MATCH RESULTS

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Otterbein wrestling team dropped a narrow and dramatic dual match within Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action Tuesday night on the road, coming up just short in a 22-20 contest at John Carroll University.

Otterbein jumped out to an early lead thanks to a 10-3 decision at 125 pounds from freshman Jackson Lakso, who scored an early takedown and led the entire way en route to his 19th victory of the season. Classmate Tyler Norris quickly followed with a nice fall in the 133-pound contest, pinning his opponent just 1:22 into the first round and giving the Cards a 9-0 match lead.

John Carroll (7-8, 1-4 OAC) then found some momentum, tallying pins in the next two matches before Blake Dixon emerged with a major decision over Otterbein's Willy Plaisir in an entertaining 157-pound match. Freshman Michael O'Sullivan had filled in for usual starter Jake Vaughan at 149.

Otterbein freshmen Donny Didion and Braden Neuberger then dropped extremely close matches at 165 and 174 pounds, respectively, with Didion losing 9-6 and Neuberger just missing a takedown in the last minute and eventually settling for an 8-5 defeat.

The Cardinals wouldn't go quietly, with Corbin Bunsold responding with a steady 8-0 major decision at 184 pounds and then Drew Kasper, ranked No. 10 in the country on the latest D3wrestle.com list, emerged with a 4-2 decision at 197 lbs. Kasper is now 23-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 within the OAC, while Bunsold moves to 24-8 this winter.

The evening came down to the 285-pound heavyweight matchup between Otterbein's Gage Archer and Russell Porter of John Carroll, with Archer needing a pin to tie the team score. Porter received a handful of stalling penalties throughout the seven minutes and Archer eventually secured a third-period takedown to win by major decision.

The Cardinals, now 12-6 on the season as a whole, will finish out the week by hosting Lourdes University inside the Rike Center come Saturday morning. Otterbein posted a dominant 52-3 win over the Gray Wolves earlier this season in a neutral-site matchup, coincidentally at John Carroll.