Wait what's out mascot? A nut? Oh...good...
Ohio State finishing in the bottom half of the Big Ten? That's a bit unheard of. Ohio State fell well below their standards in the 2011 season, which could be called a rebuilding season. Their good 2010 recruits went on red shirt for the most part and with a 2011 recruiting class that many believe to be the best in the nation, this team could be very good in the coming years.
2011 Summary
Ohio State sent 5 wrestlers to the NCAA tournament and had one All American, which proved to be the difference between the Buckeyes and the other teams at the bottom of the Big Ten (except for Indiana who had 2, hence them making the top 25).
Name: Ian Paddock (133)
Record: 18 - 10
Status: Junior
Big Ten place: 6th
NCAA place: Round of 24
Notable win(s): none
Season ended when: Lost to Devin Carter (Va. Tech, 8-16), won a wrestleback then lost to David Thorn (Minn, 2-8)
Vs. PSU: Lost to Pearsall (4-9) and Long (2-6)
Name: Colt Sponseller (165)
Record: 25 - 7
Status: Graduated
Big Ten place: 2nd
NCAA place: All American 4th
Notable win(s): Beat Josh Asper (Maryland, 3-1)
Season ended when: Lost to Jordan Burroughs (Neb, 6-14) in the semifinals then lost to Andrew Howe (Wisc, 4-6) in the 3rd/4th match
Vs. PSU: Lost to Taylor 14-1 (Sponseller started the season at 157)
Name: Nick Heflin (174)
Record: 23 - 9
Status: Freshman
Big Ten place: 2nd
NCAA place: Round of 12
Notable win(s): none
Season ended when: Lost to Nick Amuchastegui (Stanford, 1-6) then missed All American by losing to Mike Letts (Maryland, 2-9)
Vs. PSU: Lost to Ruth 5-7
Name: C.J. Magrum (184)
Record: 13 - 13
Status: Junior
Big Ten place: 4th
NCAA place: Round of 24
Notable win(s): none
Season ended when: Eliminated by Joe LeBlanc (Wy, 8-12)
Vs. PSU: Beat Ortega 8-2
Name: Peter Capone (197)
Record: 20 - 17
Status: Sophomore
Big Ten place: 7th
NCAA place: Round of 24
Notable win(s): none
Season ended when: Lost to Andy Johnson (Neb, 2-12)
Vs. PSU: Lost to Ruth 6-18
Their only standout wrestler, Sponseller, graduated but the remaining four qualifiers have multiple years of eligibility left. Much like Michigan State, the Buckeyes only had a couple seniors leave the squad. Heflin looks like the best bet for any of these guys to make All American. As this core group develops further, an outstanding group of recruits from 2011 will fill in the holes around them or in some cases possibly replace them.
2011 Team Stats
Dual Record: 2 - 11 (1 - 7 in Big Ten)
Big Ten Championship: 8th
NCAA Championship: 29th
Cliff Keen Invitational: 12th
Individual Record: 204 - 220
Pins: 26
Tech. Falls: 7
Major Decisions: 27
Vs. PSU: Loss 3-42
Recruiting
Ohio State's 2011 recruiting class was already very good but then the icing on the cake came with a gift known as Andrew Compolattano (#6, NJ). Compollattano had originally committed to play football at Rutgers, but then decided he wanted to wrestle instead. This put a top 10 recruit back on the market very late in the recruiting season. He ended his high school career at 175-1 and a 4 time NJ state champion. Compolattano attained the #1 spot for 215lbs by Intermat's ranking. Perhaps the only damage done to his recruiting was when Garth Lakitsky (PA) dominated him in the Dapper Dan classic. Lakitsky was up by 9 points before Compolattano injury defaulted out of the match. THe video can be found on flow wrestling and it looks more like he was embarrassed than hurt. Being back on the market, all of the big schools were on his list. He was very interested in Penn State but they couldn't offer him a scholarship right away, so he went to Ohio State instead. This is a wrestler to keep an eye on considering in his 4th state title match he pinned his opponent in 47 seconds. College will test how much of his style is strength and how much is technique. There could be some epic battles between him and Morgan McIntosh (PSU).
The class also includes #7 Hunter Stieber (OH, 141), #12 Kenny Courts (PA, 184), #27 Johnni DiJulius (OH, 125/133) and #31 Cam Tessari (OH, 149). Compollatano was not the only wrestler in this group to get upset at the Dapper Dan as Tessari was beaten by Evan Henderson (PA) 4-5 and Stieber was shut down and controlled by Travis Shaffer (PA) to lose 2-7. Oddly enough Shaffer was not even supposed to be the starter at 135 but an injury suffered by Dan Neff (PA) opened the spot for him.
Setbacks against the PA team at the Dapper Dan aside, this is a monstrous recruiting class. I would not call it epic or legendary without at least having the #1 recruit in the mix or a couple more top 10 recruits, but this is hands down a huge impact class which Ohio State sorely needs. Expect more than one of these guys to jump in to the lineup right away.
2012 Outlook
With another year of experience under the belts of the young starters and an awesome recruiting class coming in, Ohio State will burst back into the top half of the Big Ten in 2012. Ultimately still having a young team will prevent them from dislodging any of the big 3 in the Big Ten (PSU, Iowa, Minn) but they will make it competitive. Expect good things out of this team after taking their lumps last season.
The 2011 schedule for the Buckeyes did them no favors when looking at their dual record. Of their five non-conference duals they only won one (against Edinboro). The other four duals were against Pitt, Nebraska, Cornell and Northern Iowa. In 2012 Ohio State will open the dual season at the Harrisburg duals. They will continue to schedule tough competition with Old Dominion, Va. Tech, Pitt and Kent State included on the schedule. They will once again travel to the Cliff Keen Invitational and take part in the National Duals.
No comments:
Post a Comment