Buckeyes to Square Off Against Maryland and Nebraska
1/29/2020 4:52:03 PM | General
ADDITIONAL INFO
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 3 Ohio State University wrestling team (8-2, 4-1 B1G) will compete in front of a packed house Friday (Jan. 31) at 7 p.m. ET inside the Covelli Center when playing host to Maryland (2-11, 0-5 B1G). The Buckeyes then venture to Lincoln, Neb., for their third top-10 tilt in the last two weeks, a Sunday showdown versus No. 6 Nebraska (6-3, 1-3 B1G) at 1 p.m. ET.
? Free event parking is available for wrestling match attendees in the green-shaded parking lots indicated in the Covelli Center Parking Map. Fans are encouraged to arrive early as increased traffic is expected because of a concert being held at the Schottenstein Center.
MATCH NOTES
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Match Updates (via Twitter)
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Live Scoring
Match Updates (via Twitter)
HISTORY WITH THE TERRAPINS
The Buckeyes are 4-0 all-time versus Maryland, facing off four times since 2012. Friday night represents the first meeting in Columbus. Ohio State has outscored the Terrapins by a combined score of 140-27.
HISTORY WITH THE HUSKERS
Nebraska leads the series overall, 8-5, but the Buckeyes have the upperhand since the Huskers became Big Ten brethren in 2011. Ohio State is riding a three-dual winning streak and has won four of the last five meetings.
BIG TEN, USA WRESTLING AWARD SASSO
Sammy Sasso earned recognition at both the conference and national levels on Tuesday (Jan. 28), named the Big Ten Wrestler of the Week and USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week. The incoming honors were a byproduct of Sasso’s tear through the Northern Tier, taking out not one, but two top-4 opponents inside their own arenas.
Scrappin’ Sammy demonstrated next level defensive effort, thwarting any and all offensive scoring attempts from No. 1 Pat Lugo in a 2-1 tiebreaker win before erasing No. 4 Brayton Lee’s first-period takedown in a 4-2 decision. Sasso surrendered just three points in both bouts combined, a Lugo escape and the aforementioned Lee takedown.
FIRST SET OF ‘REAL’ RANKINGS
The plethora of individual national rankings that are available across the map of collegiate wrestling are fun and certainly create a large amount of fan fodder weekly, but ultimately those numbers have no bearing on NCAA Championships seeding or qualification. However, the NCAA Coaches Panel rankings are very important in that determination and the first set were released on Jan. 24. According to the 14 head coaches representing all seven D-I wrestling conferences, nine of 10 Buckeye ‘starters’ are worthy of NCAA qualification at this point as ranked inside the top-33. The list includes No. 22 Jordan Decatur (133 lbs), No. 1 Luke Pletcher (141), No. 6 Sammy Sasso (149), No. 31 Elijah Cleary (157), No. 11 Ethan Smith (165), No. 7 Kaleb Romero (174), No. 26 Rocky Jordan (184), No. 1 Kollin Moore (197) and No. 22 Gary Traub (HWT).
The second installment of NCAA Coaches Panel rankings are slated to be released on Feb. 27, as well as the first RPI rankings.
100-WIN CLUB
Fiittingly, Kollin Moore and Luke Pletcher both recorded the 100th win of their careers in the same weekend. Moore did so first on Friday (Jan. 19) night at Wisconsin before Pletcher cracked the century mark less than 48 hours later on Jan. 21 at home versus Illinois.
LUKE PLETCHER – LEVELING UP
When facing top-25 opponents this season Luke Pletcher has risen to the occasion in a big way. He’s outscored the higher-tiered competition by a combined tally of 138-55 (+83), good for a victory margin average of 7.6 points per top-25 win. That makes him less than a half point per win shy of averaging a major decision vs. nationally-ranked adversaries. Whoa.
MO(O)RE BUCKEYE BONUS POINTS
Kollin Moore has recorded bonus points in 16 of 20 bouts with seven major decisions, six tech falls and three pins. He’s averaging 15.8 points per bout (not including the pins) with a +181 point differential (269-88) in the 17 ‘non-pin’ bouts.
Moore and Luke Pletcher are slotted No. 6 & 8, respectively, in the latest FloWrestling ‘Hodge Trophy’ rankings (presented annually to the best wrestler in the country).
