Ohio State earned a fourth place finish in Tulsa this past weekend with three top 8 seeds going in, while Iowa State was 11th with 4 top 8 seeds entering the tournament. How did the Buckeyes hoist a trophy while ISU has now gone 13 years without even a top-10 finish in a storied progam with 8 national championships, 17 runnerup finishes and 45 team trophies?
It's by overperforming on the backside and blood round. Case in point: 13 seed Jesse Mendez at 133 lost his second round match but rallied with a fall and three straight OT tiebreaker wins to earn All America status and eventually a 6th place.
The other example is 17 seed Dylan
D' Emilio at 141, who also lost round two, but then won three straight on the backside including a tiebreaker in the blood round. He finished 8th. 2nd seed Sasso was runnerup at 149, Sixth seed Ethan Smith was 7th at 174 and 6 seed Kaleb Romero 3rd at 184 after losing in the Quarterfinals. That's how Ohio State claimed 4th.
Meanwhie, ISU's Paniro Johnson as a 5 seed lost his second round match to 12 seed Van Ness of Penn State then was quickly eliminated in the wrestleback 3-2 to the 11 seed.
8 seed Sam Schuyler at HWT lost in the blood round in OT sudden victory to the 11 seed.
Although Casey Swiderski at 141 was seeded 24, he made it to the blood round and was leading the match late before he was thrown to his back and pinned by the 12 seed.
Bottom line is we had our chances to really make hay and place ourselves in trophy contention but just couldn't get it done while Ohio State maximized their opportunites. We didn't see a first day calamity like last year in Detroit, but still a disappointing result given the competiveness they showed at times during the regular season.
It's by overperforming on the backside and blood round. Case in point: 13 seed Jesse Mendez at 133 lost his second round match but rallied with a fall and three straight OT tiebreaker wins to earn All America status and eventually a 6th place.
The other example is 17 seed Dylan
D' Emilio at 141, who also lost round two, but then won three straight on the backside including a tiebreaker in the blood round. He finished 8th. 2nd seed Sasso was runnerup at 149, Sixth seed Ethan Smith was 7th at 174 and 6 seed Kaleb Romero 3rd at 184 after losing in the Quarterfinals. That's how Ohio State claimed 4th.
Meanwhie, ISU's Paniro Johnson as a 5 seed lost his second round match to 12 seed Van Ness of Penn State then was quickly eliminated in the wrestleback 3-2 to the 11 seed.
8 seed Sam Schuyler at HWT lost in the blood round in OT sudden victory to the 11 seed.
Although Casey Swiderski at 141 was seeded 24, he made it to the blood round and was leading the match late before he was thrown to his back and pinned by the 12 seed.
Bottom line is we had our chances to really make hay and place ourselves in trophy contention but just couldn't get it done while Ohio State maximized their opportunites. We didn't see a first day calamity like last year in Detroit, but still a disappointing result given the competiveness they showed at times during the regular season.
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