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Ohio State Wrestling: Mendez a champ, Buckeyes settle for fifth at the 2024 Big Ten Championships
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK
While certain Buckeyes performed very well individually, the team’s slow start led to a mediocre finish.
Seeking the program’s first top-3 (team) finish at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships since 2020, Ohio State stumbled out of the gates this past weekend and, unfortunately, never even challenged the likes of Penn State, Michigan, and/or Nebraska.
Instead, the Buckeyes finished in fifth place, 81.5(!) points behind the Nittany Lions, who earned their second Big Ten Championship in a row and eighth overall.
The tournament got off to an ominous start for OSU, as Tom Ryan’s squad lost four of its first five individual matches — a rough stretch that included a surprising upset of Nic Bouzakis at 133 pounds.
Bouzakis, a 3-seed for the Buckeyes, was up big in his match with 14-seed Brody Teske of Iowa but surrendered several points in the third period to let victory slip away. Bouzakis rebounded with a win in his second match, but then dropped his third, eliminating him from both the tournament and contention for an automatic NCAA bid.
Brendan McCrone (125) and Bryce Hepner (165) also struggled over the weekend, losing all four of their combined matches. Both were 8-seeds going in, but had potential to finish much higher, as evidenced by McCrone’s regular season upsets of No. 1 and No. 4 in the country, as well as Hepner’s No. 12 national ranking. But neither was able to get anything going, leading to a pair of quick and early exits.
Despite the team’s disappointing finish, there were still some impressive individual highlights for Ohio State, including 141-pounder Jesse Mendez capturing the program’s 58th individual Big Ten title.
He capped off an outstanding tournament with back-to-back victories over Iowa’s Real Woods and Penn State’s Beau Bartlett, who have four All-American nods and an NCAA runner-up finish between them. Already viewed as a national contender, Mendez may now be the odds-on favorite (in his weight class) to win OSU’s first individual NCAA Championship since 2018.
Heavyweight Nick Feldman and 174-pounder Rocco Welsh also impressed for the Buckeyes, finishing second and third, respectively. Both are in their first season competing for the Scarlet and Gray and have proven to be stars in the making. They will likely head to the National Championships in Kansas City as top-5 or top-10 seeds in their respective weight classes.
But strictly from a team perspective, the Big Ten Championships were a bit of a disappointment for Ohio State. Ryan’s guys entered with high expectations and achieved only mediocre results — mediocre for such a talented group, that is. Thus the top-3 drought continues for the Buckeyes, who will now turn their collective attention toward the NCAAs, beginning March 21.
Ohio State will be well-represented in KC, with nine Buckeyes set to compete: Seven automatic qualifiers from the Big Ten Championships, plus Bouzakis and McCrone, who earned two of the 47 at-large spots. There, OSU will be looking to finish the season strong and potentially even match their Big Ten finish, which is exactly what they did last season (4th at both postseason tourneys).
While a top-5 national finish might sound like a longshot given the team’s most recent performance, keep in mind that this year’s Big Ten Championships featured 7 of the top 14-ranked teams in the country. The NCAAs are another step up, but here’s hoping Ohio State can replicate some of their regular season success.
Go Bucks!
Continue reading...
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK
While certain Buckeyes performed very well individually, the team’s slow start led to a mediocre finish.
Seeking the program’s first top-3 (team) finish at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships since 2020, Ohio State stumbled out of the gates this past weekend and, unfortunately, never even challenged the likes of Penn State, Michigan, and/or Nebraska.
Instead, the Buckeyes finished in fifth place, 81.5(!) points behind the Nittany Lions, who earned their second Big Ten Championship in a row and eighth overall.
The tournament got off to an ominous start for OSU, as Tom Ryan’s squad lost four of its first five individual matches — a rough stretch that included a surprising upset of Nic Bouzakis at 133 pounds.
Bouzakis, a 3-seed for the Buckeyes, was up big in his match with 14-seed Brody Teske of Iowa but surrendered several points in the third period to let victory slip away. Bouzakis rebounded with a win in his second match, but then dropped his third, eliminating him from both the tournament and contention for an automatic NCAA bid.
Brendan McCrone (125) and Bryce Hepner (165) also struggled over the weekend, losing all four of their combined matches. Both were 8-seeds going in, but had potential to finish much higher, as evidenced by McCrone’s regular season upsets of No. 1 and No. 4 in the country, as well as Hepner’s No. 12 national ranking. But neither was able to get anything going, leading to a pair of quick and early exits.
Despite the team’s disappointing finish, there were still some impressive individual highlights for Ohio State, including 141-pounder Jesse Mendez capturing the program’s 58th individual Big Ten title.
He capped off an outstanding tournament with back-to-back victories over Iowa’s Real Woods and Penn State’s Beau Bartlett, who have four All-American nods and an NCAA runner-up finish between them. Already viewed as a national contender, Mendez may now be the odds-on favorite (in his weight class) to win OSU’s first individual NCAA Championship since 2018.
Heavyweight Nick Feldman and 174-pounder Rocco Welsh also impressed for the Buckeyes, finishing second and third, respectively. Both are in their first season competing for the Scarlet and Gray and have proven to be stars in the making. They will likely head to the National Championships in Kansas City as top-5 or top-10 seeds in their respective weight classes.
But strictly from a team perspective, the Big Ten Championships were a bit of a disappointment for Ohio State. Ryan’s guys entered with high expectations and achieved only mediocre results — mediocre for such a talented group, that is. Thus the top-3 drought continues for the Buckeyes, who will now turn their collective attention toward the NCAAs, beginning March 21.
Ohio State will be well-represented in KC, with nine Buckeyes set to compete: Seven automatic qualifiers from the Big Ten Championships, plus Bouzakis and McCrone, who earned two of the 47 at-large spots. There, OSU will be looking to finish the season strong and potentially even match their Big Ten finish, which is exactly what they did last season (4th at both postseason tourneys).
While a top-5 national finish might sound like a longshot given the team’s most recent performance, keep in mind that this year’s Big Ten Championships featured 7 of the top 14-ranked teams in the country. The NCAAs are another step up, but here’s hoping Ohio State can replicate some of their regular season success.
Go Bucks!
Continue reading...