Sports
Ohio Wins First Home Dual Meet
By: Rachel Cherry
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Ohio wrestling won its first home dual meet against Eastern Michigan on Jan 8th. The Bobcats won six out of the 10 bouts, defeating the Eagles 19-12.
The biggest match of the night came at 197 pounds between Phil Wellington and Anthony Abro. This was a rematch for Wellington, who is ranked 14th in the nation. Wellington lost devastatingly to Abro, who is ranked 20th in the nation, in last year’s NCAA Wrestling Championships. This time around, Wellington defeated Abro in a dominating 8-3 match.
“I’ve beaten him about four or five times already. So losing to him, especially in the most important time in my career at that point, was very pivotal for my career. I felt so much better about myself and my skills as a wrestler and my drive,” Wellington said.
Even though the dual meet was exciting at times, head coach Joel Greenlee thought that the Bobcats left some points of the scoreboard. “We looked a little bit tentative tonight, and I think it’s hard to win when you do that. You have to wrestle as hard as you can for seven minutes,” Greenlee said.
Freshmen Shakur Laney and Cameron Kelly started off the Bobcats with two wins. At 125, Laney beat Armand Torres 8-3, while Cameron Kelly, ranked 19th in the nation, won his 133 bout against Blake Caudil 18-6.
Ohio lost the next two matches with Noah Forrider losing to Kyle Springer 14-6 and Cullen Cummings losing 6-2 to Nick Barber. Later in the match, Austin Reese (165) and Phil Webb (HWT) also lost their matches.
Despite the other loses, 157 pounder Sparty Chino, 174 pounder Cody Walters, and 184 pounder Andrew Romanchik helped out the Bobcats with wins in their respective bouts.
This dual meet win makes the Bobcats 5-1 in the season, and they are currently ranked 21st in NCAA rankings. Their next match will be on Sunday at Central Michigan University, who is ranked 16th in the nation, at 2 pm.