Eastern Michigan University’s wrestling team found itself behind early against the Ohio Bobcats and was unable to come back in a 20-15 loss Sunday at the EMU Convocation Center.
Eastern began the afternoon with Devan Murray taking on the Bobcats, Harrison Hightower, in the 165 lb. match and from the beginning Hightower took a commanding lead and would not give it up. Hightower would go on to win by a major decision, 10-1, with Murray’s only point coming from a Hightower unsportsmanlike conduct.
The next match between Eastern’s Austin Geerlings and Ohio’s Cody Walters would look a lot like the first match of the dual meet. Walters was able to run away with the match and gain a win by major decision of his own by a score of 17-4. At this point, the Eagles trailed by a score of 8-0.
EMU would also go on to lose consecutive matches in the 184 lb. and 197 lb. weight classes. With those loses, the Eagles found themselves down in the match by a score of 14-0.
The meet seemed to be going in the Bobcats favor until Gage Hutchison was able to breath a little life back into the Eagles. Thirty seconds into his Heavyweight match, Hutchinson was able to pin Ohio’s Zach Parker and just like that bring the score to a more manageable 14-6.
This scene was starting to look a little reminiscent of what occurred at the Eagles prior dual meet against Cleveland State, when they found themselves down by a score of 3-14 before storming back to take the lead. This time though, a miraculous comeback would not be in the cards for Eastern.
Eastern was able to win two straight matches in the 133 lb. and 141 lb. weight classes to pull within a score of 17-12 after losing the 125 lb. match, but a win for Ohio in the 149 lb. match would put the Bobcats up by a score of 20-12.
EMU would go on to win the last match with a win by Brandon Zeerip over Spartak Chino in the 157 lb. weight class, but it was too little too late, and the Bobcats won the meet 20-15.
This loss for the Eagles is the third straight, and drops their record for the year down 7-6. The Eagles are still winless against MAC opponents with a record of 0-2. The Ohio Bobcats move up to 5-4 for the year, and gained their first MAC victory of the season.
The Eagles will finish up a three-game home stretch against the Michigan State Spartans, who are 3-7 for the year, after most recently falling to No. 4 ranked Ohio State 25-13 Jan.16. The dual is set to get underway at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23 at the EMU Convocation Center.
Results
165: No. 19 Harrison Hightower (OU) maj. dec.Devan Marry (EMU), 10-1 (OU, 4-0)
174: No. 10 Cody Walters (OU) maj. dec. Austin Geerlings (EMU), 17-4 (OU, 8-0)
184: Andrew Romanchik (OU) dec. Mike Curby (EMU), 4-0 (OU, 11-0)
197: No. 17 Phil Wellington (OU) dec. Anthony Abro (EMU), 6-2 (OU, 14-0)
HWT: Gage Hutchison (EMU) pinned Zach Parker (OU), 0:31 (OU, 14-6)
125: Zac Hassan (OU) dec. Blake Caudill (EMU), 10-7 (OU, 17-6)
133: Vincent Pizzuto (EMU) dec. Josh Parrett (OU), 4-1 (OU, 17-9)
141: Michael Shaw (EMU) dec. Joel Shump (OU), 6-0 (OU, 17-12)
149: No. 10 Tywan Claxton (OU) dec. Nicholas Barber (EMU), 2-1 (OU, 20-12)
157: Brandon Zeerip (EMU) dec. Spartak Chino (OU), 3-1 (OU, 20-15)
