The Ohio Bobcats (4-3, 1-2 in the Mid-American Conference) traveled to DeKalb, Illinois, to take on the Northern Illinois Huskies (7-5, 3-0 in MAC), where it came down to the last match in a tight 20-17 loss.
The Bobcats were coming off a tough loss to Southern Illinois Edwardsville University at home in The Convo, while the Huskies looked to continue their hot streak in the MAC. They are currently undefeated in conference and have won three straight matches, all against MAC opponents.
Northern Illinois came out firing, grabbing three decisions early. Starting with wins in the 125 class with Blake West defeating freshman Brayden Tennuissen 4-0, followed by Markel Baker defeating junior Ryan Meek 10-3 and Deuce Curtis defeating sophomore Kolten Baker in a tight 4-2 match in 141, to hold a 9-0 lead early.
Ohio would answer back with back-to-back wins. Starting with an overtime 4-1 sudden victory from 149-pound redshirt junior Paul Woo.
Redshirt junior Derek Raike followed it up with a dominant 20-8 major decision over Landen Johnson, cutting the NIU lead to 9-8 headed into the middle weights.
Northern Illinois put the pressure back on with back-to-back decisions. Brett Smith took home the first decision for NIU over redshirt junior Jack Lledo in a tight 2-0 win to the final whistle. Tommy Bennett brought that momentum into his match against 10th-ranked redshirt senior Garrett Thompson in a shocking 6-5 decision in favor of Bennett. Putting the Huskies ahead 15-8 with three matches to go.
The Bobcats wouldn’t go away without a fight, with back-to-back technical falls from redshirt seniors Zayne Lehman (22-5) and Sal Perrine (20-4) putting the Bobcats ahead 17-15 headed into the 285 match. The seniors had been great all year, and they were again against the Huskies, keeping the Bobcats in it.
The match fell into the hands of sophomore Wyatt Schmitt, facing 27th-ranked Devon Dawson. Dawson dominated in a tech fall victory of 23-6, giving NIU a 20-17 victory.
The loss comes at a tough point in the season for the team, as it currently sits at just 1-2 in MAC play at this point in the season.
The Bobcats are in the thick of their conference schedule, and the slow start against MAC competition could be tough to overcome, especially with the next three matches all coming on the road away from Athens.
Ohio will continue its road trip heading to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to take on Central Michigan next Friday at 7 p.m. The game is available on ESPN+.
