No. 4 Wrestling Defeats Penn State, 20-13 – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | General, Wrestling
Feb. 16, 2002%^$
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%^$COLUMBUS, Ohio– The No. 4 Ohio State wrestling team (19-3 overall, 4-2 in the Big Ten) finished its 2001-02 home slate with a 20-13 win against the Penn State Nittany Lions (5-10 overall, 2-4 in the Big Ten). Prior to the match, the Buckeye wrestling program honored the accomplishments of its five seniors: Richie Bordner (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City), Phillip Freeman (Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio/Northrop), Josh Janson (Sr., Loveland, Ohio/Cincinnati Moeller), Nick Preston (Sr., Columbus, Ohio/DeSales) and Robert Sessley (Sr., Columbus, Ohio/Beechcroft).%^$
%^$Following a win at heavyweight and losses at 125 and 133, Ohio State was forced to overcome a 9-3 deficit. Down, 13-9, going into the final four weight classes, No. 7 John Clark (So., Canton, N.Y./Canton), Freeman, No. 17 Anton Talamantes (Jr., Ft. Wayne, Ind./Lassen J.C.), and No. 4 Preston rallied to give the Buckeyes a 20-13 victory.%^$
%^$”We were in a similar position against Wisconsin,” Russ Hellickson, OSU head coach, said. “Today we had a number of people with little punch. I’d be worried if it were the whole team, but Preston is wrestling better than ever and Rowlands is wrestling smart. I was worried our opponent would change the way we wrestle. We had to be intense and go after them and we were able to do that in the latter part of the match.”%^$
%^$The meet opened at heavyweight with OSU’s No. 2 Tommy Rowlands (So., Hilliard, Ohio/Bishop Ready) taking an 11-8 decision over Penn State’s Pat Cummings to put the Buckeyes up, 3-0. Rowlings recorded five takedowns for a total of 10 points for the Buckeyes. Penn State then tied the match at three when PSU’s Adam Smith picked up a 4-1 decision over OSU’s Jesse Leng (So., Hinckley, Ohio/Highland). The Nittany Lions kept the momentum through the next match when PSU’s Marat Tomaev defeated OSU’s No. 10 Jeff Ratliff (So., Marion, Ohio/Marion Harding) at 133 by the score of 7-3, to increase the Penn State advantage to 6-3.%^$
%^$Penn State’s No. 20 Scott Moore recorded the next decision in 141 over OSU’s Sessley, 4-2, to increase the Penn State advantage further, 9-3.%^$
%^$No. 7 Keaton Anderson (Jr., Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington) regained the momentum for the Buckeyes, winning an exciting double-overtime match over PSU’s Nate Wachter, 3-2. Anderson scored both his points during the first two periods on escapes, then held Wachter for 30 seconds in the second overtime to get the victory.%^$
%^$Clark earned his points with two takedowns and two escapes, defeating Penn State’s James Woodall at 157 in an exciting match, 6-5 to close the gap to 13-9. At 174, Freeman recorded two takedowns to help his cause, defeating PSU’s Todd Brennan, 5-2, narrowing the Penn State lead to 13-12.%^$
%^$The Buckeyes regained the lead when Talemantes recorded a major decision at 184 over PSU’s Curt Thompson, 15-7. Talamantes recorded 12 points on takedowns en route to his 17th victory of the season.%^$
%^$In the final match of the day, 197, Preston defeated PSU’s Pete Mielnik in a major decision, 14-3, giving OSU its 19th victory of the season, 20-13. Preston recorded a majority of his points on takedowns and also recorded a near fall to give him his 28th victory of the season and his last in St. John Arena.%^$
%^$The Buckeyes now look forward to their next meet at Michigan State at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22. OSU then will wrap up the regular season at No. 1 Minnesota at 2 p.m. Feb. 24.%^$
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Penn State 13 (5-10, 2-4 Big Ten)%^$No. 4 Ohio State 20 (19-3, 4 -2 Big Ten) OSU-PSU%^$* opening weight was HWT%^$285 #2 Tommy Rowlands (OSU) Dec. Pat Cummins 11-8 3 0%^$125 Adam Smith (PSU) Dec. Jesse Leng 4-1 3 3%^$133 Marat Tomaev (PSU) Dec. #10 Jeff Ratliff 7-3 3 6%^$141 #20 Scott Moore (PSU) Dec. #6 Robert Sessley 4-2 3 9%^$149 #7 Keaton Anderson (OSU) Dec. 2ot Nate Wachter 3-3 6 9%^$157 James Woodall (PSU) MDec. #8 Josh Janson 24-13 6 13%^$165 #7 John Clark (OSU) Dec. #19 Doc Vecchio 6-5 9 13%^$174 Phillip Freeman (OSU) Dec. Todd Brennan 5-2 12 13%^$184 #17 Anton Talemantes (OSU) MDec. Curt Thompson 15-7 16 13%^$197 #4 Nick Preston (OSU) MDec. Pete Mielnik 14-3 20 13%^$
