FINAL RESULTS
PHOTO GALLERY
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein wrestling team stayed its course down the stretch Tuesday night en route to a 30-15 Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) victory over visiting Ohio Northern, marking the team's first home event inside the Rike Center this season.
The Cardinals top the Polar Bears for a second-straight season and, as a result, improve to 5-2 straight up this season and 2-0 against the OAC. Ohio Northern, meanwhile, falls to 6-4 on the year collectively.
Otterbein did not lead until after the eighth bout of the night concluded, but stayed on the path from the start and picked up some key wins early. Freshman
Joey Buckland (133) secured a key 5-3 decision in the second bout before 141-pounder
Santino DiSabato followed with his most notable performance of the season.
"Our big guys have been doing it for us all year, so tonight we needed some of those lightweights to turn the corner," head coach
Brent Rastetter said. "
Joey Buckland came up huge and Santino had the turning point. I thought he wrestled a smart match, and then it worked its way up from
Ryan Whitten on."
DiSabato delivered a big first round to take a 6-2 lead over No. 21-ranked Jeff Andrews, and ultimately held on down the stretch for a 6-4 decision.
Ryan Whitten (157) and
Willy Plaisir (165) came up with six-point decisions shortly thereafter, locking the score at 12-12 just across the midway point. Whitten improved to 16-3 on the season while Plaisir, who missed all of last season with an injury, bumped his mark to a solid 11-3.
"It feels amazing to be back on the mat in general, but even more so tonight in front of the home crowd," Plaisir explained. "I had a rough start to the schedule but I'm finally starting to get things going. I learned a lot about myself with that time off."
Donny Didion (174) gave nationally-ranked Connor Kwiat a tough time before coming up short late, but only lost by decision to leave the deficit at 15-12 entering the heavier classes.
Otterbein's big men took over from there as
Corbin Bunsold,
Jarrod Setliff and
Drew Kasper all registered first-round pins in less than 70 seconds. Bunsold, ranked No. 17 nationally in the latest poll, was the quickest at just 41 seconds.
"I broke my leg and put on some extra pounds with the bedrest," Bunsold joked afterward. "I moved up to a weight class last year that probably wasn't for me, so it's nice to be back down at 184 where it feels like I'm sized up better."
Setliff, who was anticipating a matchup with No. 15-ranked Cash Thompson (ONU), ended up facing a different opponent after Thompson was scratched. Kasper, the nation's top-ranked heavyweight, stayed perfect at 12-0 following a thunderous slam to punctuate the evening.
"We had a long conversation last night about fight or flight," Rastetter added. "The theme coming into tonight was fight, and I felt like we did that even with the bouts we lost. That needs to continue moving forward. I want to continue seeing Willy's smile, and Corbin's mullet, and all of these young men have success."
Otterbein will ironically finish out the week seeing ONU again, this time heading to Ada for the annual Ohio Northern Invitational come Saturday.
