The Ohio wrestling team opened its conference schedule in the same fashion as last season: with a decisive win over Eastern Michigan.
All but three Bobcats tallied wins against their opponents in the 32-10 win, including Jake Percival (157-pound weight class), who overcame a shoulder injury in his previous meet to remain undefeated.
It didn't bother me at all
Percival said. I tried not to favor it and it's feeling pretty good. As long as it's feeling better I'm just going to keep doing the rehab until I don't notice it at all. Hopefully it won't be a problem after this (meet).
Jeremiah Beltran (HWT) also entered the meet after missing matches due to a two-week break tending to family business. But, like Percival, he managed to bounce back as he won with a pin at 3:58.
I was working hard since the beginning of the year but I was gone for these two weeks and thought I'd be out of shape. But it didn't take me long to get back to where I was
he said. Overall I think our team is looking really good. We've been working our butts off and it's really helping out.
Other wins included Matt Franklin (125) by forfeit, Anthony Carrizales (133) 14-6, Jon Spires (141) 10-8 in overtime, Mike Allen (149) 5-4 and Joel Weimer (197) by technical fall.
Ed Willis (174), who has been one of the more consistent wrestlers of the season, fell to his opponent 4-3, losing two points because of a reversal in the final 10 seconds, he said.
I was just a little out of shape and let it slip away from me mentally
he said. I hadn't felt good the last couple weeks. I've been concentrating on getting healthy and not going as hard as everyone else. And it really shows on the mat.
Travis Smith (184) and Vinny DiGiovanni (174), who fell to ranked opponent J.J. Holmes, also came up on the short end, losing 11-4 and 15-4 respectively.
In the losses we didn't perform badly
we just didn't perform great
coach Joel Greenlee said. I think we wrestled well and all the guys we lost to are pretty tough.
The Bobcats resume conference play when they take the mat at 10 a.m. Sunday when they travel to Ashland for the Wendy's Duals.
17
Archives
Kyle Jepson
