PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Competing against its third consecutive top-12 opponent, No. 14 Rutgers wrestling (10-4, 3-3) lost to No. 7 Ohio State (13-2, 5-1), 22-12, on Sunday in front of 5,769 fans at Jersey Mike's Arena.
Michael Cetta (149) defeated No. 9 Dylan D'Emilio in sudden victory, No. 21
Brian Soldano (184) pinned Ryder Rogotzke in a wild back-and-forth match and No. 13
Dylan Shawver (133) escaped at the buzzer for a decision over No. 12 Nic Bouzakis to highlight action for the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway.
The Buckeyes – ranked No. 7 in the latest NWCA Coaches Poll – are the third of four top-12 opponents RU will have faced by the beginning of next week. Rutgers has also wrestled No. 9 Minnesota and No. 11 Michigan and will compete at No. 1 Penn State next Monday in State College during the stretch.
"I liked the way we competed today," said head coach
Scott Goodale. "We're in every single match. We have to find a way, from a team standpoint and from an individual standpoint, to get over that hump."
- With an untraditional start at 157 pounds, Ohio State won the first three matches of the afternoon from 157 through 174 pounds. In his first dual match since November 17 against No. 8 Virginia Tech, Jacob Butler (157) faced Issac Wilcox to begin the dual and wrestled tough in a 19-6 loss by major decision.
- Anthony White (165) and No. 13 Jackson Turley (174) followed with losses by decision. Turley looked to have a match-tying takedown in the second period against No. 11 Rocco Welsh, but the call on the mat was confirmed after review. Turley's 4-3 loss made it 10-0 Buckeyes.
- Soldano was up next against Rogotzke, who entered the afternoon with a pin over Penn State's No. 5 Bernie Truax on Friday night in Happy Valley. Trailing 8-6 in a back-and-forth bout, Soldano reversed Rogotzke and pinned the Buckeye in the second period to make it just a 10-6 dual with six bouts to go.
- No. 12 John Poznanski (197) lost a tough 4-3 decision to No. 22 Luke Geog, as Ohio State entered intermission up 13-6.
- Rutgers lost at heavyweight and 125 to ranked opponents out of the break before Shawver electrified the crowd in his bout with Bouzakis. Tied 4-4 in the third period, Shawver found himself under Bouzakis with 50 seconds left in regulation. Off the restart, Shawver was able to break free right as time expired to secure the 5-4 decision over Bouzakis. It was Shawver's fourth win over a ranked foe this season, as he moved to 18-5 on the season.
- After a loss from No. 20 Mitch Moore (141) to No. 3 Jesse Mendez, Cetta closed the dual against D'Emilio, a 2023 NCAA All-American. Cetta was the aggressor throughout the match, landing two takedowns in the opening period. With D'Emilio up 9-8 with 25 seconds to go, Cetta forced overtime with his last-second escape, and followed with a decision in sudden victory for the biggest win of his career.
No. 7 Ohio State 22, No. 14 Rutgers 12
157: NR/23 Isaac Wilcox (OSU) over
Jacob Butler (RU) by MD, 19-6; OSU leads, 4-0
165: 20/12 Bryce Hepner (OSU) over
Anthony White (RU) by dec., 5-0; OSU leads, 7-0
174: 11/14 Rocco Welsh (OSU) over 13/17
Jackson Turley (RU) by dec., 4-3; OSU leads, 10-0
184: 21/22
Brian Soldano (RU) over Ryder Rogotzke (OSU) by fall (4:24); OSU leads, 10-6
197: 22/24 Luke Geog (OSU) over 12/14
John Poznanski (RU) by dec., 4-3; OSU leads, 13-6
HWT: 12/13 Nick Feldman (OSU) over 7/7
Yaraslau Slavikouski (RU) by dec., 4-2; OSU leads, 16-6
125: 24/21 Brendan McCrone (OSU) over 13/16
Dean Peterson (RU) by dec., 7-1; OSU leads, 19-6
133: 13/14
Dylan Shawver (RU) over 12/10 Nic Bouzakis (OSU) by dec., 5-4; OSU leads, 19-9
141: 3/3 Jesse Mendez (OSU) over 20/15
Mitch Moore (RU) by dec., 5-0; OSU leads, 22-9
149: Michael Cetta (RU) over 9/7 Dylan D'Emilio (OSU) by SV1, 12-9; OSU wins, 22-12
- Rutgers wrestles No. 1 Penn State on Monday, February 12 in State College. The dual is set for 7 p.m. and will broadcast nationally on Big Ten Network.
Head Coach Scott Goodale
On Cetta's win providing momentum for the rest of the dual schedule: "I don't know. That momentum will stop with this week's training and we'll move on to Penn State. I'm just happy for him. He's been close so many times. A lot of our guys are close so many times and I think what I take out of it is being a shooter. Being a shooter, scoring and trying to score and going after it. You're not going to win when you're wrestling a team of that caliber, obviously, other than Penn State is probably the hottest team in America. So they're good up and down the lineup. They're very, very good. You're not going to score all the time because defensively they're very, very stingy. But you have to give yourself an opportunity. I just felt we finally got one in 133. One shot, one score to beat a great, a really good kid and an upset win and then I think we got three or four takedowns there to beat an All American. So that's what I'm taking out of it and that's what we have to build on. If you're going to beat the best guys, you need to be a shooter. You can't be content losing 4-2."
On how the team stacks up with the conference's best: "I think it's about getting our guys to believe. It's one of those things where we need to get over the hump. I think once we get over the hump once it opens the door. But we didn't dwell on that. I know there's a lot of 'we can't beat the best teams' and I get it. I'm with you. I'm frustrated. Rutgers nation out there, I get it. Our wrestling fans are very loyal. It's a hard thing to do. I think we need to do it once to get over the hump. Today was about our individual efforts, all ten of them. There's got to be individual efforts. You need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be pleased about it. That's the way we approached it. I like the way we competed today. We're in every single match. We have to find a way from a team standpoint, from an individual standpoint, to get over that hump. He (
Michael Cetta) got over a big hump today. Huge win for
Dylan Shawver and a big win for
Brian Soldano. That's a big win. He's been struggling. I'm not sure he's lost this much ever. That's a little rivalry that's gone back a long time and that match could go either way."
On the close loss: "They did an incredible job of scoring first and holding center. An incredible job at scoring first, right away, at 165, we worked all week long at three-minute hand fight. Let's wear them down with our hand fight, we can't let them score and we just have to lunge in and try to score right away. The same at 149, I said they're going to try to get one right away and (we) have to do what they did, and they did it. At 174, I thought, that's obviously the No. 1 kid in the country (Rocco Welsh), it does not matter about the age, these kids are ready to go as true freshmen. I thought Jackson had an opportunity to win there. I thought maybe there was a danger call there, but that's the way they looked at it, and it wasn't. (Ohio State) did a really good job of scoring first and holding center. When you have to really attack, attack, attack, it is really hard to score on those really good guys if they're really good at the hand fighting position."
On the status of Andrew Clark and Jacob Butler: "I'll start with Jacob. It's clear what he's wrestling with. WE sent him to a tournament last week and he wrestled great and he got four matches. Obviously he re-injured that knee today so we'll have to get a look at it before we do anything about ruling him. You won't see Andy Clark the rest of the way. He'll search for a medical redshirt ad put in the paperwork for that. He's done for the year unfortunately. So that's why you see a revolving door at 157 with Al, Jacob and now he's hurt so we need to figure out maybe with Al or
Dylan Weaver. We will get a feel for where Jacob is at and hopefully it's not too serious."
149-Pounder Michael Cetta
On his win over No. 9 Dylan D'Emilio: "All week we just trained and got ready. We had good preparation all week long. Just believed in my training and that's my approach to get me prepared to go out there every time I wrestle. I just really wanted this one. I came short too many times. I was just telling myself to keep on believing. Just go out there and push it. When I'm out there, the rest of it all comes together. I really just believed in my training. That's all that happens"
