The Ohio State men’s wrestling team looks to rebound from last weekend’s loss as they prepare for three matches this weekend.
On Friday, OSU (3-5, 0-0, Big Ten) will travel to Bloomington, Ind. as they prepare to kick off the regular season against No. 15 Indiana, (9-0, 0-0, Big Ten).
Sunday, the Buckeyes are back at it as they travel to Charlottesville, Va. to take on Virginia, (5-3, 0-0, Atlantic Coast Conference) in the afternoon, only to head to Blacksburg, Va. where they will grapple with Virginia Tech, (0-10, 0-0, ACC) Sunday night.
“This weekend will be a big weekend for us to see where we are as a team going into the start of the Big Ten season,” assistant coach Ken Ramsey said. “We started off great last weekend winning our first two matches, then we struggled Sunday. Indiana has a very good program and they will be difficult to beat. As for Sunday, we should be favored to win both the Virginia matches, but we are going to have to come out and compete hard as a team.”
Last weekend, the Buckeyes participated in the Virginia Duals in Hampton, Va. where they started off the weekend 2-0 with victories over Citadel and West Virginia. Sunday was a different story as the Buckeyes dropped matches to No. 25 Penn and North Carolina.
“Last week was tough, we started off strong going 2-0 the first day and then lost both of our matches Sunday,” junior Alex Picazo said. “But we can’t let last week hang in the back of our minds, we just need to come out and compete hard and we will be fine.”
The Buckeyes have had a good week of practice this week and are excited to open up Big Ten play, Ramsey said.
“Any time you are going into the Big Ten season, you want to be sharp. We have had a slow start to this season, but we tell our guys that it is the way you finish, not the way you start,” he said. “We want our best performance to come during the Big Ten Championship and the NCAA Championship. The guys have come out with good intensity and have been working hard, and hopefully Indiana can be the start of a strong finish.”
The Hoosiers also competed at last weekend’s Virginia Duals and won after beating Penn – but seeing the Hoosiers up close won’t be an advantage, junior T.J. Enright said.
“We got to see their wrestlers last weekend, but at the same time, they saw our team as well, so no one has an advantage,” he said. “Each team is going to come out and do what they do, regardless of last week. We just need to come out and have a solid team effort.”
Since the Buckeyes will be facing a tough Indiana team, and will then have a double header of sorts Sunday in Virginia, Picazo said in order for OSU to be successful, they will need a good team effort both days.
“It is always about the team,” Picazo said. “We have so many good wrestlers who can compete and win, but if we try to put it on any one guy’s shoulders, we are not going to be successful. This weekend especially, we will need a good effort.
The team has a busy weekend ahead of them – they wrestle Indiana Friday night and get home early Saturday morning, only to leave Saturday afternoon for Virginia for a doubleheader Sunday.
Ramsey said the NCAA limits the number of wrestlers they can take, so everyone will need to be well rested and ready to go.
“We are only allowed to take 13 guys to Indiana … and 15 to Virginia,” he said. “Of those guys, only 10 will compete, and we will send our best 10 guys to wrestle every match, so they will have to be mentally and physically tough, because they could end up wrestling several times this weekend.”
Regardless of how many wrestlers are going this weekend, Ramsey said he expects the team to compete well in all three matches.
“We know Indiana is going to be tough and we have had a good week of practice for our guys to prepare for them,” Ramsey said.
