Sports

Logan Riely | WOUB

Ohio Wrestling Set for Cleveland State and Gardner-Webb

By:
Posted on:

< < Back to

In the final big test of the regular season, the Ohio Bobcats will travel to Boiling Springs, North Carolina to wrestle two duals within a few hours of each other Saturday.

The second tri meter match since the first weekend of November pits the Bobcats against the Cleveland State Vikings and Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, two non conference opponents.

A week after the 25-13 win over Old Dominion, the Bobcats will be looking to tack a couple more wins to their lengthy five-match winning streak.

Currently ranked fourth in the MAC standings, the Bobcats will need to win out their final matches and hope for some help from a few other teams to climb a few more spots before the season ends.

Freshman Cameron Kelly continues to climb the weekly Intermat rankings. He is now up to No. 14 in the 133lb class with his seven-match winning streak. Kelly is also coming off a 16-0 technical fall win against Old Dominion.

Redshirt seniors Cody Walters and Phil Wellington are looking to build upon their already impressive rankings on Intermat as well.

Walters is up to No. 9 in the 174lb class after adding another pair of wins against Old Dominion and the deciding match against Northern Iowa the week before. He’s up to six in a row now and looking to add to it.

Wellington checks in at No. 13 after his dominating performance against Old Dominion, a 21-8 major decision win that should keep the momentum going for his two Saturday matches.

With the final regular season matches of their college careers coming up quickly, Walters and Wellington, along with fellow redshirt seniors Sparty Chino and Andrew Romanchik, will be fighting harder than ever to close out their regular season college careers on a good note before tournament time comes.

Cleveland State, wrestling out of the Eastern Wrestling League, has a 7-5 dual record that includes a narrow loss to Ohio State earlier this year. It will be the first dual meet for the Vikings in about two weeks.

Gardner-Webb, on the other hand, is having the best season in school history. Coming off a 50-0 shutout of Davidson in the Southern Conference, the team has set the school record for dual wins this season (eight).

This weekend represents the last remaining test for the Bobcats as a team and will tell if they can get the push they need to jump up in the MAC standings.

Wrestling begins at 11 a.m. against Cleveland State and picks back up at 2 p.m. for the Gardner-Webb matchup.