Ohio showed the good and the bad at Northern Illinois’ “Beauty and the Beast” meet, featuring both the Huskies’ wrestling and gymnastics teams competing in Dekalb, Illinois, on Sunday afternoon.
The Bobcats were able to complete a 12-point comeback, as they found themselves down 15-3 after the first four matches. Ohio then won five of the last six, including all of the last four to win the dual 21-18.
Redshirt junior Zac Carson was the first to get on the board for the Bobcats, winning 3-2 over Northern Illinois’ Mason Kauffman. This gave Ohio a 3-0 lead after the first bout.
Ohio then came back in the next three bouts showing the “beast” side of the event.
Northern Illinois capitalized on errors by redshirt sophomore Ben Schneider and redshirt senior Arsen Ashughyan, giving the Huskies a 15-3 advantage.
Aside from one loss from Zack Parker, Ohio was able to win tough matches down the stretch to swing the momentum in their favor. After that bout, the Bobcats showed the “beauty,“ needing just three bouts to tie the score at 18 each.
Perhaps the most important matchup of the day came in that stretch, when senior Cam Kelly got a huge fall which gave Ohio the 6 team points it needed to pull even in the match.
Redshirt freshman Alec Hagan pulled out a nail-biting victory over McCoy Kent in double overtime, which gave Ohio the 21-18 win.
Next weekend Ohio will take on Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The Bobcats will look to improve to 3-1 in Mid-American Conference play.
