Ohio State Drops Tight Decision at No. 7 Minnesota, 19-15
Enright scores upset over third-ranked wrestler at 133 pounds
Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio State wrestling team (7-11, 0-7 Big Ten) completed a weekend road swing Sunday by dropping a 19-15 dual score at No. 7 Minnesota (9-7, 3-3 Big Ten) at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis. Buckeye sophomore T.J. Enright notched his 28th win of the season with an overtime upset against Minnesota’s Mack Reiter at 133 pounds.
Enright, who came into the dual rated No. 16 in the nation, scored the winning takedown just 20 seconds into the sudden victory overtime to claim the 5-3 decision. The native of Galloway, Ohio handed Rieter just his fourth loss of the season and the first since Dec. 29. Enright’s three-point victory pulled the Buckeyes to within four points of Minnesota through eight matches at 16-12.
Unfortunately for Ohio State, freshman Jason Johnstone (Massillon, Ohio) dropped a 5-1 decision to Golden Gopher Tommy Owen at 141 pounds to seal a Minnesota win with a 19-12 dual score. Fellow freshman Ryan Needle (Burt, N.Y.) set the final tally at 19-15 with a 3-1 sudden victory decision in the last bout at 149 over Minnesota’s Danny Williams.
The dual started at 157 pounds, where Ohio State’s Keegan Mueller (Fr., Dallas, Texas) recorded a 5-3 decision victory vs. Matt Everson to give the Buckeyes an early 3-0 lead. Minnesota answered quickly in the next bout at 165, when 10th-ranked Matt Nagel pinned Ohio State’s John Vogel (Fr., Columbus, Ohio) at the 1:05 mark for a 6-3 Golden Gopher edge.
Minnesota built a 9-3 lead with a decision win at 174 before Ohio State’s Alex Picazo (So., Grandview, Ohio) finished a perfect weekend with his second decision win at 184 in three days. Picazo edged UM’s Jeremy Larson, 3-2, to set the team score at 9-6.
The Ohio State rally continued at 197 pounds, where J.D. Bergman (So., Oak Harbor, Ohio), ranked fourth in the country, downed Minnesota’s Jon Duncombe, 9-5. Bergman’s win – his 32nd of the season – helped Ohio State tie the dual at 9-9.
The Golden Gophers climbed back to a 16-9 lead with a decision win by No. 2-ranked Cole Konrad over Ohio State’s No. 20 Kirk Nail (Hilliard, Ohio) at HWT and a major decision by Andrew Domingues over Buckeye 125 Nathan Costello (Jr., Maple Heights, Ohio) at 125. Nail, who has wrestled well against several top-rated opponents in his freshman season, carried a 1-0 lead into the third period before he allowed a reversal by Konrad to fall behind 2-1 en route to the 3-2 defeat.
The Golden Gophers, ranked in the Top 10 in all major polls, served as the eighth ranked opponent in Ohio State’s last 10 matches.
The Buckeyes close out the 2005 Big Ten dual season Friday at Penn State. The match is set for a 7:30 p.m. start and will be carried live by Fox Sports/ Pittsburgh and on tape delay on College Sports Television.
#7 MINNESOTA 19), OHIO STATE 15 OSU MINN
157 – Keegan Mueller (OSU) dec. Matt Everson (MN), 5-3 3 0
165 – #10 Matt Nagel (MN) pinned John Vogel (OSU), 1:05 3 6
174 – Gabriel Dretsch (MN) dec. Nathaniel Augustson (OSU), 10-4 3 9
184 – Alex Picazo (OSU) dec. Jeremy Larson (MN), 3-2 6 9
197 – #4 J.D. Bergman (OSU) dec. Jon Duncombe (MN), 9-5 9 9
HWT – #2 Cole Konrad (MN) dec. #20 Kirk Nail (OSU), 3 -2 9 12
125 – Andrew Domingues (MN) mdec. Nathan Costello (OSU),13-4 9 16
133 – #16 T.J. Enright (OSU) dec. #3 Mack Reiter (MN), 5-3 SV 12 16
141 – Tommy Owen (MN) dec. Jason Johnstone (OSU), 5-1 12 19
149 – Ryan Needle (OSU) dec. Danny Williams (MN), 3-1 SV 15 19
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