Youth seems to be playing a key role in the Bobcats’ wrestling season already, as six underclassmen walked away from the Michigan State Open with top five finishes. The squad looks to build off Sunday’s success as they head to Annapolis, Md. for the Navy Classic on Saturday.
Ohio coach Joel Greenlee expects a very enthusiastic effort from his young squad in its third meet of the season.
“I think those guys are excited, (and) I think they’re ready to wrestle,” Greenlee said. “I think last weekend fueled their fire as far as having success. Now they’re thinking, ‘Hey I can win matches at this level; this is what I have to do to get better, and be one of the best at this level.’ ”
The Bobcats head to Annapolis intending to keep up their momentum from their last meet — especially amongst their younger grapplers, Greenlee said.
“I think one of the hard things when you’re young is being consistent,” he said. “That’s our goal — to have them be consistent. Our goal is to keep them as consistent as we can; I realize they’re going to make mistakes, but make them one at a time.”
The youth of many wrestlers helped the Bobcats show a valiant effort at the Michigan State Open. Redshirt freshmen Cody Walters and Phil Wellington won their respective weight classes and showed significant leadership despite their youth.
“A lot of our guys were redshirt guys or freshman last year, and didn’t wrestle at all,” Greenlee said. “But, you see a guy like Cody Walters becoming a bigger leader than he was last year; a lot of it is just because hey, he’s the varsity guy now. Andrew Romanchik is in the same boat, and so is Harrison Hightower.”
The weekend will be yet another test to what the Bobcats can accomplish and whether their youth will either help or hinder their results.
Greenlee said one of his goals at this point in the season is to see continual improvement through hitting the mat hard heading into the weekend.
“You want to improve from last week, you want to go and compete hard, and wrestle hard,” he said. “I think the two things we’ve told our team this week that we can control is the intensity in which we wrestle and our conditioning. Those are the two things we want to kind of work on, and hang our hat on the entire year.
UP NEXT:
Navy Classic
Annapolis, Md.
10 a.m. Saturday
