#4 Ohio State Derails #14 Rutgers Early Charge!

The #4 Buckeyes hosted the traveling #14 Scarlet Knights Monday evening for their home finale on the 2016-2017 season. The dual began with a highly contested matchup between 4X NJ State Champ and 2X NCAA All-American, #6 Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers against the surging youngin' out of LaTrobe, PA #15 Luke Pletcher. Ashnault got an early takedown to start the contest along with a 4-point near-fall from a tight waste tilt to give himself an early lead out front in the 1st period and would eventually route him to a Major Decision victory; and set the Scarlet Knights up 4.

Poster boy of the night, #5 Micah Jordan responded back for the Buckeyes, aggressively attacking #14 Ken Theobold from the start to the very last seconds-where he earned a takedown and a riding time point to knot the dual score up a 4 with a major decision victory over his #5 ranked opponent this season at the 149 pound weight. At the next weight up, Josh Powell competing for his first time as a Buckeye in a varsity dual, but did not score a point against Rutgers Rs. So. #18 John Van Brill in a 17-0 shout out result. The 4th match of the night landed at the 165 pound class, where Cody Burcher of the Bucks fringed by Anthony Pafumi, to inch Ohio States score higher.

From the sight of Bo Jordan in his sneakers from the start, unfortunately we knew he was going to be a no go once again. Instead at 174 pounds, Justin Kresevic stepped in to suffer a 7-1 defeat over Jordan Pagano. Pagano, who now picked up his 23rd victory on the season continues to improve as the season progresses. 

Following intermission, two ranked opponents clashed as Ohio States #10 Myles Martin faced off against the deceiving #13 Nicholas Gravina. Martin was robbed of 2 points at the edge of the mat but that did not halt My-Mar's momentum scoring 9 points, however 1 point short of the Major Decision!  

“Riding sometimes can be viewed as a lot of energy for not a lot of points, and tonight (Martin) put him down three or four times, and then one time he caught him between his legs and ended up picking up back points for it, and that’s just tough wrestling,” Head Coach Tom Ryan said.

At 197 pounds, Freshmen work horse Kollin Moore did not waste any time dumping Correnti of Rutgers to the mat several times and then at the waning seconds of the bout, Moore dominately edged out another takedown to put an exclamation point on his Major decision victory! The next bout called for the big boys as the St.John Arena floors shook when Razohnn Gross for Rutgers walked out to face 2016 Oylmpic Gold Medalist, Kyle Snyder. Snyder picked apart Gross and racked up an impressive technical fall and his 8th victory by bonus points this season!

At 125 pounds, the Buckeyes forfeited to former PBurg Stateliner out of Jersey Brandon Paetzell, while #18 Jose Rodriguez was out still milking his injury. The forfeit put the bout at 19-18 favoring OSU heading into the final matchup. The final match of the evening, #1 Nathan Tomasello (13-0) got out to a quick 2-0 lead from a takedown and two back points after cruised from there, scoring three more points in the period to jump out to a 7-3 lead and eventually took down NCAA Qualifier Scott Delvecchio of Rutgers 15-5. 

The Buckeyes conclude the result to earn the 4th win on the series between Ohio State vs Rutgers Wrestling (4-0 all-time OSU). Ohio State will return to action twice next weekend when they travel to No. 5 Nebraska on Friday and No. 10 Minnesota on Sunday.

The loss was Rutgers' second in its last six bouts since losing at Penn State on Jan. 13. The Scarlet Knights will return to action Sunday (12 p.m., BTN Plus), hosting Big Ten-foe Northwestern (6-6, 1-5) in its regular-season finale at the Rutgers Athletic Center and should draw a loud crowd!

No. 4 Ohio State 23, No. 14 Rutgers 18 | St. John Arena | Columbus, Ohio
Records: Ohio State 9-2, 5-2; Rutgers 11-4, 4-3 | Attendance: 2,083
141: #6 Anthony Ashnault (RU) major decision over #15 Luke Pletcher (OSU) 10-1 | RU 4, OSU 0
149: #5 Micah Jordan (OSU) major decision over #14 Ken Theobold (RU) 12-4 | RU 4, OSU 4
157: #18 John Van Brill (RU) technical fall over Josh Powell (OSU) 17-0 | RU 9, OSU 4
165: Cody Burcher (OSU) decision over Anthony Pafumi (RU) 7-5 | RU 9, OSU 7
174: Jordan Pagano (RU) decision over Justin Kresevic (OSU) 7-1 | RU 12, OSU 7
184: #10 Myles Martin (OSU) decision over #13 Nicholas Gravina (RU) 9-2 | RU 12, OSU 10
197: #4 Kollin Moore (OSU) major decision over Matt Correnti (RU) 16-8 | OSU 14, RU 12
HWT: #1 Kyle Snyder (OSU) technical fall over Razohnn Gross (RU) 24-9 | OSU 19, RU 12
125: Brandon Paetzell (RU) won by forfeit | OSU 19, RU 18
133: #1 Nathan Tomasello (OSU) major decision over Scott DelVecchio (RU) 15-5 | OSU 23, RU 18










THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!! 

Best, RON JOHN RINALDI