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Photo Cred: Ohio Athletics

Ohio Wrestling Extend Winning Streak

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Faced with the challenge of wrestling two matches within a few hours, the Ohio Bobcats rose to the challenge, sweeping the Cleveland State Vikings and the Gardner Webb Bulldogs to push their winning streak to seven straight matches.

Ohio topped Cleveland State 31-11 and Gardner-Webb 22-13 at Paul Porter Arena in Boiling Springs, N.C.

“This is the time of the year you need to be confident, this is the time of the year you need to go out and get after it, and score points,” Coach Joel Greenlee said. “That’s what we did today. We went out and took what we wanted.”

The day began with an Ohio pin over Cleveland State, getting the team in a groove to win a dual that looked like a mismatch in terms of skill level.

The Gardner-Webb match was much closer, as Ohio had to use the final few matches to seal the victory. Barely up 10-9 going into the final matches, Ohio ripped off three straights wins.

Freshman Shakur Laney is making a name for himself around campus with the way he’s wrestled to close out the season. He was able to pin Cleveland State’s Nick DeRosa with 0:33 left in the first period and scored an escape at the last second to top Gardner-Webb’s Cortez Starkes. With the two wins he moves to 21-8 on the season and is poised to make a run in his first postseason tournament.

Sophomore 141lb Noah Forrider came out and showed why he will be a name to keep an eye on come next season. The sophomore came out swinging in his first match against Cleveland State’s Mike Carlone, hitting an inside trip, allowing an escape and hitting another single leg. He recorded another takedown and escape in each of the last two periods to win 11-7. He hit a double leg on Gardner-Webb’s Ryan Hull right out of the gate and continued to push for a 15-5 major decision victory.

Just like he’s done for the past four years, No. 24 Spartak Chino had impressive performances out of the 157lb class, putting three on the board for Ohio in both his matches. Against Cleveland State’s John Vaughn, he scored a pair of takedowns in the first before completely taking over the match in the second, winning in the third by a tech fall, 20-5.

Going against Gardner Webb’s Ryan Mosley proved to be much tougher for Chino. With a takedown, reversal, and escape right out of the gate to put Chino up 3-2. The match came down to split decision by the refs when a possible game winning takedown by Mosley had to be reviewed. Chino got the benefit of the decision and walked away with the 4-3 win.

Saturday could be called just another day at the office for No. 10 Cody Walters in the 174lb class. He extended his current match winning streak to seven with a 6-3 decision over Gardner-Webb’s Brett Stein. He improved to 22-3 on the season and looks poised for the upcoming tournament.

No. 13 Phil Wellington of the 197lb class split his decision on the day. He dropped a 6-4 decision in overtime to Cleveland State’s Sam Wheeler, but he didn’t let the loss take away from his second match. Wellington came out and totally dominated Gardner Webb’s Gray Jonas, ending the match with a pin 2:16 into the match. It was his win over Jonas that sealed Ohio’s win over Gardner-Webb and sweep of the weekend series.

Ohio freshman Cameron Kelly reportedly sat out the weekend because of an illness.

Ohio’s next challenge will come in Washington D.C. for the February 19 match against the American University Eagles.