Ohio State senior Kyle Snyder peeks at the scoreboard while battling Kent State redshirt junior Devin Nye on November 21, 2017 in Columbus. Credit: Colin Barringer | For The Lantern

The No. 2 Ohio State (9-0, 4-0 Big Ten) men’s wrestling team won comfortably 31-7 against No. 14 Minnesota (4-2, 1-1 Big Ten) Friday night at the Schottenstein Center.  

In a match between two top competitors in the 125-pound weight class, No. 1 Nathan Tomasello took on No. 4 Ethan Lizak. This was Tomasello’s first home match of the season, after making his season debut Jan. 5 on the road at Maryland. He missed the opening portion of the season with a right knee injury.

The first period was quiet, with no points scored until Tomasello came up with a late takedown to go up 2-0. In the second, Tomasello capitalized quickly with a takedown and near-fall against Lizak. This put Tomasello up 8-1 following a Lizak escape. Tomasello went on to score more takedowns, and won 18-3 via technical fall.  

“I just was wanting to put out a dominant performance, and I felt like I did that,” Tomasello said.

Tomasello’s victory with bonus points gave the Buckeyes a 17-0 lead after the first four matches of the meet.

The first matchup of the night was between Ohio State junior Myles Martin, and Minnesota redshirt freshman Dylan Anderson at 184 pounds. Martin got the Buckeyes off to a fast start and won a 17-7 majority decision.  

Ohio State No. 1 Kollin Moore beat Minnesota’s Robert Stevenson 7-4 at 197 pounds. He scored three takedowns, plus a bonus point, to defeat Stevenson. Kyle Snyder beat Rylee Streifel 24-9 at heavyweight, scoring 11 takedowns.

“[Streifel] did a pretty good job in the first period with that, but I thought I wrestled pretty well overall,” Snyder said. “Minnesota always studies their opponents pretty well, and tries to find ways to slow people down.”

Dropped matches by Ohio State’s Joey McKenna and No. 13 Te’Shan Campbell at 141 pounds and 165 pounds, respectively, showed Minnesota’s unwillingness to give up. McKenna led 2-1 after the first period, but junior Thomas Thorn battled back, and earned two four-point near-falls to take the lead 9-2. Thorn added another takedown to extend the lead in the third period. 

“As well as some guys wrestled tonight, this team is better than we wrestled tonight,” Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan said.

Thorn won 12-3 against McKenna, and Campbell lost 8-5 to Minnesota’s No. 9 Nick Wanzek. Ohio State No. 2 Luke Pletcher remained undefeated, holding off Steve Polakowski 9-6 at 133 pounds.  

Buckeye Ke-Shawn Hayes also won an 11-2 majority decision against Ben Brancale at 149 pounds. Ohio State No. 6 Micah Jordan faced No. 18 Jake Short at 157 pounds, and came out victorious after a series of takedowns and a four-point near-fall in the third period.  

Ohio State’s next opponent is No. 7 Iowa, who it faces Jan. 21 at the Schottenstein Center.