Seven Buckeyes won their weight class last weekend at the Princeton Open, with the starting lineup holding serve against preseason-type competition. On Sunday, however, they'll open the dual meet season hosting a half-dozen ranked opponents as a highly-ranked Arizona State squad invades St. John Arena.
Arizona State might not be one of the first teams you think of when you think of wrestling powerhouses, but don't sleep on the Sun Devils. Led by top-ranked Zahid Valencia, the Sun Devils opened their season on the road in Ann Arbor on Friday night, losing narrowly to the No. 4 Wolverines, 21-18.
The Sun Devils won four of 10 matches, but two of their wins came on forfeit or injury. Valencia earned a 4-2 decision over No. 4 Myles Amine at 174, and 157-pound Pac-12 champion Josh Shields notched a 4-3 decision over No. 7 Alec Pantaleo. Beyond that, it was all Maize and Blue, underscoring the strength of the Big Ten's wrestling programs.
BUCKEYE BREAKDOWN
Ohio State comes into the meet fresh off a solid performance at Princeton, fielding a bevy of ranked wrestlers with lofty goals and high expectations of themselves. Half of the lineup appears in FloWrestling's "pound-for-pound" Top 20 rankings: No. 1 Kyle Snyder, No. 7 Nathan Tomasello, No. 14 Bo Jordan, No. 16 Myles Martin and No. 20 Kollin Moore.
Sunday will mark the seventh dual between Ohio State and Arizona State since their first meeting in 1985. The Buckeyes own a 4-2 advantage in the all-time series, riding a four-match winning streak after dropping a pair of home contests to the Sun Devils in 1985 and 1990.
The dual will mark Kyle Snyder's return to collegiate action. The reigning Olympic and world champion, who sat out at Princeton, will open his season against No. 4 Tanner Hall. Over the past two years, Snyder's rarely been tested in NCAA competition, and with the type of international season he's had over the past six months, his performance should be a treat for the home crowd.
Circle the 174-pound bout on your program as perhaps the most exciting of the afternoon. No. 3 Bo Jordan will take on Valencia. The Sun Devil superstar not only earned a victory at Michigan, but upset reigning national champion Mark Hall of Penn State in the NWCA All-Star Classic on Nov. 9.
"I wanted to get the win bad because of last year," Valencia said, referencing his 4-3 loss to Hall in last year's NCAA semifinals. "I was out there knowing that I was prepared, that I did all the right things, so I was just making sure that I stayed focused on my technique and wrestled my match; go out there and let it fly."
Valencia is a Junior World Freestyle silver medalist, representing Team USA alongside Buckeye Kollin Moore.
Other ranked matchups include No. 7 Te'Shan Campbell (165 pounds) vs. No. 6 Anthony Valencia. Campbell flexed his muscles at Princteon, showing the type of wrestling one would expect from a man who won the ACC championship last season for Pitt. The less heralded Valencia dropped an 11-3 major decision Friday to No. 3 Logan Massa, so how he rebounds from the loss and how Campbell conducts himself against a top-10 opponent will be a key storyline to watch.
No. 11 Ke-Shawn Hayes squares up against No. 13 Josh Maruca at 149 pounds. Hayes opened his season by blowing through the field at Princeton, coming off an injury-shortened season last year. The layoff is the biggest reason Hayes isn't more highly ranked coming into the season, as he was one of the top-rated recruits in the country when he signed with Tom Ryan's Buckeye program.
No. 5 Micah Jordan will face off versus No. 12 Josh Shields. Like his older brother Bo, Jordan put on a clinic at Princeton, with pins and tech falls aplenty en route to his championship at 157. Shields was one of two Sun Devils to walk away from Ann Arbor with a decision Friday night.
Joey McKenna (141 pounds) and Kollin Moore (197 pounds) each missed the Princeton Open, opting to lay up due to recent injuries. McKenna tweaked his ankle during the wrestle-offs against Hayes, and Moore had a minor leg injury in practice in the days leading up to his schedule appearance at the NWCA All-Star event.
Moore opens the season at the top-ranked wrestler in his class after an impressive campaign last season, and McKenna sits at No. 6. Moore will wrestle Sunday and should walk away with bonus points.
McKenna, on the other hand, has his sights set squarely on the Under-23 World Championships in Poland, now just two weeks away. While it's possible he takes the floor in the team's home opener, it's more likely that he'll yield to redshirt freshman Clay Ragon. Given the way NCAA titles are decided currently, Tom Ryan tends to let his international freestyle competitors stand down in dual meets, particularly those where the outcome isn't really in question.
At 125 pounds, true freshman Brakan Mead was thrust into the lineup after former NCAA champion Nathan Tomasello injured his knee at the U-23 world team trials. The young Buckeye acquitted himself well in his first collegiate action, going 4-2 at Princeton and finishing the tournament in fourth place.
He'll follow that performance by grappling with No. 7 Ryan Millhof, an Oklahoma transfer coming off a redshirt season. Tomasello is expected to return to action sometime in December, but if Mead can hold his own against a ranked opponent, it will give the top-ranked NaTo a little breathing room in terms of recovery time.
How It Plays Out
Arizona State fields two All-Americans ... Ohio State fields seven. Arizona State will start six ranked wrestlers ... Ohio State will start nine. The Sun Devils are a young, talented team ... Ohio State might finish the season as the greatest Buckeye team of all time.
It'll be an exciting start to the season with plenty of storylines to watch, but ultimately the home team wins at least six matches, with at least three bonus point victories among them. And if Hayes and Campbell wrestle to their potential, the Buckeyes should send the Sun Devils home wishing they'd never scheduled their early season tour of the mighty Midwest.
Action gets underway at 1 p.m. from St. John Arena, with live streaming available via Buckeye Vision.
