Ohio will wrestle American in its last meet of the regular season.
Home or away, Ohio's wrestlers have the same routine every morning on the day of a match.
They get together around 10:30 a.m. for a “roll around,” or a way to move around and warmup.
After that, players are given the opportunity to work out by themselves to cut a couple pounds before weigh in.
Once the wrestlers are cleared for weigh in, it is time to focus on the match.
Friday at American University will be the last time four Ohio (12-3, 5-3 Mid-American Conference) wrestlers will take part in that routine. Ohio goes into its last regular season dual meet riding a seven-match win streak.
Phil Wellington, Spartak Chino, Andrew Romanchik and Cody Walters will never participate in a regular season dual meet for the Bobcats again.
As cliché as it may sound, the four have contributed to the program to get it to where it is today. Coach Joel Greenlee called them the "best class he has ever had."
At the moment, Greenlee doesn’t feel like being too nostalgic. He plans to keep the focus on winning Friday in Washington D.C.
“The end of the year is supposed to be fun,” Greenlee said. “Being a Mid-American Champion and an All-American is a life goal for a lot of these guys. So we have to put them in a position to do that.”
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Freshmen Cam Kelly and Shakur Laney have watched and learned from the four redshirt seniors this season. And though the freshmen have wrestled well, they are successors to a precedent set by Greenlee's "best class."
“How you build a program is by taking the little things, what they leave behind, and you build on it,” Kelly said. “They have done some extraordinary things here and hopefully I can leave a legacy behind like they did.”
As much as Greenlee wants to focus on American University and the MAC Championships, he will have to eventually embrace the fact his four redshirt seniors are graduating soon.
Walters said Greenlee was their second father for four years and has inspired them, which is something Greenlee isn't trying to think about just yet.
“I’m really proud of what those guys have accomplished," Greenlee said. "I hate to see them go. I haven’t looked at it as the end of the road yet because we still have MAC and NCAA’s.”
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