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Ohio Wrestling Leaves Reno With Two Champions
< < Back to ohio-wrestling-leaves-reno-two-championsOhio wrestling competed at the 2014 Reno Tournament of Champions on Sunday, and left the “Biggest Little City in the World,” with two champions. Tywan Claxton and Cody Walters claimed titles at 149 pounds and 174, respectively.
Harrison Hightower and Sparty Chino also chipped in with top-four finishes.
Claxton won the tournament by a 3-0 decision over Coleman Hammond of CSU Bakersfield. Ohio’s 149-pounder was the top seed in his bracket, and won 6-2 in the opening round. He won 11-3 over Boise State’s Travis Himmelman in his second match. In Claxton’s third match he won a 6-0 decision and he overcame Oregon State’s Jordan Henrickson, 15-1, in the semifinal.
Walters won a 3-1 decision over Wyoming’s Andy McCulley to claim the 174 title. He opened up his day as the two seed with a 6-0 decision, and followed it up with a 1-1 sudden victory against Jordan Rogers of Oklahoma State. After advancing by medical forfeit, Walters made it to the finals with a 10-6 win over Oklahoma’s Matt Reed.
Hightower claimed third in the in 165 bracket. He pinned Ethan Hinebauch of Montana State Northern. Hightower won his first three matches, but his run in the championship bracket ended in the semifinals with a 4-0 loss to the No. 1 seed Jim Wilson of Stanford, who is also ranked 13th in the nation. Hightower bounced back with an 11-2 win over Seth Thomas of Oregon State.
Chino took fourth after falling to Max Hvolbek of Stanford, 8-0. The top-seed grabbed a tech fall in his first match against Joe Dematteo of Oregon State. He won a 5-4 decision in his second bout, and in his third match picked up another tech fall against Joe Granger of Cal Poly. In the 157 semifinal, he dropped a 6-4 contest.
Wrestling at 184 pounds for just the second time in a competition, Andrew Romanchik went 4-2 on the day. He fell in a 5-2 decision in the opening round to the eventual champion, Nolan Boyd of Oklahoma State, but he bounced back strongly in the consolation bracket with a four-match run that started with a pin and an 11-0 major decision in his first two matches. He won two more decisions against a pair of Stanford wrestlers until his run ended in a 5-1 loss to Ross Taylor of Utah Valley.
In shocking fashion, Ohio’s 13th-ranked 197-pounder and top seed Phil Wellington left Reno without a win. He was upset in the opening round by CSU Bakersfield’s Reuben Franklin in an 8-2 decision. Cal Poly’s JT Goodwin pinned Wellington in the consolation bracket in just 42 seconds.
133-pounder Kagan Squire won by default to open his day and continued it with a 3-1 decision. He lost two straight to end his day in the tournament.
Two Bobcats competed at 125, and each went 1-2. KeVon Powell and Zak Hassan wrestled and dropped their first matches, but both also pinned their respective opponent in the first matches of the consolation bracket. Hassan pinned Colby Christensen of Colorado Mesa University in 27 seconds.
Ohio also wrestled two in the heavyweight bracket, and they each also went 1-2. Zack Parker’s win came in the consolation bracket. Jesse Webb grabbed his lone win in the championship bracket.
Joel Shump, 141, and Cullen Cummings, 149, joined Wellington as the only other Bobcat grapplers to go winless. Cummings had an especially rough day, as he fell twice by pin.
The Bobcats finished fifth at the tournament with 83 team points.