Sports

Ohio heads to MAC Championships with hopes of winning first team title since 2001

By: Marc Goldstein
Posted on: Friday, March 7, 2025

< < Back to

ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB)– The calendar has flipped to March which means that it is time for the postseason in college wrestling. Ohio will hit the road and venture to the Garden State capital, Trenton, for the MAC Championships. While there are many things at play during the course of the weekend, Ohio is looking to snap the 24-year drought without a team MAC title coming back to Athens. 

In order for the coveted team title, Ohio is going to need some major contributions from its lightweights. The theme of the season has been avoiding them in terms of duals, but that cannot be done anymore as three wrestlers will have to win some matches against the best in the conference. 

At the 125-pound class, Ryan Meek will get the nod this weekend. He had another difficult season with just one MAC win, the same number as last season. Meek will face No. 2 Noah Michaels from Rider in the first round. If past results point to a potential result, Meek will likely find himself in the consolation bracket after his first match. He will need to get some wins and earn some points for Ohio in this bracket. 

Similarly, at the 133- and 141-pound classes, TJ England and Kaden Jett had difficult seasons that saw them placed outside of the pre-seeded wrestlers in this tournament. They will face another Rider wrestler, Will Bethancourt, and Cleveland State’s Ethan Mitchel in the first round. Like Meek, they will most likely find himself in the consolation bracket after their first bout, so getting wins there will help Ohio accumulate as many team points as possible. 

Derek Raike is the true wildcard in this bracket. Despite his No. 6 preseeding, Raike has just one loss in MAC duals in his final match against Buffalo. With only three auto-bids given to the MAC (meaning only the top three placers in the conference will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships), Raike will need some upset wins to reach the Big Dance for the first time in his career. Raike received a first-round bye, but will face either Northern Illinois’s Collin Arch or George Mason’s No. 3 Kaden Cassidy. A match against Kassidy will all but decide Raike’s fate on if qualifying for NCAAs is a real possibility or a longshot that will be difficult to accomplish. 

The Bobcats are now officially without All-American Peyten Kellar for the remainder of the season. This means that Logan Cravatas, who has wrestled in every MAC dual, will be the representative for the Bobcats. Cravatas has a really tough draw against Central Michigan’s No. 1 Johnny Lovett, who defeated Cravatas when the teams met earlier this season. 

Perhaps the surprise of the proceedings came when Jack Lledo was given the No. 4 slot. Lledo had a slow start to his season, but came on strong late, albeit not against any of the other seven wrestlers ranked in the proceedings. Lledo will face Max Kirby from Edinboro in the first round, an opponent he defeated when the teams faced at The Convo. Like Raike, he will need to pull a few rabbits out of his hat in order to make the NCAA Championships in improbable fashion. 

No. 2 Garrett Thompson might have been robbed as the No. 1 ranking, but he still holds the inside track at winning a MAC title. He will not face a major challenge until the semifinals, but the expectation for Thompson should be a MAC title. The biggest threat standing in his way is Alex Cramer from Central Michigan, who holds a 3-1 advantage over Thompson. That being said, Thompson got an emphatic win over Cramer when the two met in February. 

At the 184-pound class, No. 5 Jeremy Olszko sits right outside of an at-large bid. In order to fully secure that, he will likely have to win a minimum of two matches in the Championship bracket. He gets a first-round bye before potentially facing Buffalo’s No. 4 Marcus Petite, who defeated Olszko in the most recent dual and also sits just outside of the at-large rankings. 

Austin Starr’s season at the 197-pound class has been bizarre. He started the season in the upper echelon of the conference at his weight and now finds himself unranked in the conference tournament. Starr will have a tough road, but he has the talent and past pedigree to make a run if he is on his A-game. 

Finally, Jordan Greer rounds out the Bobcat lineup and also has a very strong chance at winning a MAC title. He is the No. 1 seed and will look to emulate the dominance that he showcased all season. Greer held a perfect record in duals and MAC bouts, something he wishes to continue into the postseason. 

Ohio will only go as far as its weakest links will allow it to this weekend. If the lightweights can muster some wins and points for Ohio, there is a real chance for it to win a team title in Trenton. With the strength of its roster elsewhere, the odds of a trophy making its way back to Athens, like it has all season, will hinge on the lightweights.