Wrestling Preview: No. 2 Ohio State at Chattanooga

Ohio State has one last dual meet before turning the calendar to 2018, a swing down South to visit the Chattanooga Mocs (2-2) for a dual at The Cooler outside Atlanta.

The Buckeyes, ranked No. 2 in the country each week this season by the NWCA/USA Today Coaches Poll, and ranked No. 1 in several tournament rankings, continue to impress, winning 10 of 10 matches versus the Princeton Tigers Friday night at the Carpenter Center in Newark, Del.

RELATED No. 2 Ohio State Mauls Princeton, 39-0

Buckeye head coach Tom Ryan said the location Sunday's dual - like Friday's meet at the site of the "Beast of the East" high school wrestling tournament - was no random choice.

"We have a lot of alumni down there, a lot of guys who have really been an anchor for us in the program," he explained. "They're really supportive and they've done well in life and we're looking forward to wrestling in front of them."

Both teams' coaches, along with reigning Olympic and World champion Kyle Snyder, will conduct a clinic for local wrestlers ahead of the 2 p.m. meet.

Buckeye Breakdown 

CHATTANOOGA MOCS

2-2, 2-0 Southern Conference ROSTER / SCHEDULE

2 P.M. – SUNDAY, DEC. 17 THE COOLER ALPHARETTA, GA.

TRACKWRESTLING Live Streaming ($)

Ohio State pitched only its third shutout of the decade Sunday, grinding a relatively inexperienced Princeton squad into the mat to the tune of a 39-0 finals core. The last time was a 52-0 gutting of Cleveland State at least season's Thanksgiving Throwdown.

Six of the 10 victories came with bonus points attached, highlighted by Bo Jordan's first-period pin. Ke-Shawn Hayes and Kollin Moore both defeated ranked opponents, adding to their already impressive records on the season.

Brakan Mead and Kevin Snyder picked up victories in relief as well, and Te'Shan Campbell looked as though he was back in form after missing the Indiana dual due to the challenge of competing during finals week.

As it was Friday night, the team's focus in Georgia will be picking up bonus points whenever possible. The #PinChain made its lone appearance around Bo Jordan's neck, and there's no question that the Buckeye upperweights will be gunning to pin again, and again Sunday afternoon. 

Fans in the area will see 90% of the Buckeye staring lineup in action, with Kyle Snyder rejoining the team after a week spent training at the Olympic training center in Colorado. Nathan Tomasello is the only ranked starter yet on the sidelines; he'll return to action at some point in January.

Coach Ryan noted last week that he was a little surprised that his team didn't score more points in their dual versus Indiana last weekend, and clearly the message was received given the bevy of bonus point victories the team secured Friday night.

Led by Myles Martin, with a bonus rate of 93% (technically Kyle Snyder leads the team with 100%, though with the asterisk that he's wrestled only two NCAA matches thus far this season), the team continues to keep an eye toward the post season, where they'll need every advancement point they can muster to achieve their lofty title aspirations at both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. 

The University of Tennessee Chattanooga Mocs

Head Coach: Heath Eslinger

Eslinger, in his ninth season as head coach at his alma mater, is a two-time Southern Conference coach of the year, and leads a team with a fair bit of experience, featuring five seniors and three juniors. His teams have won their conference in six of his first eight seasons at the helm.

The Mocs are coming off a lengthy hiatus, with their last match a 0-41 drubbing by No. 6 NC State way back on Dec. 2. Given the talent disparity between the two teams, the impressive win by the Wolfpack could be a preview of things to come for the Buckeyes.

Chattanooga actually won the three most recent meetings between the two teams, but still trails the Buckeyes, 4-3-1, in the all-time series, which started in 1989.

Notable Chattanooga Wrestlers

No. 15 Bryce Carr - 184 pounds

Carr nearly pulled of a big upset in the dual with the Wolfpack, coming up short versus No. 3 Pete Renda in a narrow 2-1 decision. The senior from Dublin, Ga., is 9-2 overall with both losses against Top-10 opponents.

He faces a tall task in his third Top-10 test of the year, as Myles Martin has every intention of earning his second NCAA title this year. Martin is perfect on the season, and has already dispatched three ranked opponents himself, including No. 5 Domenic Abounader of Michigan.

Martin notched his seventh tech fall of the season Friday night, meaning he's won by tech in roughly 50% of his matches this season.

No. 15 Scottie Boykin - 197 pounds

Kollin Moore will face his second consecutive ranked opponent, and his fifth in the past six matches. Boykin, like Carr, is 9-2 with two losses to Top-10 foes, including dropping an 8-2 decision by No. 8 Michael Macchiavello in the dual at NC State.

Boykin is a redshirt senior, having taken last year as his redshirt season. He was the Southern Conference Champion at 197 pounds in 2015, and is a two-time NCAA Qualifier and three-time All-SoCon honoree.

What is a "Moc"?

Source: Twitter/@BringBackDaShoe.

UT Chattanooga joined the national trend away from athletic mascots with Native American origins in 1997. Originally the "Moccasins," a snake was used as the mascot in the 1920s, and a warrior in facepaint and headdress in the vein of former Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek was used until the 1996 decision to abandon the Native American imagery.

Fun fact: A moccasin shoe was actually used at some point in the 1980s.

In 1996, the school decided to adopt the State Bird of Tennessee, the Mockingbird, as the core of its new identity, while also incorporating the regional imagery of Chattanooga's vast railroad history, so you'll see both the bird "Scrappy" and a locomotive in the athletic department's branding.

Mockingbirds, the school notes, are fiercely territorial creatures which protect their homes with courage, determination and skill.

Match Outlook

NC State showed the path: no quarter given. Ohio State, without the greatest wrestler on the planet, blanked Princeton with a 10-set sweep Friday night. It isn't that big of a stretch to think they'll reel off a similar rout in front of a friendly crowd.

After Sunday's dual, the team will be idle until the new year, when it will take another double-dual roadtrip, facing Maryland and Rutgers the first weekend in January.

The Chattanooga dual starts at 2 p.m., with streaming available via TrackWrestling ($).