Sports
Wrestling: Bobcats Hold On For Win Against Clarion
By: Nathan Takitch
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The Ohio University wrestling team used two crucial pins to capture their third consecutive win, defeating a stingy Clarion Golden Eagles squad in Clarion, Pa. by a final of 24-18.
In a match filled with momentum swings, the Bobcat grapplers twice built sizeable leads, only to see the Golden Eagles narrow the margin.
But in the end, Harrison Hightower’s pin of Nick Milano at 165 and redshirt junior Jeremy Johnson’s pin of Phil Catrucco towards the end of the match at 285 sealed the win for the Bobcats.
The No. 16-ranked Johnson improved his season record to an impressive 26-8 with the pin, which came in 1:49.
Ohio’s standout redshirt freshman Cody Walters also improved his team-best record to 28-2 with a narrow 2-1 victory against Ryan Darch in a match at 174 that came down to Walters’ advantage in riding time.
Joseph Munoz, Kagan Squire and Andrew Romanchik each recorded decision wins to open the match and gave the Bobcat grapplers an early 9-0 lead.
However, momentum shifted in favor of Clarion when No. 4-ranked James Fleming earned his 117th career victory by forfeit, pulling the score to 9-6.
After Hightower and Walters’ wins in the next two matches, the Golden Eagles won their next two boughts to bring the score to 18-15 before Johnson effectively put the match out of reach.
The Bobcats improved their overall team record to 7-5 with the grueling road victory. Meanwhile, the Clarion Golden Eagles fell to 3-8 with the loss.
Ohio will look to extend their winning streak to four matches when they travel to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 3 p.m.