Wrestling to Compete at NCAA Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | General, Wrestling
March 17, 2003
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State wrestling team (12-7, 4-4), ranked 9th in the latest NWCA wrestling poll, closed out the 2003 Big Ten season at the conference championships on March 8 and 9 at the University of Wisconsin, where seven Buckeyes earned qualifying bids to the NCAA Championships held March 20-22 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Junior HWT Tommy Rowlands will be in search of his second-consecutive NCAA title.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE When: Thursday, March 20 through Saturday, March 22
Event Schedule: Thursday: First Round – 11 a.m. Preliminaries – 6:30 p.m. Friday: Quarterfinals – 10 a.m. Semifinals – 5:30 p.m. Saturday: Consolation Semis – 8 a.m. Finals – 2:30 p.m.
Where: Kemper Arena – Kansas City, Mo.
OHIO STATE QUALIFIERS
141- Jeff Ratliff (Jr., Marion, Ohio)
157- Keaton Anderson (Sr., Pickerington, Ohio)
165- John Clark (Jr., Canton, N.Y.)
174- Blake Kaplan (Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio)
184- Casey Kapustka (Sr., Centerville, Ohio)
197- Anton Talamantes (Sr., Ft. Wayne, Ind.)
HWT- Tommy Rowlands (Jr., Hilliard, Ohio)
THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS – RECAP
Ohio State’s aspirations to claim the 2003 Big Ten team championship were damaged when top-seed Keaton Anderson was forced to accept a medical default following a victory in the quarterfinals at 157 pounds. Anderson, who suffered the injury midway through his 8-5 decision over Indiana’s Clovis Crane, fell to a sixth place finish to net Ohio State 10 team points.
Nonetheless, Ohio State still made a push at the team title as the squad sent five wrestlers into Saturday night’s semifinal bouts, where junior Tommy Rowlands advanced to his third-straight Big Ten final at HWT, while 141 Jeff Ratliff, 174 Blake Kaplan and 197 Anton Talamantes each fell in tight matches to fall into the consolation brackets.
On Sunday, Ratliff battled Michigan State’s Ryan L’Amoreaux in the consolation semis. Ratliff scored a 2-point take down late into the second period and held on for the 9-3 victory and the right to wrestle for third place at 141, where he faced Tyler Laudon of Wisconsin. Ratliff built his lead to 7-2 en route to capturing third place with a 13-2 decision.
After dropping his quarterfinal match, 165 John Clark rallied for two wins in the consolation bracket over Wisconsin’s Kelly Flaherty via major decision and No. 6 Jason Erwinski of Northwestern scoring a fall at 5:34. Clark locked up with Purdue’s Oscar Santiago Sunday for a chance to wrestle in the third place match. Clark was the first to score with an escape to start the second period and combined a 2-point takedown for the 3-0 edge heading into the third period, where Clark held off a late Santiago push for the 4-3 victory.
Clark moved to the third place match where he took on No. 5 Doc Vecchio of Penn State. Vecchio and Clark headed to the third period with Vecchio clinging to a 4-3 lead. In the third and deciding stanza, Clark knotted the score at 4-4 with an escape and added a take down en route to capturing third place with a 7-4 decision after the one-point addition for riding time.
Kaplan, seeded No. 3 at 174, posted a decision win in the quarterfinals, but lost a tough 3-2 match in the semifinals to fall to the consolation bracket where he met Michigan State’s Rashad Evans in the consolation semifinal round. Kaplan fell to a 2-point deficit midway through the third period, before ultimately dropping the contest 5-0. Kaplan moved to the fifth place match where he jumped to a 4-0 lead before scoring a fall over Brady Reinke of Wisconsin.
At 197, No. 4 seed Talamantes fell to the consolation bracket after a loss to top seed Nik Fekete of Michigan State in Saturday’s semifinal. He faced Ryan Cummins of Penn State for the right to wrestle for third Sunday. The two grappled through a scoreless first period before Talamantes claimed a 1-0 lead with an escape, but Cummins retaliated with a 2-point take down for the 2-1 edge heading to the final stanza, where each wrestled to a 5-5 stalemate, before Cummins combined an escape and a take down to claim the 8-5 win.
With the loss, Talamantes moved on to compete in the fifth place match versus Lee Kraemer of Wisconsin. The lead changed hands several times in the first period as Talamantes rode a 4-3 edge into the second period and extended his lead to 10-5 before scoring a fall with just :01 remaining in the match to claim fifth place and a berth in the NCAA Championships.
OSU’s Casey Kapustka advanced through the consolation bracket at 184 pounds following a defeat in the quarterfinals with decision wins over Brendan Curran of Northwestern and Ben Wissel of Illinois. Kapustka will wrestle Pete Freidl of Illinois, seeded fifth, for a shot at the third place match. Kapustka trailed 2-1 after the first period and was unable to recover as he fell 11-3 to the fifth place bout, where he claimed a victory via medical forfeit by Wisconsin’s Ralph DeNisco. With the victory, Kapustka qualifies for his first career NCAA bid.
SIX BUCKEYES MAKE RETURN TRIP TO NCAA’S IN 2003
Seven Buckeyes have earned bids to the 2003 NCAA Championships, among them are 2002 qualifiers Tommy Rowlands at HWT, Jeff Ratliff (141), John Clark (165), Keaton Anderson (157), and Blake Kaplan (174).
Senior Anton Talamantes (197), a qualifier in 2001, earned his second-career birth in 2003 with a fifth place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
ANDERSON CLAIMS 100th VICTORY
OSU senior 157 Keaton Anderson extended his current win streak to 21 matches last week with an 8-5 decision over Indiana’s Clovis Crane in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Big Ten Championships to record his 100th career win.
Anderson was unable to add to his milestone as he suffered an injury during the victory over Crane and was forced to default for the tournament and a sixth place finish, which qualified him for NCAA competition.
Anderson becomes the fourth OSU wrestler in the past two seasons to reach the milestone. He also joins assistant coaches and former Buckeyes Ken Ramsey (121) and Mitch Clark (119) in the distinguished party.
The Pickerington, Ohio native has scored a career-high 33 wins this season in 34 overall bouts, which includes an unblemished 15-0 mark in dual matches after moving up from 149 to 157 in 2003.
OSU DUAL SEASON AT A GLANCE
Ohio State kicked off the 2003 dual season with wins in six of its first seven matches, including victories over No. 6 West Virginia, No. 24 Cleveland State and No. 16 Michigan State in the quarterfinals of the NWCA National Duals.
The Buckeyes downed No. 6 Cornell after falling to No. 1 Oklahoma State in the semifinals of the National Duals en route to claiming a fourth place finish as host of the event.
Following another win over Cornell a week later and a triumph over Indiana, OSU found itself at a season-high No. 3 ranking, but from that point the season took a downward turn as the Buckeyes dropped four of their next five duals, including tight four and five-point losses to Minnesota and Purdue at home.
Ohio State rallied over the last weekend of the regular season as the team scored wins at both Northwestern and No. 24 Wisconsin to complete the 2003 dual campaign at 12-7 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten action.
ROWLANDS SETS ALL-TIME MARK
With a 3-point decision versus Purdue Feb. 9, Rowlands claimed the top spot in career team points in OSU program history. Rowlands eclipsed assistant coach Mitch Clark’s career mark of 448.5 and currently stands at 485.0. His 165.0 team points in 2002 tied Clark for second all-time in season points scored. Rowlands’ 162.0 team points in the 2000-01 campaign place him fourth in that category as well.
The Buckeye HWT surpassed another OSU assistant, Ken Ramsey, on the career charts for second in all-time takedowns with 467.
OSU ALL-STARS: ANDERSON & CLARK
Anderson and Clark represented Ohio State at the 2003 NWCA All-Star Classic Feb 3. Ohio State head coach Russ Hellickson contributed as a coach in the elite competition held at the University of Delaware.
Anderson faced Northern Illinois’ Scott Owen as the two grappled to a 2-2 stalemate at the end of regulation and headed to sudden victory overtime. Owen chose the down position and Anderson took advantage by locking Owen into a cradle and a three-point near-fall for the 5-2 victory.
Clark fell short in an eventful and high-scoring 19-14 decision in favor of Lehigh’s Troy Letters.
ROWLANDS NOTCHES No. 100
Tommy Rowlands recorded his 100th career win when he pinned Matt Seaburg of Chattanooga at the 1:10 mark of the HWT match on Jan. 4. Rowlands is the third Buckeye to tally 100 career wins in the last three seasons and joins assistant coaches and former Buckeyes Ken Ramsey (121) and Mitch Clark (119) on the distinguished list.
