcats have defeated.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs will be led by their 125-pound wrestler Michael Slaughter, who is 10-6 on the season in dual meets. Ohio will send Gabe Ramos (6-9 overall) to battle Slaughter.
The meet against Gardner-Webb is the final one of the season for each team before each squad competes in its respective conference championships.
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Up Next…
Friday
OHIO vs. Duke & N.C. State
Saturday
OHIO at Gardner-Webb
