No. 15 Rutgers men's wrestling loses 19-14 in competitive duel against No. 6 Ohio State
Two early major decisions were offset by back-to-back upsets of freshman 184-pounder John Poznanski and graduate student 197-pounder Greg Bulsak, as the Rutgers wrestling team lost to No. 6 Ohio State 19-14 on Sunday at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus. The Scarlet Knights (13-5, 2-4) took 4 of 10 matches in the dual, with 3 of those 4 coming in the first half of the meet.
The afternoon began with a defeat, as freshman 125-pounder Dylan Shawver lost a 5-3 decision to No. 10 Malik Heinselman. Shawver trailed 2-1 early before conceding an escape point in the second and a takedown in the final period.
Rutgers rebounded quickly with back-to-back major decisions. First, 18th ranked freshman 133-pounder Joseph Olivieri scored 8 points in the final 2 periods to seal a 10-2 major decision against Brady Koontz.
Third-ranked graduate student 141-pounder Sebastian Rivera followed up with a 20-6 major decision against 20th ranked Dylan D’Emilio. Rivera scored 12 of his 20 points in the third period, and the Knights opened up an 8-3 team lead through three matches.
Sixteenth-ranked fifth-year 157-pounder Michael VanBrill dropped a 6-3 decision to second-ranked Sammy Sasso, who took the lead with a 3-0 final period after a tied match through two periods. Rutgers responded quickly, with freshman 157-pounder Robert Kanniard eking out a tight 6-4 decision over Issac Wilcox to head into the intermission with an 11-6 Knights lead.
Coming out of the break, freshman 149-pounder Andrew Clark rode a strong third period to defeat Kevon Freeman 6-3. Clark and Freeman were tied at 2 points through the first two periods, but Clark battled to seal the win.
That would be the final win of the day for Rutgers, who would drop their final four bouts of the dual. At 174 pounds, freshman Connor O’Neill faced a top 10 opponent in seventh-ranked Ethan Smith, who dominated from start to finish in a 19-8 major decision.
That was followed by back-to-back top ten upsets, as Poznanski saw a 3-1 lead evaporate in the final period in a 4-3 decision to unranked Rocky Jordan. Bulsak found himself tied 2-2 through three periods, but he couldn’t finish in overtime as 21st-ranked Gavin Hoffman came away with the 4-2 decision in the second sudden victory period. This gave the Buckeyes their first team lead since the opening match.
Freshman 285-pounder Boone McDermott had a chance to give the Knights a team victory with a decision, but an early 1-0 lead was answered with a 6-1 run by 13th-ranked Tate Orndorff to win the final match.
With the defeat, Rutgers is likely to finish below .500 in Big Ten action, as they will host Maryland on Saturday in their conference finale.
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