If Ohio’s (1-1) 27-10 loss to Wisconsin (2-0) showed anything, it showed just how much difference there is between a college in the Big Ten and a college in the Mid-American Conference. Although the Badgers came away with far more power, a few of the Bobcats’ wrestlers were able to hold their own.
Those few wrestlers include redshirt sophomore Jeremy Olszko and redshirt seniors Sal Perrine and Zayne Lehman. Out of the ten weight classes performed, they were the ones who reigned victorious over their opponents from up north.
Before Olszko performed in the 174-pound weight class, all of Ohio’s starters were either neck and neck with Wisconsin’s wrestlers or getting completely outclassed by them. For Ohio head coach Joel Greenlee, the opportunity for the Bobcats to compete against the Badgers is a testament to how tough his wrestlers are.
“I think there are probably two matches that we could have fought in a little bit longer,” Greenlee explained. “But other than that, we had a great crowd tonight, and I told our guys that we just wanted to go out there and fight as hard as we can for seven minutes.”
Speaking of which, the crowd for this dual was nothing short of incredible. An exact headcount isn’t available, but this was by far one of the highest attended wrestling matches for Ohio while performing in The Convo.
The energy of the crowd slowly rose and eventually erupted after Olszko was able to defeat Wisconsin’s redshirt senior Luke Mechler. Unlike previous duels from his teammates, Olszko took charge early against Mechler.
For context, many of the Badgers’ wrestlers often were to make the Bobcats’ wrestlers feel uncomfortable, and that led to Wisconsin scoring a lot of points early in each of the three periods.
Olszko did not let that happen to him. He made sure that he was the one to be feared on the mat, and that ultimately resulted in an 8-1 decision win for him and his team overall.
“I know he didn’t feel the best tonight, but he still got us going,” Greenlee said. “He really dominated from start to finish.”
In the 184-pound weight class, Perrine continued a streak of success for the home team. Like his teammate Olszko, Perrine knew when and where to strike versus his opponent. Representing Wisconsin in this duel was redshirt senior Cale Anderson, and he tried to do what Perrine mastered.
Perrine was patient and understood not to act flamboyantly or try to attack when he easily could’ve been taken down by Anderson. With this tactic, Perrine was able to gather a win by an 11-2 major decision.
“He’s got a huge gas tank in the sport from all different positions,” Greenlee said. “That’s what he did tonight.”
After Perrine was Lehman, who performed in the 197-pound weight class. Out of the three duels, this was the one where either side could’ve been the victor. The first period showed really a slap match and arm wrestle, if anything, between Lehman and the Badgers’ redshirt freshman Wyatt Ingham.
In the second period, that’s when Lehman took control over Ingham. At the end of the third period, Lehman would take the win by a 7-0 decision against Ingham. This would end up being Ohio’s last score of the contest.
Again, even with the loss to Wisconsin, all of Ohio’s wrestlers still obtained great one-on-one experience with some of the best wrestling competition in the country.
“Big Ten wrestling is probably the gold standard,” Greenlee said. “Those guys are pretty good at it, and maybe we need to step up a bit. Or, go back to the drawing board and work on some things. But, as far as I know, I think we are going in the right direction.”
The Bobcats don’t perform in The Convo again till January, and they close out the rest of November by participating in the Appalachian State Invitational in Boone, North Carolina.
